Hitler vs. Stalin
It’s interesting how Donald Trump calls for the registering and/or deportation of Muslims and Mexicans, the torture and killing of civilians whose family members are suspected of terrorism, more violence against protestors at his rallies and refuses to disavow white supremacist groups supporting him and people are quick to be apologists and say “He’s not Hitler!” while Bernie Sanders calls for universal health care, free higher education, and increased regulation of the financial sector and people seem to immediately jump to “He’s just like Stalin!”
Garry Kasparov: Hey, Bernie, Don’t Lecture Me About Socialism. I Lived Through It. • 2016 Mar 9 • Garry Kasparov • The Daily Beast
To his credit, Kasparov eventually admits that Sanders probably doesn’t want to create a totalitarian state.
Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse? • 2011 Jan 27 • Timothy Snyder • The New York Review of Books
It’s true that Donald Trump and his supporters (probably) haven’t killed anyone (yet) but neither had Hitler and the Nazis during the last days of the Weimar Republic. Are we really supposed to wait until they start doing so to make Hitler comparisons?
Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.
John McGraw, charged with assaulting a protester at Donald Trump’s Fayetteville, NC, rally
Man charged with assault after punching protester at Trump event • 2016 Mar 10 • Ali Vitali • MSNBC
But while we should not, and truly cannot, equate a current figure with the murderous Axis leaders, it would be intellectually dishonest and irresponsible not to compare their early rise with the rise of America’s emerging populist demagogue.
William F. B. O’Reilly, Republican consultant
Donald Trump, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler: Is there any comparison? • 2016 Mar 1 • William F.B. O’Reilly • Newsday