Creating the Enemy: From Hitler’s Germany to MAGA’s America

This is how

For MAGA, this is a lasting legacy they have created for themselves.

When I came back online and started talking about what is happening earlier this year, I originally said I would not be deleting comments or blocking people. I wanted their descendants to be able to search the internet and find what side they were on in this pivotal moment for our country. I still want that. But I had to change my stance once I realized that personal safety and all of your safety was even more important.

Because in those early days, I didn’t realize that sharing the news of the day could be so dangerous. I remember one such exchange on Threads where I responded to a hate-filled comment with the exact words this person had said to someone else. I just kept copy and pasting their own words back to them. They were enraged. Called me mentally unhinged and other choice words in between threats of violence. When I finally told them what I was doing and showed the screenshot from their own account, they said it was all about context and that the words were warranted on their side, but not ours.

That is when I knew beyond a doubt that this was not politics, it was a brainwashed cult.

One of the most functional aspects of a cult is to create the us vs. them narrative. And the right has been attempting this for years. We saw the largest uptick in this behavior during the Obama years. And it just kept ramping up.

When Obama was president, I was at a media dinner in San Francisco, sitting with a table full of reporters and photographers. The room was loud, and we were all working, half listening, half writing. A waiter came by with a tray, and somehow, it tipped. Water, plates, silverware, everything went everywhere. It splashed across notebooks, cameras, and laptops. Everyone jumped up, trying to save their gear. It was chaos for a moment.

I felt horrible for the server, so I blurted out, “Thanks, Obama” in an attempt to break the tension.

The table erupted in laughter. Not because anyone believed Obama caused the spill, but because it was absurd. Because it had become a running joke, the idea that everything, every inconvenience, every frustration, was somehow Obama’s fault.

We laughed because we knew it wasn’t true. We knew it was ridiculous. But we also knew where it came from. It came from years of the right blaming Obama for everything. The rain, the economy, the sun coming up late.

That was propaganda before we called it that. And at least back then, we could still tell the difference between a joke and a lie. The difference between political propaganda and the truth.
What’s terrifying now is that lies have become truth for millions of people.

Trump took that same formula, find an enemy, name them, and blame them for everything, and turned it into a religion. He tells his followers that Democrats, liberals, “the left” are the source of all evil. Every failure, every crisis, every heartbreak. Inflation? Democrats. Immigration? Democrats. Crime? Democrats. Wildfires? Democrats. School shootings? The radical left.

It doesn’t matter if it’s absurd. It doesn’t matter if it’s not true. The point isn’t truth. The point is control.

It’s the oldest authoritarian trick there is. Hitler blamed Jews, communists, and intellectuals for Germany’s pain. He told people that their neighbors were the reason for their suffering, that purity could be restored if they could just remove the “enemy within.”

Trump does the same thing, only his version trades brown shirts for red hats, propaganda pamphlets for Fox News segments, and “Jews and undesirables” for “Democrats, the Left, and Liberals”.

We’ve seen this tactic before. Stalin called journalists and intellectuals “enemies of the people.” Mussolini called critics “anti-Italian.” Franco in Spain blamed “leftist subversives” for every hardship. It’s the same blueprint: define a villain, repeat the lie, then claim to be the only one who can save the nation from the monster you invented.

And now he’s not just naming enemies, he’s trying to reprogram what the next generation believes about them. His administration has launched a MAGA-centric remake of U.S. civics education, led by the Department of Education and a coalition of over forty right-wing organizations working to rewrite lesson plans, teacher training, and testing standards. They want to replace lessons on civil rights, systemic racism, and constitutional checks and balances with so-called “patriotic education” that centers on Trump’s version of American exceptionalism.

This new curriculum frames dissent as disloyalty and rewrites history to cast Republican presidents as saviors and Democratic ones as villains. It downplays slavery, erases LGBTQIA+ rights from civics materials, and reframes January 6 as a “protest movement.” Schools that refuse to adopt it risk losing federal grants and face public harassment campaigns from MAGA-aligned activist groups posing as “parents’ rights” coalitions.

It’s not education; it’s indoctrination disguised as patriotism.

And history tells us exactly where this road leads. Hitler did it through the Hitler Youth and “national community” textbooks. Stalin rewrote Russian history so that children grew up believing he built the Soviet Union single-handedly. Every authoritarian regime has done the same, replaced critical thinking with loyalty and truth with myth.

Because when you can teach people what to remember, you can also teach them what to forget.

That’s the point of this new MAGA civics program, not just to glorify one man, but to condition a generation to accept his version of reality. To make obedience feel like patriotism. To make cruelty feel like duty.

And once people are trained to see the world through that lens, it becomes easy to tell them who the villains are. Once you convince people that one group is responsible for everything wrong in their lives, you can make them do anything.

And that’s what’s happened. Trump’s followers don’t see Democrats as a political party anymore. They see them as an infestation. They believe they are victims of a conspiracy, the righteous few surrounded by enemies who want to destroy them. And when you believe that, you’ll excuse any cruelty, any lawbreaking, any violence, because you think you’re fighting for survival.

It’s the same process every fascist movement has followed, dehumanize first, persecute later. The Nazis did it through propaganda posters that compared their enemies to disease. In Rwanda, radio hosts called their targets “cockroaches.” Today’s right-wing influencers call Democrats and journalists “vermin” and “traitors.” The language evolves, but the purpose never changes.

They call themselves patriots, but they’re living in the exact opposite of patriotism. They’ve traded love of country for devotion to one man.

And here’s the irony, they’re the ones running the show.

Republicans control the Supreme Court. They control both the Senate and the House. They control the Presidency. Trump has put loyalists, not the best qualified, in every position he can. And yet Republicans still act like rebels in hiding. Every time something goes wrong, they point fingers at “The Left.” It’s almost reflexive at this point.

We saw it just this week. Trump ordered the Pentagon to use “all available funds” to pay military salaries during the shutdown, a shutdown his own party caused. The headlines praised him for ensuring troops were paid, but it was the same old MAGA performance: create the crisis, then pose as the hero who fixes it.

At the same time, the White House began laying off thousands of federal workers, scientists, safety inspectors, and administrative staff, and then claimed Democrats were to blame for “bureaucratic waste.” Entire departments are being gutted under the guise of fiscal responsibility. Nearly four thousand positions have already been eliminated across the EPA, CDC, and Department of Education. Programs that monitor air and water quality have been frozen. Food inspection staffing has been slashed, delaying recalls and risking public safety.

The CDC cuts are especially dangerous. Hundreds of epidemiologists, data analysts, and field researchers were dismissed in a single week, including many who monitor outbreaks of respiratory viruses, foodborne illness, and vector-borne diseases like West Nile and dengue. The agency’s wastewater testing program, one of the earliest tools for detecting COVID-19 and influenza surges, has been dismantled. Regional labs that track emerging infections have gone dark, and communication lines with state health departments have been severed.

This isn’t budget tightening. It’s deliberate disarmament in the middle of a public health battlefield. When the next outbreak happens, and there will always be a next outbreak, the systems that alert hospitals, guide vaccine distribution, and warn the public will no longer exist. We’ll be flying blind, and they’ll still be pointing fingers at Democrats.

The National Weather Service is already warning of delays in storm tracking because analysts who interpret satellite data have been laid off. The Department of Labor is preparing to close regional offices that enforce wage theft and safety violations, effectively giving corporations a free pass.

And while these cuts are being spun as a “Democratic spending problem,” they’re actually part of a deliberate strategy, to weaken the federal government so it can’t protect ordinary Americans, then blame the fallout on the opposition. It’s sabotage dressed up as reform.

And as if that weren’t enough, he imposed a one hundred percent tariff on Chinese imports and new export controls on critical software, sending markets into chaos.

Trump’s tariffs are taxes that make Americans pay more for everything they buy.

Within hours, stock futures fell and Asian markets tumbled. Retailers and manufacturers started freezing orders because they couldn’t calculate new costs. Businesses that depend on Chinese components, from auto parts to medical equipment, suddenly found their inventories worthless or unaffordable to replace.

Small businesses are being hit hardest. Companies that already operate on razor-thin margins are watching shipping containers pile up at ports because they can’t afford to clear them. A hundred percent tariff doesn’t just punish China, it punishes American importers, distributors, and consumers. Prices on electronics, construction materials, and household goods are projected to double before the holiday season.

The tech sector is reeling, too. The new export controls restrict the sale of advanced software and semiconductor design tools to China, disrupting multinational production chains. American chipmakers, who generate nearly 40 percent of their revenue from Chinese contracts, are warning of layoffs and investment freezes. Economists are calling it a self-inflicted supply shock, one that could trigger inflation spikes within months.

Businesses have no idea what tomorrow will cost them. Investors are holding back because no one trusts that today’s rules will still exist next week. It’s economic whiplash dressed up as strength, chaos as strategy.

Trump is once again manufacturing instability, watching the market convulse, and then declaring himself the only one who can fix it. It’s the same game he’s played with every crisis: set the fire, then demand applause for holding the hose.

We see it right now with the government shutdown. Trump and the Republicans are demanding cuts that will strip healthcare from millions, while Democrats are asking for one simple thing, to keep the existing subsidies that help families afford coverage. They’re not asking for extras. They’re not expanding coverage to undocumented people. They’re just trying to stop millions from losing the care they already have.

And yet, somehow, MAGA Republicans have spun this as a Democratic failure. As if they didn’t create the problem. As if they don’t hold the power to fix it.

They sabotaged the system, pointed fingers at Democrats, and now pretend they can’t fix the chaos they unleashed.

This is exactly how the Weimar Republic fell. After World War I, Germany tried to build a democracy out of the ashes of an empire. It was called the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary government that gave citizens new rights, free elections, and a free press for the first time in generations. But the country was battered by economic collapse, war debt, and political extremism. Inflation wiped out savings. Unemployment soared. People were angry, scared, and desperate for stability.

That’s when extremists stepped in. They didn’t just attack democracy from the outside, they infiltrated it from within. They spread lies about stolen elections, flooded the media with propaganda, and turned neighbor against neighbor. They told people democracy was weak, that compromise was betrayal, and that only a “strong man” could save the nation.

The constant fear, economic instability, and endless political fighting created the perfect breeding ground for the Nazi movement. Hitler didn’t rise in a vacuum, he rose because chaos made people crave control. Because despair made people mistake authoritarianism for order. Because propaganda made cruelty sound like patriotism.

They fueled chaos, sabotaged government institutions, and then convinced citizens that democracy itself didn’t work. They broke the system, and then promised to fix it by dismantling it completely. MAGA is following that same path, creating dysfunction and calling it proof that democracy is broken.

They even started pulling federal funding from blue states, canceling infrastructure and disaster relief projects while funneling new grants into red states. It’s punishment disguised as policy. Federal transit and renewable energy grants to California, New York, and Illinois have been quietly revoked, halting clean-energy projects, bridge repairs, and water system upgrades that were already approved and budgeted. Meanwhile, new contracts have been rushed through for highway and pipeline projects in Texas, Florida, and Ohio, all Republican strongholds.

Billions in FEMA disaster recovery funds are being withheld from hurricane-hit Puerto Rico and flood-damaged coastal cities because their governors have criticized Trump publicly. Several Democratic-led states are now being told they must sign new “loyalty certifications” to receive federal assistance, documents that require governors to affirm “support for the President’s national vision.”

It’s economic retaliation in the form of governance. They’re redistributing taxpayer money not by need, but by allegiance. This isn’t federalism; it’s feudalism, rewarding loyalty, punishing dissent, and turning the federal budget into a political weapon.

And it works. When people in red states see money flowing their way, they’re told it’s because Trump “fights for them.” When blue states lose funding, they’re told it’s because Democrats are corrupt or ungrateful. The punishment becomes proof of the lie. It’s a feedback loop, one that turns propaganda into lived experience.

Their base believes it. Because they’ve been trained to. Because propaganda works best when it’s emotional, not factual. People who feel angry or scared don’t stop to ask questions, they just look for someone to blame. And Trump has handed them that target. Over and over and over again.

That’s why when you look at polling, most Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, but still, somehow, over half also blame Democrats. That confusion is the point. If everyone’s to blame, then no one is accountable.

And when someone inside the movement dares to question it, they’re destroyed. Just look at his former national security adviser, John Bolton. Once one of Trump’s most loyal defenders, the man who helped craft his foreign policy and stood by him through impeachment, now facing criminal charges for allegedly mishandling classified information. The timing isn’t subtle. Bolton publicly warned that Trump was “the gravest threat to American democracy in modern history.” Days later, reports surfaced that the Department of Justice, now filled with Trump loyalists, was preparing to indict him.

This isn’t about national security. It’s about control. Bolton didn’t become a criminal the moment he turned on Trump, he became an example. A warning to anyone else thinking of breaking ranks. It’s part of a pattern that stretches back years: firing inspectors general who investigated him, blacklisting whistleblowers, demanding loyalty pledges from Cabinet members, and using prosecutions as political theater.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s what happens when loyalty becomes law. He’s not prosecuting crimes. He’s punishing disobedience.

And it’s working in real time. Just this week, Trump claimed that “the Biden FBI placed 274 agents into the crowd on January 6.” Think about that. On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump was president. He commanded the FBI. He was the one sitting in the Oval Office. Yet he’s now trying to convince his followers that Biden, who wasn’t even in office, somehow orchestrated it all.

This is how propaganda mutates into delusion. It’s not enough for him to lie about the present; he’s rewriting the past. He’s erasing the timeline so that blame always points somewhere else, anywhere but toward himself.

This is the same rewriting of history used by every authoritarian regime. Stalin literally erased his enemies from photographs. Holocaust deniers have spent decades trying to twist documented facts into lies. Trump’s version of this is digital, not film reels or state archives, but social media posts and online echo chambers that rewrite history in real time.

The real trick of it all is that it keeps his followers from ever asking what he’s done for them. When the answer is always “it’s the Democrats’ fault,” you never have to take responsibility. You never have to explain why people’s lives aren’t better. You never have to deliver results.

He’s built an entire movement on victimhood and projection. A movement that controls the country and still insists it’s being persecuted.

And it’s not just him. The whole MAGA movement does it now. Members of Congress, governors, and talk show hosts. Every time they fail, they turn the camera and shout, “Look what the left did.”

It’s the same game, just on repeat.

So the next time someone says, “It’s the Democrats’ fault,” ask them which Democrats? The ones trying to protect your healthcare? Defend your right to vote? Keep your kids safe from gun violence?

Because the truth is simple. The people telling you to hate your neighbors are the ones taking everything from you.

Trump blames “the left” for everything because he needs his followers to forget who’s actually in control. If they ever saw clearly, the illusion would shatter.

Dictators don’t survive without enemies. They don’t need truth. They need villains.

But propaganda only works as long as people believe it. McCarthy’s reign of fear ended when Americans stopped letting him define who their enemies were. The Berlin Wall fell when people refused to keep pretending. Authoritarianism depends on silence, and silence is something we can still refuse.

Truth is harder. But the truth is how we win.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather