If anyone knows a thing or two about the threat of authoritarianism from Donald Trump, it’s Hillary Clinton. Gleeful chants of “lock her up” were almost as prevalent in the 2016 presidential campaign as the “make American great again” slogan. This campaign year, there seems to be an endless list of people Trump wants to lock up, deport and execute.
So, when MSNBC's Joe Scarborough told her about his concern the U.S. may be sleepwalking into something as awful as Nazi Germany, Clinton seemed equally worried.
“People can't stop covering the circus, every utterance, every insult, every outrageous action or comment - it gets covered,” Clinton said. But the context is often missing and she called that context “imperative.”
“The world has been here before,” Clinton said. She noted that “people did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should, including American journalists,” she added. People said about Adolf Hitler, “oh, this can be controlled. He may have said some outrageous things but you know, the institutions will hold.” And, of course, that is not at all what happened.
That’s why she thinks it so important for the media to “talk to people who have a real understanding of how dictatorships evolve." She urged them to "look at the people that he admires, and what they've already done.”
Clinton also made the point that Trump is being supported by enablers “who care more about a future tax cut than the sanctity of the Constitution.” Not to mention the rule of law and basic human decency, but I digress.
Clinton tried to warn us about Trump in 2016, she reminded everyone. But now, there’s a track record. “So, we need to do a better job of making it absolutely clear that someone who says these things” should be believed, she continued. “Maybe he wouldn't jail all of his political opponents” and maybe he wouldn’t try to silence all members of the press who don’t agree with him. But “one is one too many,” Clinton said. “And maybe this would be our last election. Because someone who will not accept the validity of an election is someone who doesn't believe in elections. He believes in his own power, his own right to power and his demand that he be installed. Regardless of whether he gets the votes or not.”
Yep, it’s a five-alarm warning from someone who knows what she’s talking about.
