Several people have e-mailed to ask what I think of Louis CK’s open letter to people who support Donald Trump, in which he tells them to knock it off because Trump is Hitler — then goes on to urge you to vote for a conservative, because after 8 years of Obama, it’s only fair to give the other side a chance.
I was about to begin a long diatribe in response, but then noticed that my friend Mark Evanier has (once again) written every single word I was going to:
His premise is that Trump is Hitler. Okay, right there he loses me. Since before we were all writing on and reading the Internet — back when we were on computer bulletin boards via 300 baud modems — I have maintained that you shouldn’t liken anyone to Hitler unless the person was actually responsible for mass genocide. If someone was killing lots of Jews (or any ethnic or religious group) to achieve world domination, fine. They’re Hitler. But if they were just being dangerous or treacherous or offensive, the analogy was a cheap shot. Trump is not quite there yet.
And it’s silly to say we should elect a conservative as president just because it’s their turn and it will give us some balance. That might be so if you can flip the Congress and the Supreme Court but the way they’re structured — especially thanks to gerrymandering of the House — that doesn’t happen so easily. So all you’d be doing is giving conservatives total control of the government for a while and there’s no corresponding opportunity for liberals to have that.
I also really don’t think John Kasich is okay. His agenda isn’t very much different from any current Republican candidate — even Mitt Romney, who seems to be trying to find an opening. Kasich is just better at not sounding like a crazy person right now.
Mark goes on for a couple more paragraphs, and they’re worth your time.