Things Go Boom

Last night, my wife, son, and I rode our bikes down to the Savannah River to watch the fireworks. It was a good scene, thousands of people strolling the old stone streets, eating ice cream, fanning themselves in the humidity. Martha bought some candy. At 9:30, a shower of red, white, and blue lit the sky, and we were off.

I don’t know how one judges fireworks shows, but I would call this one “pretty good.” Afterwards, we biked home and I spent the next couple hours reassuring my dogs that the scattershot explosions that continued to go off for the next couple hours were not directed at them, but were just an ersatz patriotic celebrations. The dogs did not know what “ersatz” meant, but I think they understood the context clues.

This is a picture of fireworks and the American flag together. I thought to myself, “How can I find the most obvious illustration for this,” and selected this photo. I hope you enjoy.

When the fireworks scofflaws had retired for the night, I watched the end of a terrific new Netflix documentary series entitled, Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial, which traces the rise and fall of the Third Reich over six episodes, relying heavily on Nuremberg testimony and the words of William Shirer, the CBS correspondent who wrote the definitive historical account of that era, appropriately entitled, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.  

I tend to avoid Hitler/Nazi documentaries because I find them a combination of too boring and too upsetting. This one is also extremely upsetting, but keeps the pace moving, so we don’t get bogged down retelling well-worn battles or spending too much time rehashing familiar episodes. Its treatment of the Holocaust is unsparing, so if you’re going to watch, be prepared.

Interestingly, the series makes several allusions to the current Republican nominee for president. It definitely does not suggest that Trump is a “new Hitler” in any way, only making the point that much of Hitler’s rhetoric bore many of the same hallmarks of nativism, scapegoating, and appeals to racial purity.

(Trump supporters will no doubt jump on me for suggesting that Trump has ever discussed “racial purity,” but his collective remarks, including those about his own genetics and his describing how immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” point to, at the very least, a strong sympathy for such ideas.)

The thing that really struck me, however, was about Hitler’s eventual ascension to the Chancellery, then the Presidency, then as Fuhrer. How he went from outsider banging on the doors of power with the Beerhall Putsch of 1923, to a brief jail sentence handed down by a sympathetic judiciary unwilling to upset the apple cart of public sentiment too much, to dictator. All of this in about ten years’ time.

Hitler comparisons are facile and I don’t mean to suggest that Trump is very much like Hitler. He’s not. For one thing, Hitler had pretty good style. As perverse as it was, Hitler also had some kind of philosophical grounding. Trump has none. Nor do I think Trump is nearly as bloodthirsty as Hitler. A second Trump presidency, I do not think, would lead to war.

BUT…

(Obviously there was going to be a “but”)

They do possess a lot of the same traits. As with Trump, much of the German citizenry and press initially thought Hitler was a clown. They could not understand the appeal of this raving Austrian colonel, as he was dismissively referred to, among the volk. As he rose in stature, they thought they could control him until it was too late. Hitler, too, was obsessed with what we would now call “optics,” using propaganda and a beaten media - cleansed of opposition - to amplify his message. Upon taking office, he consolidated power, ridding the government of those deemed insufficiently loyal.

William Shirer, who witnessed the rise of Naziism firsthand and, for the rest of his life, warned anybody who would listen that it could happen here.

As I’m sure you’ve read, Trump has frequently discussed firing career government workers. The handbook for the second Trump administration, Project 2025, has targeted 50,000 jobs across the federal bureaucracy to be filled with MAGA loyalists.

There are those who will insist that all presidents staff agencies with their loyalists. That is true, to a point. The current number of political appointees in the federal government is about 4,000. While I am not much of a mathematician, it seems to me that 50,000 is a lot more than 4,000. Moreover, I watched an interview with the head of the Heritage Foundation, which put that document together, and I believe (although I’m not certain) that he said the 50,000 figure was “a start.”

Another comparison between the two men which I think is fair involves the small matter of mass deportations. Trump surrogates and Trump himself have talked about removing millions of people currently living in the United States. The language around these people – “illegal,” “vermin,” their supposed criminality, their supposed ties to terrorist organizations, etc. – all of this echoes almost exactly the language of Hitler and Nazis towards the Jews, Bolsheviks, Slavs, and anybody not loyal enough to the man with the little mustache. The building of massive camps, as Trump has promised, to hold these millions of people, also has obvious parallels.

Do I think Trump will murder those people? Let me be crystal clear: I DO NOT.

I do think, however, that the order for the National Guard to go house-to-house knocking on doors is likely to produce deaths, injury, horrendous abuses of power, and a state of panic. There will likely be protests, some of which very well could turn violent. What happens then?

Trump’s allies have been quick to discuss employing the Insurrection Act - as early as on Day One - which, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, would allow the President to “use the military as a domestic police force.” It seems like a situation that, should it come to pass, could easily spiral out of control. Moreover, “spiraling out control” may be its entire purpose.

Briefly, I also think it’s worth making the comparison between Hitler’s Beerhall Putsch and Trump’s first administration. Consider the outside nature of both events. Both were ill-conceived and ill-organized. Both resulted in brief political exile. Both used their time away from power to reorganize and to learn from their previous experiences. Both came back stronger.

The fireworks last night may only have been pretty good, but standing on the banks of the Savannah River watching them with my family and several thousand strangers of every type, reminded me that we’re a good country when we choose to be, and a bad country when we choose. “Good” and “bad” are obviously subjective terms in the world of politics, but one helpful test is to ask, “Is this what Hitler would do?” If the answer is “yes,” maybe choose something a different course. Even my dogs understand that.