If you don't know what "The Manchurian Candidate" refers to, please go to Google ASAP.
Many people argue, now that Trump has been duly elected, we must work with him to help him be a successful president based upon the misguided notion that somehow he can be reasoned with and will do the right thing. At the very least, we should relax and hope he'll do the right thing.
I think this is entirely wrong. The comparison between Donald Trump in 2016 and Adolf Hitler in 1938 is too strong. Trump is not Hitler and our Constitution and agencies of government should keep him in check. But, as Hitler showed us, Constitutions and governmental agencies are no barrier to a despot dedicated to accomplishing his nefarious goals.
The people of Germany voted for Hitler just as about half of the people in this country voted for Trump. Hitler did not hide his agenda at that time, nor has Donald hidden his agenda for this time. Donald has told us, again and again, in a loud voice and bold print exactly how he intends to tear down this country and turn it into a third-world banana republic ruled and run by the very rich and the military.
None of this should surprise anyone. His wife has said that he keeps Hitler's, Mein Kampf, by his bedside and reads it frequently, finding it a valuable resource.
Trump is an awful, evil person. But the real horror is that so many citizens of this country cast their vote in his favor. How could this happen? Again, he did not hide the facts of the case nor did he try to hide the evil that resides within him.
If any other candidate had said just a couple of the things that Trump said, or had done just a couple of things that Trump did, that candidate would have been run out of town.
Consider:
Donald Trump is a psychopath - which means he suffers from an antisocial personality disorder. A psychopath has no conscience, "that little voice inside that lets us know when we're doing something wrong." Thus, Donald Trump can lie, cheat and steal, etc., with no moral qualms. He may pretend to be sorry, but he is not. For example, he refused to release his tax returns based upon the incredible reason that he was under audit by the IRS. But he bragged about gaming the system so he didn't have to pay any taxes. And that, he said, made him "smart." No moral qualms there.
Trump is a sexual pervert by his own admission; "grabbing pussy" is his right. If your mother, wife, sister, or niece worked for him, you would not want to give him the key to the restroom. Similarly, because of his psychopathic tendencies and his inability to control his actions, you would not want to give him the keys to our nuclear codes.
Trump's wife (who, it turns out, worked illegally in this country for some time - although both she and Trump lied about that) has referred to him as a man-child. From his words and actions, he appears to have never reached adulthood and still operates from the emotional and maturity levels of a 10-year old child.
This morning, he became frustrated by some folks protesting against him and took to Twitter to call them out, indicating first of all, he has a very thin skin; secondly, that he is vengeful; and thirdly, that he really isn't convinced our Constitution's guarantee of free speech is a good thing.
Trump is a psychopathic liar. He lies about everything and then lies about having said what he said, even when presented with clear evidence such as tape recordings. This was another trait that Trump shares with Hitler. Hitler and his cohorts knew they could tell extravagant lies and then deny those lies and people would believe them. The bigger the lie the easier it was to fool the people. Trump learned that lesson well!
He got by with lying about President Obama's birthplace. He lied about Hillary Clinton's emails and rallied his supporters to hate her to such an extent that some of them, including at least one congressperson, indicated she should be shot!
Donald Trump is a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, and a cheater. His record shows multiple instances of racism, that he has cheated business people with whom he has worked, that he treats women like garbage, and that he intensely dislikes certain people, especially the poor and minorities.
Currently, Trump is having to deal with a legal challenge related to his Trump University. He is being sued for fraud. This morning, it appears his lawyers are trying to settle and get the case closed which makes a lot of sense because it is clear that their client defrauded many people out of thousands of dollars and it just won't look good if a new president is convicted of such a deed even before he takes office.
Actually, he's involved in a number of other lawsuits, although I'm not privy to the circumstances.
Trump has another great liability: he has no government experience. He knows very little about the government. Not long ago, he showed he did not know about the separation of powers or how our system works. His ignorance shows also in his promises to "build a wall," or "get rid of Obamacare" immediately after taking office. Because he is a fascist demagogue, however, he seems to think he can order such things to happen and voila! so they will.
Finally, back to the Manchurian Candidate. During the campaign, Trump denied knowing Putin, avowing that he'd never met him. Those were all lies. Moreover, in the past, Trump has praised Putin and at one point suggested Putin involve himself in the campaign by checking out Ms. Clinton's emails.
Although Trump swore he had no business interests in Russia, it appears now that also was a lie; that his organization has secret accounts with a Russian bank, the purpose of which is yet to be determined.
Immediately following the election, Putin praised Trump and indicated he was looking forward to working with him to bring the U.S. and Russia closer together.
But the smoking gun was revealed when one of Putin's associates indicated that Russia had interfered in the election to help Trump get elected.
Remembering how Trump lies about everything and cannot be trusted to tell the truth about anything, one cannot help but be concerned over his Russian ties and Russia's intentions. All of this certainly raises some important, even vital, questions. A minor one that does not fall prey to conspiracy notions, is exactly what does Russia expect in return for their help in getting Trump elected?
As noted, almost one-half of the Americans that voted, voted in favor of Trump for president. Many, if not most of this people, call themselves "conservative" or "evangelical" Christians. How such people could vote for this monster is incomprehensible.
Unless...and this is probably the case, their "Christianity" has nothing to do with their Jesus or their God but is simply a front for their "conservative" political ideologies. At the very least, the fact they voted for a pathological liar, sexual pervert, cheater, bigot and racist, says to all the world they are monumental hypocrites and if their Bible is true, they must expect to be cast into the fires of hell upon their death!
It is bothersome to the extreme that we've learned so little since the 1930s, that the United States, which I used to admire as having potential at least, has become one of the most morally and ethically and intellectually lax countries of the world.
For those of us who care about this a little bit, the least we can do is fight Mr. Trump in every possible way to make it impossible for him to advance his agenda and to hobble him in such a manner that his depravity fails to take hold in this country.