My parents were part of a U.S. government team that de-Nazified the German media from 1946 through 1947. Donald Trump’s speeches would not have passed their assessment.

Our democracy is in crisis from the collision of two forces. The first is America’s extreme form of capitalism that has created a system that fails to address the deepest needs of its people. The second is the emergence of an opportunistic, highly manipulative leader named Donald Trump.

To understand Trump, we need to look back to Hitler. Ellen Wexler, writing for Smithsonian in 2023, recounts Hitler’s arrest for insurrection. “When Hitler’s trial began in early 1924, onlookers thought the courtroom drama would be the end of the Nazi Party. Instead, over the course of 24 days, Hitler got the opportunity to sell his extremist ideas to a receptive German public.”

Like Hitler, Trump manipulated his prosecutions to appeal to sympathetic Americans with his views. Heather Cox Richardson has written that Trump’s grievance politics tap into the South’s post-Civil War Great Lost Cause myth. Trump opposed taking down statues of Confederate generals and soft-peddled the white supremacists’ violence at Charlottesville with “very fine people on both sides.” His attempt to overturn the election on Jan. 6 was his coup attempt. These are not coincidences.

Trump’s father was a white supremacist who was arrested in 1927 for his involvement in a Nazi rally where two men were killed. Donald and Fred Trump were sued by the Justice Department for racial housing discrimination, and Donald was sued again for same by the DOJ in 1973.

Trump was interested in Nazism the 1990s. Vanity Fair reporter Marie Brenner wrote that Marty Davis at Paramount gave Trump a copy of “Mein Kampf.” Another reporter touring the Trump Tower condo said he saw it on his night table. When Trump said, “They are poisoning the blood of our country,” that is directly from a speech made by Hitler.

Lastly, when Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933 he promptly pardoned his fellow insurrectionists for the Beer Hall Putsch (coup). He then used them to intimidate politicians who were unwilling to go along with him. It is possible Trump will incite those he pardoned to exact revenge on officials who prosecuted him.

Why did 49% of Americans vote for a convicted felon? Many would argue it is the staggering inequality in our nation. Today, in many homes both adults are working, but they still struggle to feed their children.

When Donald Trump was inaugurated, sitting on the dais behind him (but in front of members of his Cabinet, who are also billionaires) were three of the richest men in the world: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. These three men own more than half of the wealth of the bottom half of our society. That money has been siphoned off from average Americans through tax cuts to the wealthy.

Trump’s symbiotic relationship with billionaires is rife with opportunities for conflicts of interest. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has raised questions about Musk giving Trump $270 million for his campaign while Musk’s companies have contracts with the U.S. government. Trump has sued Meta for cancelling his Facebook account after his attempt to overturn the election. Now as president, Trump told senior staff that if Meta paid the $25 million, Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent.” Sen. Warren points out that is bribery.

Who pays the ultimate price for this corruption? You do.

Musk may become the first trillionaire, but the United States is the only Western industrialized country without universal health care. The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical debt. Other countries also invest in a more robust safety net for their working and middle-class families. They have paid parental leave, government-mandated vacation time, free college tuition, etc. Those countries have far lower suicide rates, lower infant mortality and longer life expectancies. Although our Constitution guarantees “the pursuit of happiness,” people living in those countries are less stressed and happier than Americans.

We have entered a dangerous moment in our history. Many Americans are rightly afraid.