For Those Who Liked Trump's Speech Tonight, one You Might Like Even Better

Yes, it's Hitler's acceptance speech, 1933.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the German Reichstag! By agreement with the Reich Government, today the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and the German National People’s Party have presented to you for resolution a notice of motion concerning a “Law for Removing the Distress of Volk and Reich.” The reasons for this extraordinary measure are as follows: In November 1918, the Marxist organizations seized the executive power by means of a Revolution. The monarchs were dethroned, the authorities of Reich and Länder removed from office, and thus a breach of the Constitution was committed. The success of the revolution in a material sense protected these criminals from the grips of justice. They sought moral justification by asserting that Germany or its government bore the guilt for the outbreak of the War."

"This assertion was deliberately and objectively untrue. In consequence, however, these false accusations in the interest of our former enemies led to the severest oppression of the entire German Volk, and the violation of the assurances given to us in Wilson’s Fourteen Points then led to a time of boundless misfortune for Germany, that is to say the working German Volk."

"All the promises made by the men of November 1918 proved to be, if not acts of intentional deception, then no less damnable illusions. The “achievements of the Revolution” were, taken in their entirety, agreeable for only the smallest of fractions of our Volk, but for the overwhelming majority, at least insofar as these people were forced to earn their daily bread by honest work, they were infinitely sad. It is understandable that the survival instinct of those parties and men guilty of this development invents a thousand euphemisms and excuses. An objective comparison of the average outcome of the last fourteen years with the promises once proclaimed is a crushing indictment of the responsible architects of this crime unparalleled in German history."

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/Reports2013/hitlerenablingact.htm

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Hitler%20Speeches/Hitler%20Key%20Speeches%20Index.htm

Ok. I couldn't resist. But it is interesting to compare and contrast Hitler's speech-the last day of the Weimar Republic-and Trump's speech tonight. A lot of overlapping themes. Germany was being screwed in 1933. America in 2016.

Obviously it's not the same in every way but in enough ways. Trump's speech tonight was-dark. Chris Cillizza:

"Winner in this speech: Red meat Loser in this speech: Details"

https://twitter.com/TheFix/status/756322171962683392

"A deeply dystopian version of America being offered here."

https://twitter.com/TheFix/status/756320557646417920

Jamelle Bouie:

"people aren't surprised, they are frightened."

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/756330103030906880

I actually am glad to hear people say they're afraid of Trump. Like Ezra Klein today.

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12218136/donald-trump-nomination-afraid

What scares me is when someone like Jill Stein says 'Don't be scared.' The idea that you don't need to be afraid of a Trump Presidency is what's scary.

I talk about Hitler a lot because he was elected. He wasn't hatched somewhere. Why does anyone think it couldn't possibly happen here? And the GOP's assurances are a joke. To claim that Trump will show some restraint once he's in office; when he'll have such awesome power in his unsteady and bigoted hands.

You shouldn't be too sanguine about what happens if he does win.

Matt Murphy:

"It's up to the Obama Coalition to save America from a madman."

https://twitter.com/MattMurph24/status/756332262866628608

Jamal Smith:

"Trump's speech is over, at last. Register to vote, folks."

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/756333696110694400

"I've never seen a politician deliver a more irresponsible speech. These are words that provoke more than anger and paranoia."

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/756319113127956481

Chris Cillizza:

"The Republican nominee gave the crowd what it was looking for -- a command performance of the tough-talking, details-free approach that won him the nomination in the first place. He promised to wipe out crime as soon as he took office. He promised to defeat ISIS "fast." He promised a whole lot things. What he didn't do was provide any meaningful specifics about how he might do it."

"The crowd in the room was with him for the whole address -- cheering in the right moments, booing when it was required. Trump, too, seemed relatively dialed in -- staying, generally, on the TelePrompTer and hitting his applause lines well. The speech itself was well crafted -- if WAY too long. (It clocked in at almost 80 minutes.)"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/21/winners-and-losers-from-the-final-night-of-the-republican-national-convention/?postshare=3411469158465600&tid=ss_tw

Yes. Very long. I think he must have started to lose people after about the 40 minute mark.

Yes Bill Clinton gave a long speech in 1988, but at least he had actual policy details. Bill, of course, had a lot of that. Trump had none. To speak that long and say so little is impressive.

Trump and his convention are almost totally about nothing but affects. GOP conventions used to be about lots of bad policy ideas. The new Trump GOP has no policy ideas.

"What I don't know, to be honest, is how Trump's volume -- he yelled almost the entire thing -- and, more importantly, the deeply grim picture he painted of the state of the country will play beyond the convention hall. Trump's vision of America is deeply dystopian and dark. The America he painted in his speech is badly broken and he is the only one who knows how to fix it."

"That grim vision, when combined with the anger in Trump's voice, made for a decidedly unconventional acceptance speech -- no real surprise given who Trump is and how he won the GOP nomination."

"On the whole, the speech -- I think -- did Trump more good than harm, particularly at a convention in which his message had repeatedly been muddled by self-inflicted errors. But, is Trump's America a portrait that undecided voters recognize? And do they believe that he is the only one who can truly fix it?"

Hillary Clinton:

"We are better than this."

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/756325432002244609

It's up to us to make this true.