My parents served on a military government team which de-nazified the German media at the end of WWII hostilities. I asked my father how was it that Germany, who gave us the likes of Nietzsche, Marx, Wagner, Beethoven, and Bach, could also produce the third Reich. He leaned back and said: “Imagine that the world is a pyramid. At the very top there are people who create art, speak truth and advocate tolerance. Below that are descending layers of people until you get to the bottom. In Nazi Germany, the bottom managed to gain control of the top through political chicanery, and then to impose its cruel values on the whole.”

The North Carolina Trump rally serves as a potent reminder of that story. Beyond filling his coffers and those of his oligarchical cronies, Donald Trump has no vision for America. But to maintain power he must appeal to the lowest layer of the pyramid. Trump knows full well that corrupting Ilhan Omar’s criticism of Israel would resonate with the crowd, as would his stone-cold racist suggestion she go back to where she came from. And when challenged about the crowd chanting “send her back”, Trump did what Trump does best: he lied.

As with his policy of separating asylum families or making asylum children sleep on concrete floors, Trump knows full well these policies will play well with his base. Like the German parliament, the republican party has descended to a dishonesty and hypocrisy that tolerates racism and cruelty. After all, they are all making money from “going along.”

Here is my question for Trump and the Republican party: How many innocent children will suffer psychiatric damage? How many will drown? How many will die in custody –  Eight? Eighteen? Eighty? Eight hundred? Eight hundred thousand? Eight million?

Richard McWilliams

Yarmouth

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