Thankfully, weekend headlines were replete with stories denouncing Trump’s most recent barrage of racist tweets, these singling out Rep. Elijah Cummings and Baltimore, and the district that he represents.

@TheRealAdolfHitler: What if Hitler was on twitter? would he tweet about “rat infested” Jewish areas of Berlin?…

Even CNN, until recently not known for hard line resistance, pointed out and criticized the Nazi-like tone and technique in the tweets – how they echo the Nazi era anti-Semitic propaganda, that labeled Jews as “parasites” and used photos of rats to imply filth and disease. Infestation was also a concept used, the implication that Jews, like rats, carried disease and decay.

Or would Joseph Goebbles have his own account?

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The most alarming, discouraging element of this ongoing debasement of our political discourse is the possibility that this disgusting circus could be extended initially through 2020, and even into another four years and beyond.

“It can’t happen here” is a well known phrase and the title of an influential novel from 1935 by Sinclair Lewis. In many ways, as others have pointed out, Trump echos the main character and could even conceivably have used his story as a blueprint for his career in politics.

The phrase, “it can’t happen here”, seems to be contradicted on a daily basis since November 9, 2016, and the degree to which the horrors of the past can be repeated, or at least echoed continues, with seemingly no end in sight.

The “enemy of the people”, as Trump has labeled the media (at least all that dare to speak out against him), seem to be the only hope, ultimately, of effecting a change for the better, which can only come once Trump is no longer in power.

The attacks on Cummings were racist propaganda, of that, there is no doubt. There is also a clear motive for the attacks, since the target is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which is charged with overseeing the Executive Branch, including the office of the President.

After years of endless lies, Trump appears to be upping his game, ahead of the coming election. With a clear pattern of weekend twitter propaganda, such as the “go back” tweets, which for most represented a new low, and yet are clearly outdone by this weeks sequel.

Many articles and famous figures have responded, from the Baltimore Sun’s scathing inditement, to CNN’s Victor Blackwell and his live on-air, heart-felt reaction, and even Stephen Curry’s comment on his segment:

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Reactions show Courage and Conviction

As the years of this presidency have progressed, and the lies and vicious attacks have escalated, the press has also adapted and evolved.

For almost a year after the 2017 inauguration, the press generally avoided using the word “lie” in reports of Trump’s “untruths”. There was an attempt to maintain respect for the office and to somehow show deference to a man that, ultimately, has proven himself to be beneath that courtesy. As the lies continued to pile up and the press was directly attacked on many occasions, boldness and honesty begin to seep into the reporting.

Now, the words “racist” and “bigot” are necessary and accurate in any description of the man, or his actions and ideas. The tweets of the last few weeks have set a new lower standard, even for Trump, in how blatantly his bigotry and racism can be displayed.

The congressman himself had several strong responses to the attacks that should be seen:

Ultimately, unless we want to see a future that mirrors the almost 12 years, between the time that Hitler became chancellor of Germany until his death, and experience a fate that is potentially even worse: all of us, starting with the media, must speak out now, and not stop until he is gone.

In the past, comparisons with Hitler were a kind of “red-line” that was seldom crossed, as the horrific historical legacy of the Nazis was thought to be too extreme, even to contemplate, in a modern day figure.

“Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth – – it would literally be over in 10 days” -because- “I just don’t want to kill ten million people”

Now, we are talking about a man who only last week boasted that, if he wanted, “Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth – – it would literally be over in 10 days” because “I just don’t want to kill ten million people”. Implying that he could change his mind about not killing 10 million in Afghanistan, or anywhere else, at any time.

This past weekend may, one-day, be seen as the beginning of a march toward 2020 and another Trump term, with consequent escalation of all the ugly policies and actions.

It could be just the beginning, with all this power-drunk behavior, from a man that has indicated that he believes his supporters might “demand” that he serve more than 8 years. And “joked” that he feels he should be “president for life”, after repealing the 22nd amendment.

Combine these disturbing ideas and extrapolate, even just slightly forward, and step by step, we are talking about a future that is virtually impossible to imagine in its potential for hate, death and destruction.

We are entering a time when the transition to calling “a lie” a lie, a “racist” a racist and soon a “fascist” a fascist, will either work to eventually re-establish the goal of democracy and equality and truth as our real American greatness, or Trump will indeed be a new, far worse, version of Hitler, Goebbles and the Third Reich all rolled into one.

Hyperbole? Hysteria? This is a time when a single man or woman can influence the future of this country and the world. Will it be this man? This racist, bigoted, hateful, corrupt “rat” of a man?

Or will it be you, as one of millions who will stop him? As history indicates, the real choice is to begin the movement to stop him now, or look forward to horrors from which the world itself may not survive.

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