The Mask of the Yellow Hair

With the Iowa caucuses just a few days away we are in full-fledged presidential election season. I've been noticing a lot of my Facebook friends posting memes that compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and while I think most of them are funny here's the problem I have with these images:

By comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler we're creating the mistaken notion that evil can't reside in the heart of the United States. That somehow fascism or authoritarianism is an alien ideology infecting a country that advertises full throated exceptionalism and broadcasts an image of bootstrapping materialism to the rest of the world. These images prove that only a foreigner like Adolf Hitler can rise to power in a foreign country like Germany. That Trump's very ideals are foreign. But Donald Trump is no aberration. Donald Trump and his blowhard attitude with his reductive views of immigrants and religion are as American as baseball and apple pie.

We often hear those who support and attend Donald Trump's rallies say that their favorite candidate is only speaking what others won't say. That he is speaking his mind. They are actually telling the truth. Many politicians both left and more so on the right use coded language to signal to voters what they are really saying. So instead of Republicans talking about border security, Donald Trump comes right out and says he thinks Mexicans are rapists and criminals and we should build a wall to keep them out. Instead of using terms like urban crime or entitlement programs, Donald Trump tweets that he thinks African Americans are lazy and violent. Where once national security and terrorism were buzzwords, he openly talks about spying on mosques and banning Muslims from entering the United States. After he says these outrageous things his popularity soars and cable news pundits become apoplectic at what they consider an abomination; an afront to American ideals. That Trump is ultimately a cipher who has tricked the masses with his Pied Piper words or that he's touched on the zeitgeist of an uneducated working class anger.

The cable pundits are wrong. Racism and xenophobia has existed in the United States much longer than this notion of diversity and equality. Donald Trump is no aberration. He's no fluke. What was a fluke was a biracial man who considers himself African American being elected President of the United States. Twice. That was a fluke. A rich old white man who spouts racist, xenophobic, anti-muslim, authoritarian, misogynistic, pro capitalistic rhetoric is an every day occurrence somewhere in America. So maybe the face underneath the Donald Trump mask is not Hitler. Maybe the face underneath the mask of America is Donald Trump and the millions who agree with him.