I read aloud to my neighbor Swamp Rabbit from a book about leading figures in an infamous dictator’s inner circle:
… By denying the legitimacy of opposition to his cause, by cynically refusing to accept the truth when it turned out to be inconvenient, and by creating powerful but ultimately imaginary menaces to society that threaten to destroy it unless countered by the power of a supposedly great leader, [Joseph] Goebbels set an example that was to be followed long after his death.
“Substitute ‘Stephen Miller’ for ‘Joseph Goebbels’ and you have a good job description for Trump’s new chief of staff,” I said. “If he and Goebbels lived in the same era, they would be evil twins.”
“Gimme that book,” Swamp Rabbit said, grabbing my copy of Richard J. Evans’ Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich. “You gotta stop obsessing about them Nazis. The election’s been over more than a week now and Trump’s gang lost.”
Swamp Rabbit thinks Republican holdovers in Congress will back off from Trump because his tariffs and his disastrous war in Iran helped generate the blue wave that washed away so many far-right office holders. And he think Trump, humbled by the midterms catastrophe, might limit himself to championing his vanity projects — desecration of the White House, construction of a ridiculous ballroom and triumphal arch, and so on.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I said.
Trump is taking zero blame for the Election Day debacle. He’s fighting the possible impeachment of Pete Hegseth, his goose-stepping Secretary of Defense. He has promoted Miller, who called Democrats ‘the jihad party’ and defended the federal goons who have killed or injured thousands of immigrants. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress remain as loyal as ever to Trump and too corrupt to admit Miller is a little monster.
“Trump will fight the Democrats all the way to the Fuhrerbunker and Miller will be right there with him, cranking out big lies and repeating them for effect,” I said.
I let Swamp Rabbit take my copy of Hitler’s People. He promised to read the essay on propaganda pioneer Goebbels once he finishes watching the “Arrested Development” series for the fourth time.
Footnote: I’m far from the first observer to note that Goebbels is Miller’s doppelganger, or vice versa. It’s too bad the mainstream media have ignored the striking resemblance and failed to explore how badly Miller’s neo-nazi behavior has damaged democracy in America. The Republican Party is like a big tent for creeps, but this guy is special. And we might have to endure two more years of him.
