Those of you who greatly fear that the idiot Trump is successfully emulating Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933, take heart. While the situations have some similarities, there are major differences which favor us at this time.

Germany did not become a country until 1871. From 1971 until after 1918, its government was that of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Kaiser, or emperor, had great power. After World War I, Germany attempted to change its form of government to that of a constitutional democracy. But it failed to build the institutions and did not have the political heritage to buttress and support democracy. The attempt to build that democracy, called the Weimar Republic, failed within 10 years of its inception.

Germany descended into violence and political chaos. That chaos was heightened by hyper-inflation which wiped out the German middle class and value of its currency. That hyperinflation was largely caused by both the failure of the Weimar Republic and by huge reparations imposed on Germany by the Allied victors of World War I. The U.S. has never seen such hyper-inflation in its entire history.

We, In the U.S. have the advantage of history and culture of some 230 years of being a constitutional republic, and of a strong constitution which built a strong system of checks and balances. Both the construction and the culture built strong institutions supporting lour form of government through over 2 centuries and truly trying times. It has endured, and will do so again, in spite of Trump. He is testing the system, but will fail. But his actions have also revealed weaknesses in our po9litical and constitutional structure. Those must be addressed to shore up the system and its supporting institutions.