To the editor:

We all have been raised, or at least a larger percentage of Americans were raised, to despise Adolph Hitler, although I’ve heard some mumble that his idea to terminate the Jews was a good one, and that support for such a tyrant led to the destruction of the country of Germany and brought on a world war. There are similarities with Hitler and Donald J. Trump that we cannot ignore.

Both Hitler and Trump attack the judiciary and rule of law.

Both Hitler and Trump attack the media.

Both men degrade anyone who disagrees with them. Trump’s allegedly, “disloyal” bureaucrats in the State Department, EPA, FBI, CIA who he calls the deep state are in deep trouble with him, for example.

Both denigrate the immigrants. Hitler wanted to free Germany of Slavs and Jews, and the moment he came down the escalator to announce he was running for president Trump declared that people of color were the cause of the nation’s ills. Both made border closings the centerpiece of their campaigns. I’m not one for open borders, but I do see a stark similarity with their propaganda of pitting ethnicity and race against those of the Aryan race.

Both demonize their political opponents — Hitler called his opponents parasites, criminals and leftist scum. Sound familiar?

Hitler provided the masses with transistor radios that received only one channel, thus prohibiting people from receiving any outside influence. Trump’s daily tweets online and permits only one media network to be viewed by our military, which is Fox.

Neither was elected by the majority. Let that sink in.

Under Trump, large corporations have immense political power and receive a huge financial windfall to further undermine unions. Hitler despised the German labor movement and destroyed it by imprisoning their leaders. Trump has indicated many times he would like to jail people who accuse him of wrongdoing, as they did in the olden days.

Trump uses paraphrases such as Hitler’s “lying press” and “fake news” and deride the importance of scientific data and rely on their worlds public opinion ultimately defining what is true and what is false. Sixty percent of Trump voters do not believe he asked the Ukraine president to investigate the Bidens, when, in fact, the president himself said he did and showed us the document and repeated the statement on the White House lawn.

Hitler attacked democracy itself by purging voter roles and challenging the integrity of electoral process. Before the outcome of the 2016 election was made final Trump said he would decline to accept anything other than a win. That it was rigged.

I’m not out to make a new year’s resolution. I’m not trying to sway the opinion or MAGA hat wearers — I know that is a lost cause. I’m just keeping in the tradition of being a sarcastic, out-spoken liberal you all have come to know and love.

Kathy Antinone

Steubenville