Even if Trump is Hitler, could he turn the US into the Third Reich?

[Martinus]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

[Eddie Teach]

Though I agree it's pretty darn unlikely.

[Barrister]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Nah.  The question isn't "Is Trump a second Hitler".  Rather it's is he a second Putin (or Orban, or Erdogan, or Chavez)?  SOmeone who keeps the democratic facade but undermines it from within?

[Berkut]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Normally I would agree, but then, normally that same process that leads me to thinking there is no way anyone would really let Trump screw up our country is the same process that led me to believe that there was no way he could even be contemplated as a serious candidate.

So the one thing in this regards that I am *certain* of is that my thought processes are clearly not aligned to the reality of the American public at all.

[Razgovory]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Nah.  The question isn't "Is Trump a second Hitler".  Rather it's is he a second Putin (or Orban, or Erdogan, or Chavez)?  SOmeone who keeps the democratic facade but undermines it from within?

Or... dare I say it, an Andrew Jackson?

[alfred russel]

Nah.  The question isn't "Is Trump a second Hitler".  Rather it's is he a second Putin (or Orban, or Erdogan, or Chavez)?  SOmeone who keeps the democratic facade but undermines it from within?

Or second Berlusconi.

The problem of which isn't so much that Berlusconi was awful for Italy, but that he was a buffoon, and the US is the leader of the free world. It is hard to imagine the US keeping the leadership position with Trump, which is probably collectively bad for the west as there isn't a ready replacement. It is also bad for the US because that leadership is the underpinning of so many of our international affairs (our tax system, for instance).

[garbon]

So the one thing in this regards that I am *certain* of is that my thought processes are clearly not aligned to the reality of the American public at all.

You got that from what has happened in the Republican primary?

[viper37]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Mussolini was deposed after he suffered many setbacks during the war and he had no troops left to insure order in his country.

[Malthus]

Given the simultaneous Israeli politics thread, Trump seems to me more like a second Bibi - widely hated and distrusted, led-footed in international diplomacy, pandering to the worst thuggish exclusionary instincts of his electorate, etc. 

The difference of course being that Israel is a tiny nation, punching above its size in some areas but still not particularly important. 

[Berkut]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

My primary thought is wonder at why you have become such a cheerleader for lowest common denominator populism and bigotry.

[DGuller]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Normally I would agree, but then, normally that same process that leads me to thinking there is no way anyone would really let Trump screw up our country is the same process that led me to believe that there was no way he could even be contemplated as a serious candidate.

So the one thing in this regards that I am *certain* of is that my thought processes are clearly not aligned to the reality of the American public at all.

Same here.  Although whether Trump can or cannot do what Hitler has done is not the only important question.  Let's say Trump tries and checks and balances work.  As far as the rest of the world goes, there will be four years when the by-far dominant western power is pre-occupied with internal struggle rather than counter-balancing the various garbage in the ROTW.

[citizen k]

My answer is "no". And I don't just mean things like government checks and balances - but something more elusive, that Montesquie called the spirit of a nation. I can see Germans turning into a Third Reich if they elected a Hitler-like psychopath, but not Americans - at best it would be some sort of Mussolini figure that would start a couple of vainglorious wars, but would be eventually deposed by the national spirit of liberty and anarchy.

Thoughts?

Nah.  The question isn't "Is Trump a second Hitler".  Rather it's is he a second Putin (or Orban, or Erdogan, or Chavez)?  SOmeone who keeps the democratic facade but undermines it from within?

Or... dare I say it, an Andrew Jackson?

That darn Jacksonian Democracy rears its populist head.

[grumbler]

That darn Jacksonian Democracy rears its populist head.

  Good one.

[The Brain]

"Turn"?

[Admiral Yi]

Same here.  Although whether Trump can or cannot do what Hitler has done is not the only important question.  Let's say Trump tries and checks and balances work.  As far as the rest of the world goes, there will be four years when the by-far dominant western power is pre-occupied with internal struggle rather than counter-balancing the various garbage in the ROTW.

The president has unlimited power to deploy troops anywhere in the world for up to 30 days, and constitutionally ambiguous powers after 30 days.  There are also no checks and balances on his power to launch nukes.

The potential downsides to a Trump presidency are not limited to being a douchebag.