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Trump a grim reminder

It was the early 1930s, and many Germans were uneasy about their economic circumstances and diminished status and power in Europe and beyond. They found strength in the person of a strongman who promised to be tough on Jews, foreign enemies and Communists. The man became chancellor and dictator.

It felt good to many disaffected Germans who believed their former government and the world were against them. It felt good, for a while. In the end, the policies of racial identity, exclusion and fear destroyed Germany and millions of people throughout the world.

Hundreds of thousands of pages have been written on the question: “How could this have happened?” It has only been 80 years or so since Hitler rose to power, but we now have a chance to watch the dynamics of demagoguery at work in the person of Donald Trump.

What have we learned from history? And who among us, those descended from the “greatest generation,” will speak against this noxious specter from the past?

George Critchlow

Spokane Valley

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