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One of the most disturbing and demoralizing realizations I've experienced over the last several years is not only how many Americans hunger for a fascist autocrat, but how many of those folks exist in my own life. Folks who value the MAGAcult over their own family and friends. Folks who - and I'm only barely hyperbolic here - would readily inform on the terrified people hiding in the attic. How could Trump, of all people - reality-show lifelong conman grifter - flip that switch in people who seemed decent enough? Was it in them all along?

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My grandparents fled Germany after WWI caused hyperinflation. Of Hitler, my grandmother said, “we thought he was a nut from the South.” She loved Germany and her beautiful hometown, Dresden which was decimated during WWII. Years later, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that the Holocaust actually happened & thought it anti-German propaganda. In the 1970’s, she visited Dachau & learned the truth. Now, I have some inkling of what she must have felt, to know a madman almost destroyed the country she loved & the world order with it. We cannot let a man with a host of pathologies & sociopathy drag America into ignominy.

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“Unfit at every level.” Yes. And yet, millions of followers and hangers on, many elected, ready and willing to do his bidding. It’s an old story. We are the latest chapter. This is a time of grave peril.

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In 2016, my daughter and I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington. The first thing you experience is an exhibit on Hitler's rise to power. My daughter and I stared at each other afterward because we both realized that Trump was following the exact same playbook (propoganda, demonizing immigrants, etc.). As a lifelong Republican, I immediately stopped supporting the idea of a Trump presidency. The last six years have been painful.

I view Trump more as a grifter, seeking power through opportunity for his own financial benefit. I don't think he is capable of original thought. This is what makes him different from Hitler. At least this is my hope. As you say, we don't really know for sure until the story ends. Thanks for putting this difficult historical perspective together, Steve. I know we would rather forget what happened a century ago and move on, but the only way to prevent it from happening again is through education.

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Steve you are an honor student in political history. Your dissertation of Trump is spot on. I would only add one thing. Fascism can only live in darkness and like an invasive fungus blossoms in the lack of sunlight. Keep shining a bright light on this truth denying movement of Trumpism. Education and Truth are the only known cures for this abhorrent and malignant growth. I have lost family and longtime friends to their lies. I will not give in or turn a blind eye to the crimes committed by Trump in the past and I will spend every last dollar I have left fighting against this Fascist movement. Unfortunately I am retired living on a very modest pension and social security. I fear we will devolve from a free Democracy and move into the darkness where Trump lives and normalize Fascism here in the USA.

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Who is Trump? Trump is an agent of satanic chaos, nothing more and nothing less. He appeals to those who confuse chaos with freedom amd long for the first, thinking it will be the second. Trump is the end of American civilization, not it’s culmintation. He is not sent by God to redeem man for Divine purpose, he was raised in the ways of satan and his purpose is to tear down eveything that has been good about this country and to get Americans to affirm to thenselves and their loved ones that the way of satan is now the way of God. His goal is to debase everyone by convincing them that the way of their salvation is through their debasement before him and that they will share in the reflected light of his power, which is merely the child born from the copulation of his pervese impulses and his egoistical lust for image. That’s who Trump is. And God help us, too many of our fellow citizens have decided they want to share in his dark light.

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Is tucker Carlson and his father Richard Carlson an unregistered agent for Victor Orban.

per wiki entry- "in 2021 Richard Carlson was reported to be director of Policy Impact, a lobbying firm. the firm has lobbied the United States on behalf of the Victor Orban regime in Hungary"

This needs to be looked into- As Orban got some pretty valuable PR into the susceptible minds of Fox viewers when Tucker visited Hungary and promotes Orban as a good model of leadership.

Tucker Carlson and the Murdochs are poisoning the minds of way too many Americans,

it is similar to cult mentality, that no rational information can budge. the Jan 6 committee is doing a great job, (tho it has taken a long time for the real movers and shakers of the insurrection, attempted coup to come out of their shameful silence after aiding and abetting it up to the ugly violence of jan 6). but the sizable Fox News audience/cult is on a different wave length, We need to delegitimize and unempower fox new and its evening lineup of evil propagandists.

someone need to look into the financial and business connections between Richard Carlson and Victor Orban. I am hoping Steve Schmidt reads this and talks to his contacts about this questionable connection. Steve- you have an amazing mind and ability to connect the dots with stunning articulate statements. hope this sub stack has the ability for readers to ask Steve to look into some topics. thank you for reading this.

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As historian and author of On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder, pointed out, the Germans who voted for the Nazi party in 1932 did not know they were voting in the last free and fair elections. Or the Czechs and Slovaks who voted for the Slovak Communist party in 1946. Or the Russians who voted for Putin in 1990. The Russian oligarchy continues to execute policies designed to destroy democracies in other countries as well. And it is succeeding.

MAGA republicans are conflating religion with patriotism, and patriotism with Christian white nationalism. But this is not about religious values. It is about control. Control over women -- whether, when and how many children they have, control over their own destiny. Control over who people love and with whom they spend their lives. Control over people of color. Because what they really want, and admit out loud much of the time, is an Aryan Nation.

That alone should scare the bejesus out of everyone. Then add to that what we already know about what Trump would do with the power of the presidency if he regained it.

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Thank you Steve, for always laying it flat for all to see, even though they have eyes and still can't see. After witnessing how blindly people follow rump, I see how Hiler was able to as well. Amazing really, hard to fathom. Don't like to spell either of those names.

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Steve you are 100% telling ALL-of- US

DANGER- WAKE Up VOTE …DEMOCRACY

In USA NEEDS to trust us to believe the horror we are still facing with Trump & all

He has corrupted…he has violated and raped our COUNTRY…he MUST and all his

Cohorts be investigated & PUNISHMENT

For Everything….trumps father marched in 1939 with KKK to Madison Square Garden

For a KkK Nationalist Rally !!! By the way

Trump hates when people say he was from

Queens… I lived in Manhattan on upper east side for thirty years and he was known as

Worst human being a cheat & not one to

Ever be associated with… he was NEVER

Accepted by honorable trustworthy NYC

People …he has always been disgusting

Now Steve our Secret Service & IG &

Homeland Security looks like he has done some major harm please Help Explore How BAD the damage he’s done & doing!Marsha

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Brilliant, as always! 💯💯💯💯

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In the last 20 years or so, I have seen the SEC fail multiple times, the CDC fail, the FAA fail, I would argue State failed (Libya) and now I am watching the failure of the IRS close at hand. And while I am inclined to place the blame on anti-government Republicans, I am well aware that Democrats have been complicit at least in their silence.

I maintain that history informs us that successful governance concentrates on raising the median standard of living for its population. This is what the Venetians did for 700 years until the oligarchs seized control. The American male has not benefitted for a real wage increase since 1978, women's income over the prior has doubled but not quite caught up. Costs for basics like healthcare, housing and education have skyrocketed against that flat real wage. Regionally, the metro areas of NYC, DC and SFO have flourished since 1980 while the rest of the country is flat to down.

In a study done for F W deKlerk in 1990, 100+ societies were reviewed, none survived the kind of income inequalities the South Africans had then or the US has now (worse than SA) without violence and autocracy. Democracy is a very fragile thing and when the self-interest of corporates and the political class dominates, it fails.

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Finally, someone who understand and is not afraid to speak the truth! Thank you

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As per usual, another exceptional article.

You said, "He was written off by the elites – who then scrambled for his favor. He was put in power by a grotesque mix of cowardice, blindness and transactional opportunities." After Hitler was released from prison, some newspapers described him as chastened. That "he had learned his lesson". Being not based on any facts, these comments can only be described as speculation. We can see the same thing happening today. Susan Collins proclaimed that "Trump had learned his lesson." without any facts to support that assertion. News outlets speculated that he would "grow into the position". This kind of addle-brained speculation is ridiculous. The news media regularly indulges in wishful thinking rather than hard-nosed journalism.

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Send this 'Who is Trump?' post to everyone you know and ask them to send it to everyone they know, today! It is the most important, relevent, urgent, truthful, educational, and CONCISE WARNING that we must share w everyone on our contact lists, politicians, churches ETC (please), particularly the uneducated and brainwashed people who just don't get this DIRE moment we are in at THIS time. My own small town Montana family was corrupted and destroyed, starting in about 2005 by extremist talk radio, Fox news, and Oath Keepers who infiltrated the family home and brainwashed my parents and brothers. It goes on to this day with little kids in the middle of it all, getting brainwashed too, and will be future extremists most likely. Half my neighbors are conspiracy theorists. They feel it is their job to preach their insanity to me to protect themselves. I'm hated by them for standing for truth. Because I don't agree with their belief systems (brothers are importing and building automatic guns, would have stormed capital had DC been closer), I am hated, truly, by my own family.

There are no family get-togethers for me any more. Not for many of us, if not now, in the near future. The extremists who are PREYING on the ignorant and the vulnerable are all around us. For me, there doubtfully will ever be 'family' again. The divisions I know must be what the populace went through in WWII. I speak from horrific and dangerous personal experience with people who once loved and cared about each other. The FOX and extremists radio predators corrupted family and friends and local representative, etc. and they will continue to corrupt every institution and person through brainwashing and extremist radicalization. EDUCATION MATTERS!!! FREEDOM is ON THE LINE.

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First,I thank you again for your eloquent and illuminating comparisons with your history lesson. Someone said yesterday that the three most recognizable names in history are Jesus, Hitler and Trump. After reading articles on trumps 2024 plans to fill his legions with only his loyalists so they can help him accomplish his vengeful goals, I realize this sub-human has his sights on taking over the would if he could. I feel the January 6 committee is steadfast in their mission to inform all who will listen of his intentions. They are like fighter pilots, swooping in taking aim and picking off strategic elements and are slowly reducing him to rubble.

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