Writer and philosopher George Santayana once said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
As a writer who studied history, specifically 20th Century history, in my younger days in university, those words are more relevant in these times than in any time in my memory.
I’ve been trying to keep quiet about the ascension of Donald Trump to the highest office of the most powerful country on Earth since his election in November, 2016, in the hopes that common sense and basic human dignity among the American government and population would blunt his asinine election promises and stop him in his tracks.
After all, the American system of government was set up in 1776 to prevent exactly this sort of scenario.
George Washington and the other fathers of the nation established a new and revolutionary government at the time of checks and balances to ensure that no one person could dominate and set themselves up as a monarch of the nation.
At a time when Europe was dominated by kings and queens, the founding fathers were looking to establish a government in which the common people ruled and had a say in their day-to-day lives as well as the affairs of the nation.
It was an inspiring ideal and it has worked for more than two centuries because presidents, members of the other branches of government, and the general public respected the rules that were laid down.
But all that has changed with the presidency of Donald Trump, who has little concern or regard for the principles and ideals that are the foundation of his own country.
Even worse, especially for writers like me, the truth of any issue to Trump is whatever works to his best advantage, and he will use his hold on power to unabashedly mislead and lie to the American people and the world to get his way.
I find it astounding that so many Americans are willing to accept whatever Trump says at face value, despite all the facts that suggest that the president is being far from truthful.
I find the similarities of the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany in the early 1930s hard to ignore.
Hitler was democratically elected and almost immediately set his sights on destroying the institutions in Germany that had any checks on his power. (Sound familiar?)
Ultimately, he became the dictator that was responsible for millions of deaths in Europe and around the globe before much of the rest of world was successful in stopping him.
It’s hard to believe that so many Americans can’t see the danger and continue to support Trump without questioning his motives or the impacts of his actions on their democracy which they have fought so hard to maintain.
The world is an increasingly small place so don’t think what’s happening south of the border won’t have any impacts in the Cowichan Valley and Vancouver Island.
During the past year, Trump has implemented punitive duties on Canadian companies that sell newsprint to the U.S., including Catalyst Paper that owns the Crofton pulp and paper mill that employs hundreds locally, and that’s likely just one of his first salvos against Canada’s economy.
My fear is that this is just the tip of the iceberg of the damage this man could cause internationally if good and honest people don’t stop him now.