Two Years Later: The Dangers of Dismissing Donald Trump’s Hateful Rhetoric

I wrote the article below back in November of 2015. I pitched it to a number of publications; only one replied, the editor stating that any comparison between Donald Trump’s rhetoric and that of 1930s Adolf Hitler “is hyperbolic and not something we would consider.”

Donald Trump this morning extended his assaults on minority populations to transgender people, announcing that “the United States Government will not accept or allow…transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” This follows months of incremental assaults against LGBT and other marginalized populations that are too numerous to list.

In 2015, Trump’s words were just words, and they were dismissed as such. When Trump alleged that Mexican people are “racists and murderers,” he was excused by the people of the United States. When tapes of him boasting to an entertainment reporter that he has sexually assaulted women were released, he was excused by the people of the United States — and by his own wife, who shrugged off the remarks as “locker room talk.” People began to quote Martin Niemöller’s poem “First they came for the Socialists…” as this man continued his assault on veritably every minority segment of the States, dividing a formerly united nation. Pride comes before the fall, dividing comes before the conquering.

Trump’s remarks were dismissed as just words, no harm. And then his silence was dismissed as just silence, no harm, when he refused to…