We in America love comparing our current public figures to our past ones. Bernie Sanders, according to some, is the next FDR, while others swear up and down that Hillary Clinton is basically Bill Clinton in a pantsuit. But by far the most popular comparison I’ve heard is that of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. This is wrong for a couple of reasons, one of which is that Trump’s message is tailored to appeal to a small slice of voters, while Hitler aimed for the entire German nation. Second, I’ve yet to see Trump inspire the same kind of fanaticism in his party and his supporters that Hitler did. Third, Trump has yet to point the finger of blame for America’s problems at a single group, which Hitler did ably (and with tragic consequences). Let’s face it: Trump is no Hitler. And it’s not Trump we should be afraid of.
Hitler may have had the vision to conceive an Aryan Europe and the charisma to inspire people, but without his supporters, he would have been yet another fringe-party madman with a megaphone. He won them over by providing a scapegoat they could blame for all their problems -- one whom they already held prejudices against. Hitler supporters and Trump supporters have one thing in common: they’re both dangerously anti-Semitic.
Anti-Semitism in America hasn’t died, and it’s the one prejudice that’s universal to both sides of the political spectrum. The left wing accuses Jews of glorying the deaths of children and stealing land that Jewish people have lived on for centuries. The right, on the other hand, claims the Jews control the media, the government, and the banks, and that somewhere out in the ether is a secret cabal of Jews who are conspiring to destroy everything white people hold dear. Anti-Semitism exists in the U.S., and Trump, for reasons that aren’t too hard to understand, is drawing its adherents out of the woodwork.
Take, for example, the story of Julia Ioffe, a reporter who profiled Melania Trump for GQ magazine. Her article was not particularly critical of either the candidate or his wife, but after Mrs. Trump expressed disappointment with the piece, supporters of Trump unleashed a cavalcade of anti-Semitic hate mail against Ms. Ioffe. These included pictures of her face photoshopped on concentration camp photos, anonymous callers playing Hitler speeches on her voice mail, and cartoons of caricatured Jewish people being shot in the head. Ms. Ioffe is quoted as saying, “The irony of this is that today, when I was getting all of this horrible antisemitic shit that I’ve only ever seen in Russia, I was reminded that 26 years ago today my family came to the U.S. from Russia. We left Russia because we were fleeing antisemitism. It’s been a rude shock for everyone.”
Jonathan Weisman, a Jewish reporter for the New York Times, received a flood of anti-Semitic messages on Twitter from self-identified Trump supporters after retweeting an essay on the reemergence of fascism in the United States. He’s chosen not to delete his account or block the offenders. “Some people criticized me for offering it, but I argued, perhaps wrongly, that such hate needed airing, that Americans needed to see the darkest currents in the politics of exclusion animating the presidential election,” Weisman said. He’s not wrong.
Donald Trump, for his part, has failed to quell the rising tide of anti-Semitism in his coalition or to rebuke his supporters. Should he win the election, the neo-Nazis who revere him will doubtlessly be emboldened. To those of you who are considering sitting out the election because you dislike the probable Democratic nominee: don’t. Every vote against Trump is needed. I don’t want his supporters calling the shots in my country. Do you?
