Trump’s call to rid America of ‘certain people’ echoes Hitler

In the 1930s, in a country devastated by a ruinous war that was struggling to repair and renew itself, a strange but somehow charismatic figure rose up to capture the imagination of the cititzens. He spoke of the former greatness of the nation and how “certain people” were responsible for the current problems of the present.

He claimed that ridding the country of these “certain people” would set the country on a path to greatness again. At the beginning of his career, the people of his nation did not take him very seriously but as he accused and condemned these “certain people,” more and more citizens, looking for a simple reason why they were struggling to survive in a country that had previously been wealthy and powerful, began to support him. This rather odd fellow's message was that, if the country would just get rid of those “certain people,” the county and the rest of the people would become great again.

The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. We are 300 million strong, yet we have made it harder and harder to accept and welcome immigrants, especially if they are refugees from poverty stricken or war torn countries.

We are famous and admired for our generocity and compassion to all who have come here “tired and poor, yearning to breathe free.”

But those who admire and support Donald Trump believe, the way that the German people believed in the 1930s, that if we throw out the 6 to 10 million people who have come here in the last 15 to 20 years, all our economic problems will be solved.

There is a strange echo of Adolph Hitler in Donald Trump's simplistic message. that the USA will solve all its problems if it will simply get rid of the Hispanic people who have come to our country. Just get rid of one “certain kind” of people.

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Trump’s call to rid America of ‘certain people’ echoes Hitler."