At perhaps 10 years of age I ran across an old magazine in a collection of same, stored in the basement. I opened one from the early 1940s, and as I fiipped through it one item grabbed me. Although recall of its precise wording is impossible after decades passed, its thrust still comes into intelligible focus.
The item was a political cartoon (a genre from which I've never been able to avert my eyes). The artist portrayed the Devil kicking newly arrived Hitler out of the netherworld while saying, Now go create your own little Hell. Old Nick's reasoning was that Adolf was unwanted competition for the inferno's leadership.
The customary entry at this point, according to the commentariat's 2017 style manual, is to note with care and concern that this writer is not saying Trump is another Hitler. After all, Hitler had a mustache. One other difference, his severely abbreviated Thousand Year Reich led to 40 million dead. On the other hand, critical similarities are striking. As was der Führer, Trump is sociopathic, narcissistic, demagogic, megalomaniacal, and his own worst enemy.
At rallies he bombards the crowd with a brand of drivel markedly Hitlerlike — the stuff of a madman on a transcendent ego trip. It's what most closely identifies Trump with the infamous demagogue whose speeches he once studied: all the rhetorical absurdities, especially the over-the-top blather of selflessness for the people's benefit — just like these primal 36 seconds recreated in English:
I have advocated for you ... I've spent my time in service of my people ... Now stand up for me as I have stood up for you. Had you not seen the video and were asked who spoke these words, Hitler or Trump, would you have confidence in your answer?
The choice is a toss-ball. For no less than the original speaker, Trump has flooded the national zone with the same saccharine appeals of selflessness on their behalf. To that he has added the frauds of "brilliance" and "invincibility."
And now, or I should say already, his shtick lies vividly exposed as the scam it always was. Trump's recent and most notable act was anything but in the service of "his people." Freezing federal aid to the detriment of millions of voters was a blunder for sure — but a blunder with authentic intent.
He means to gut what the people's elected representatives authorized and many so desperately need. They won't forget. Also noted by millions is that Trump's self-advertised invincibility was crushed in a mere eight days. And his unassailable "brilliance"? Yeah, so much for that.
Same for any updating of the political cartoon. Though Hitler was kicked out of Hell because Satan feared the loss of his underworld leadership to the newcomer — an unequaled master of pure evil with a portfolio of successes to prove it — Trump's rear end will receive no such treatment, due to no such success.
And that, gentle reader, is why I titled this post simply "Welcome to Hell, Mr. Trump." No satanic alternative shall be forthcoming, no "Go create your own little Hell, Mr. Trump."
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