It’s real in their minds–again.
Headline: Trump has put us at DEFCON 1. We cannot shrug at ‘Never Again’
by David Nir
This is an alarmist post because the situation we face today is so alarming. Donald Trump is a genuine fascist who has no regard whatsoever for democratic governance. He has taken savage pleasure in fomenting violence at his own rallies, lamenting that “nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.” He has heaped praise on the world’s most ruthless tyrants, like Vladimir Putin, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Un. And he has the full-throated backing of modern-day Nazis whose support he has not only refused to disavow, but instead proactively cultivated. The threat he poses to the future of this republic and the safety of the world is unknowable and may be without limit.
These are not conclusions I draw lightly. I have always resisted facile comparisons to Hitler and his Nazi Party precisely because they are often so unwarranted and overwrought that they threaten to dilute the true horror of the Holocaust. And it’s a horror I understand all too well: My father was a Holocaust survivor who spent his entire life sharing his story on an almost daily basis so that the rest of us could understand the incomprehensible, so that we would not forget what had happened.
So that we could uphold the credo of “Never Again.”
I never imagined we’d find ourselves standing on the brink, but my father taught me—taught many people—how to recognize the warning signs. He faced down the very same things Trump is threatening: a state that denied the basic humanity of its most vulnerable members, that set its citizens to war against one another, that did away with those it considered undesirable.
Now, the klaxons are blaring. We are at DEFCON 1. Everything is at risk. And this means one and only one thing: We must—absolutely must—do everything in our power to elect Hillary Clinton president in November.
I myself am excited to support and vote for Clinton, but if you are not, I implore you, please find a source of motivation that will propel you to the highest energy level possible this fall. Perhaps there is something you like about Tim Kaine. If not, there is definitely something you hate about Donald Trump.
Whatever inspiration you take, just please take some. Like Ezra Klein, who explained his fears about the danger of a Trump presidency so articulately, for the first time in my life I am scared of what our political future might hold in store. Trump is a dangerous man who will hurt many people if he is elected. My relationship with my father was always a distant one, in large part because his experience—his childhood disrupted by an empire of murderers who hunted him for years—was so alien. But now, even though he is gone, I feel closer than ever to him. And that is absolutely terrifying.
Too many times since the Shoah has humanity only honored “Never Again” in the breach. We must not let this become another such occasion. But it’s not too late: We still have a chance to stop Trump if we unite behind Hillary Clinton. We can and we must honor the past by fighting for the future. Please let us link arms and combat this menace, because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate.
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