PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Startling.

Appalling.

Abominable.

Grotesque.

Come up with your own word.

I came up with these after visiting the Documentation Center in Nuremberg, Germany, which is near the Zeppelin, a field Hitler used as a Nazi rallying point to spread his gospel of hate back in the late 1930s.

On our river cruise on the Danube, we were told here that the field and the Documentation Center exist to help make sure Germans and the rest of the world don’t forget the atrocities of Nazism and, thus, with memory, don’t repeat them.

From 1933 to 1938, the National Socialist Party in Germany held its rallies in Nuremberg. Remains of huge structures still bear witness to how Hitler formulated a propaganda machine to spread his gospel of hate as he emerged from an orifice above the huge crowd to salute “Heil Hitler” and expect salutes in return.

Some call the Documentation Center a “museum,” but that term is a bit inaccurate because the word museum could conjure up positive images. This exhibit is not positive; it provides a horrific glimpse into the gross misdeeds of a despot, Hitler – misdeeds that almost exterminated an entire race of people, the Jews, and misdeeds that many Germans today want to remember so such an atrocity never happens again.

The last exhibit in the Center is a summary of the Nuremberg trials, which found 12 high-level Nazi officers guilty of atrocities that resulted in the death penalty, plus found a number of other officers guilty of crimes that produced long prison sentences.

The executions were carried out in Nuremberg, but, unfortunately, the acknowledged #2 Nazi, Herman Goering, escaped execution at the last by swallowing a cyanide pill that no knew he had somehow obtained.

Of course, the architect of the holocaust – Hitler – escaped standing trial for his crimes when he killed himself in a bunker just after Germany had lost the war. There has been a dispute as to whether Hitler actually killed himself or, instead, somehow escaped. Our guide said most Germans believe he succeeded in committing suicide, which, if you think about, was a good way for him to go – perhaps not what he deserved in the sense of the fitting character of an execution, but, still, an ignominious end.

I have been in Germany a couple times in the last few years and, each time, my mind races along to draw comparisons between Hitler and Donald Trump.

For me, the parallels are stark, though there is at least some distance between the two. Hitler was guilty of genocide and Trump is not. I also hesitate, other than through this blog, to talk to some of my friends about this because they appear to revere Trump, believing he is the answer to the future of the our country.

I don’t believe that, so here are the parallels I see between Hitler and Trump (and, for this use, I use present-tense verbs, which pertain to Hitler as if he were here today, as well as to Trump who, unfortunately, is here):

• Each exalts himself and “his race” by denigrating others.
• Each practices gross dishonesty as a stock in trade; truth is no barometer.
• Each produces propaganda to extend their message to the masses.
• Each expresses no value for human life. For Hitler, it was exterminating Jews. For Trump, it is blaming immigrants for everything, though they are not guilty as Trump contends – most of them just want a better life.
• Each had no relevant experience for the top political job in their countries — Germany and the U.S.
• Each appeals to the worst instincts in people, fomenting hate and atrocity, not goodwill and collaboration.

Both Hitler and Trump rose to power by contending that their country had to rise again. To Hitler, it could have been “Make Germany Great Again,” as a way to recover from the devastation of World War I and the post-war subjugation of Germany by those who “won” the war.

To Trump, his pet slogan is “Make America Great Again.” For the life of me, I have no idea what he means by those words because, for me, his policies do not make America great again, though they do represent a rallying cry for his supporters. But that’s all.

Both Hitler and Trump manipulate the media for their own ends. Hitler used a movie documentarian to make a propaganda film about his vision of Germany that managed to send his message, first delivered at the Zeppelin, out broadly to the German people, even if millions of Germans were not able to join the 500,000 persons who crowded onto the field.

Like Hitler, Trump also doesn’t know how to tell the truth about anything. Instead, Trump relies on propaganda, apparently believing that, if he says something, it must be true. The Washington Post Fact Checker column has counted an incredible tally of more than 10,000 lies since he took office and Fox News, with Trump’s steadfast support, continues to parrot his views as if they are gospel.

Perhaps it is good for me to be in Europe, including in Germany, in the sense that, being here, reinforces my commitment not to settle for Trump’s supposed “doctrine” in my country, given the history of what Hitler did to Germany and, in fact, the rest of the world – and what I feel Trump is doing to “my” country.

I sometimes wonder how the German people convinced themselves to submit to Hitler’s atrocities. It is likely that many of them were either ignorant or brainwashed.

I refuse to be subject to the same frailties – submitting to a tyrant, Trump, who leads this country down a path that, for me, resembles what Hitler did in – and to – Germany. Trump’s vision for America is not my vision for America.

So, I hope Trump is a one-term president. We might not survive a second four years.