As we draw closer to election season, the possibility of the fluorescent orange Republican frontrunner becoming President is something that Americans genuinely need to think about. Even though there are plenty of memes out there ragging on Donald Trump, there is still an incredible number of people who are legitimately voting for him. And, though polls project both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders beating Trump in a general election, it’s a chance that this number of people could speak louder than any other group of people.

What seemed like a joke to many people when Trump first announced that he was running for president in June 2015 (yes, it was that long ago) is now a weird, screwed-up reality for America. I know it boggles my mind, and the minds of plenty of other people that I’ve talked to, that he could be the future of the country. From his outlandish comments about Muslims and Mexicans to his derogatory comments about women to his lack of any actual plans, it’s hard to believe that Trump has any supporters at all. And yet, it makes complete sense from a historical perspective.

I know that this comparison has been done, and that I’m really beating a dead horse, but the political climate in America right now reminds me most of the political climate in Germany, post-World War I. As a history major that aims to specialize in modern European history, post-World War I Germany is one of the most heartbreaking (and, at the same time, fascinating) times in the modern era. The Treaty of Versailles, signed by the Triple Entente- with the United States instead of Russia -left Germany in a place of extreme economic hardship. Its citizens were paranoid about their safety and livelihood, as well as another mass scale war. The Germans were a starving, broken people, and it seemed like alien groups were trying to take away German nationalism or what was good about the country.

Along came Adolf Hitler, spewing radical ideas of racial purity and making Germany great again. Most people wrote him off, or thought that he was a joke. There was no way that someone like Adolf Hitler, an art school reject and war veteran, could become Chancellor. And when he became Chancellor, there was no way that we would become a dictator. And when he became dictator, there was no way that he would implement a Final Solution… But he did. Germans, afraid of the scapegoats that Hitler had identified destroying their country, believed him. They wanted him, and they wanted to see these scapegoats gone.

I’ll spare you the incredibly gory details. The Holocaust was the biggest genocide in the world to date, resulting in the deaths of about 12 million people, including 6 million Jews-- two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe at the time. Of course, the Jews were not the only people who perished; the mentally ill, gypsies, black people, homosexuals, and anyone who disagreed with Hitler and his cronies were persecuted. The violence was not only in concentration camps, but also came through ghettos and beatings in the street.

In the America that I have known and loved for nineteen years, I see people who are paranoid. They want to keep their safety and their livelihood. They don’t want to be slaughtered by ISIS, and fear that an illegal immigrant will jump the border simply to take their 9-to-5 job away from them. I see people who don’t trust a corrupt political system based on who can buy the most votes or who can make the shadiest deals without getting caught. The only person in the race right now that they know the name of, and who is saying what they want to hear, is Donald Trump.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Trump is just saying what people want to hear so he’ll get elected. Maybe he has no intention of following through with any of his outlandish plans. Maybe this is all a social experiment, to see how many people in the United States are either in so much fear or are so racist (and didn’t have the guts to say anything before). Maybe the conspirators are right and this is all a ploy to get Hillary into the White House. However, Trump’s candidacy isn’t something that we shouldn’t take lightly, because of the patterns of extreme violence that we’ve seen in the past.

Keep in mind that I am a white, middle-class girl. My parents have jobs and master’s degrees. I’m a college student, privileged enough to be able to go to a great, Catholic college. I’ve never been persecuted for my skin color, my religion, my gender, or my sexuality. It’s not like I’m a Muslim, person of any Hispanic descent, gay, or any other kind of Enemy of the Trump State. I am a self-declared liberal, and very outspoken about it. This is enough to get people beat up at Trump rallies, so is it enough to put someone in danger if Trump is President?

Simply put: yes. Trump has a tendency to encourage violence, and to condone it when it’s against the people who disagree with him. He’s even offered to pay the legal fees of people who got arrested defending the “goodness” of what Trump’s saying and the disturbing trend of fascism that he’s started. When Trump becomes President, what will happen to the citizens that defy him? What will happen to the congressmen and women who vote against him or block what he wants to do? In the era of information, it will be infinitely easier for Trump’s violently passionate supporters to track down people who disagree with him. If this kind of violence is condoned, it will always be justifiable to the people who support the Donald.

Then, there’s the obvious possibility that Donald Trump could be following through on his Hitler-esque ideas. People of Hispanic descent could be damned to be deported, even if they’re legal and don’t speak a word of Spanish. Muslims would be marked with special passports, and maybe even special badges, to identify them as a different and enemy race. People will be increasingly violent towards people who Trump has put on blast as the enemy. And when Trump realizes that the mass deportations are impossible to implement, what will happen? Will Muslims and Hispanic people be forced into concentration camp, separated by walls and barbed wire? This seems ridiculous, and I’m sure someone will criticize me for it, but it has happened and, if we take it lightly or refuse to do something to stop it.

Another thing that we barely think about is what Trump is going to do about the economy. Yes, he’s been a successful businessman. Yes, he’s known as a billionaire because of his cutthroat policies and attitude. But he’s also gone bankrupt four times, and relies heavily on foreign employment. This is not only done through sending work in textiles to places like China and Bangladesh, but also by using foreign workers (more than likely illegal) to help him build his physical empire. Trump has also dabbled in other failed business endeavors, including the infamous Trump University. How can a person want to make America great again and deport illegal immigrants while relying on foreign labor?

The possibility of a Trump presidency scares the absolute life out of me. This is not because I’m the kind of person that Trump would sic his rabid supporters on. It’s because I love my country, and I want to see my country succeed. I want to see my people prosper, not lose their jobs and have to pay more taxes to pay for a wall. I want to see the end of racial oppression and religious persecution. I want to see people go to college, get jobs, and get off of government assistance because they can take care of ourselves. I don’t want other countries to hate us because of who we voted for President. I don’t want war, especially in the nuclear age. Trump scares me not only because of what he says, but what his supporters do.