The name Adolph Hitler was as on everyone’s lips 75 years ago and the world trembled with fear, as Hitler vowed to restore Germany’s glorious past. Today, the entire globe is being shaken by the name Donald Trump, as he vows to regain America’s role as the world’s number one powerhouse, using protectionism and isolationism. America under Trump, I believe, is the home of the fearful and the land of the destitute.
In reality, the US has followed this policy for the past 50 years. All of this is codified in one form or another in US political and military doctrine. Every American president, from George Washington to Barack Obama, has trumpeted in some fashion what Trump has proclaimed to ‘make America great again’.
It was author George Orwell who uttered these prophetic words in his book, 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever.” In 1941, then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt defined America’s goals as four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Trump attempted to destroy these goals in one legal swoop, only seven days into his presidency.
The US controls the world, not through respect or leadership, but through violence and the threat of violence. It was Theodore Roosevelt who said: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Many nations are afraid to speak out against the policies of Trump. The silence is deafening. We are trapped in this “conspiracy of silence”. Neutered and blind to this suicidal path, incapable and unwilling to face the greatest threat to democracy since the rise of Nazi Germany.
— The reader is a freelance writer based in Johannesburg, South Africa
