As a Jew, I don't like people making Hitler comparisons. I don't like when they do it to President Obama. I didn't like when people did it to President Bush. There was only one Hitler, and we have not had a politician who rose to that level -- yet.
That said, a chill went down my spine when I saw private remarks from Chris Christie, regarding one of Donald Trump's first moves, if he is elected. Reuters reports:
If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday.
Why is this scary? It is literally one of the first moves made by Adolf Hitler, upon democratically attaining power.
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed just two months after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
It was such a major piece of his plan to ultimately become dictator, that the Holocaust Museum notes it on their timeline of events:
The German government issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums), which excludes Jews and other political opponents of the Nazis from all civil service positions.
Gutting government of any civil service officers who are not completely and blindly loyal to the new leader usually is one of the first moves of someone looking to become a dictator. Another act is one Trump previously voiced support for - tighter control over a free press.
Whether dictatorship is the overt intent of Donald Trump or not, what cannot be denied is that a move like this runs completely counter to the very idea of our Republic, whose very Constitution goes to very, very great lengths to prevent usurping of that kind of power.
Whether it is Saddam, or Stalin, going after the bureaucracy, purging it, and installing loyalists is almost always a first step for a rising dictator.
Apparently, that has not gone unnoticed by Trump, who openly admires Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Saddam Hussein.
This is not hyperbole.
This is not a joke.
This is real.
Donald Trump's man in charge of putting together a government seriously just said that one of Donald Trump's first moves will be the same as one of Hitler's.
Conservatives often talk a big game about the Constitution, about fighting tyranny.
Now that Donald Trump's plans are transparent, we'll see just how serious they are about that.