Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

Dear Claire....

Chris Williamson
@ChrisWilliamson
Join to bookmark30likesJoin to like13comments

Claire,

Thanks much for sending me e-mails about politics and foreign policy. I read your most recent post this morning. (I'm sorry for not subscribing; I have to keep subscriptions down or I'd owe a mortgage worth of bills every month, given my interests. And I do find what you say interesting. How can I forget your advice on Ricochet for writing an interesting post?)

I'm confused as to why you would equate Trump to Hitler by describing Hitler's "negotiations" with Austrian leader Schuschnigg. First off, I thought we were past Godwin's Law of calling Trump Hitler. Second, Hitler used his military to take over Austria (along with other ways, I know). I don't see any movement by the US at all in taking over Ukraine, and I don't see any wink-winking to let Putin take it over, either.

Yes, Hitler spitting out words like bullets, hollering, and not allowing Schushnigg to speak would make great TV, but for almost 40 minutes last Friday, the US president was fine in his meeting with Zelensky, even complimentary of the Ukrainian president and his people. Yeah, he gets hot under the collar when things don't go his way, but Trump is not Hitler in this scenario.

On January 20, 2029, I will admit you were right about Trump if Trump takes over the Federal government and outlaws free speech, and if he does all the other things Hitler did to consolidate power. But I'm hoping to see you admit you were wrong, too, when it doesn't happen. Yes, Putin is bad, execrable, disgusting. He is trying to destroy Ukraine and wipe out the culture, thereby kidnapping children and "re-programming" them. And I'm hoping against hope that Ukraine keeps kicking Putin's butt in this terrible, sad war. I'm hoping the Europeans stand up for Ukraine and force Putin to back off, even if it means giving up Putin supplying them fuel.

But Trump ain't Hitler.

Sincerely,

Chris

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (13)

  • Stad@Stad
    Chris Williamson (View Post):
    I read your most recent post this morning at https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/from-the-berghof-to-the-oval-office .

    How's Claire doing? I hope she sought out treatment for her TDS . . .

  • Ekosj@Ekosj
    Whenever you encounter the Trump-is-Hitler motif you immediately know the author is not a serious person with anything illuminating to present. It’s terribly sad that Claire had sunk into that morass.
  • Yarob@Yarob

    Thank you for this. I follow her on Twitter and have just subscribed to her Substack.

    Nowhere does she state that Trump is Hitler. She provides a description of what happened on Friday that captures the outrage, shame, and revulsion felt by many, including me. Simply appalling.

    I believe what we saw earlier today in the Oval Office was the single most shameful moment in American history. There have of course been other shameful moments. We have betrayed our allies before. But never before have we done it while bullying and humiliating them in front of the entire world because we thought it would make “good television.” Never before have we turned the Oval Office into a spectacle so classless that even Tony Soprano would have vomited to see it. Never before have we done this for no reason but the benefit and pleasure of the murderous enemy of the United States who is chortling and dangling our president’s puppet strings. Never before have our leaders appeared so indescribably ignorant, so galactically self-absorbed, so petty and petulant, so obviously and dangerously unfit and unstable, so preposterous, and so menacing. Never before have they publicly betrayed us, declaring, before our eyes, their allegiance to an enemy who has been working incessantly to discredit our form of governance, reduce our power to insignificance, set us at each other’s throats, and murder us. Trump declared his allegiance to Putin publicly while his repulsive sidekick smirked and preened, and not one person in that room had the guts to say, “That’s enough, a******s. This is the People’s house.”

Scroll for later comments
+8 more comments
Join the conversation

You're seeing five of 13 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.