No, Cable News People, Trump's Speech Wasn't Politics-as-Usual, So Stop Soft-Pedaling It

http://thedailybanter.com/2016/07/no-cable-news-people-trumps-speech-wasnt-politics-as-usual/
"I've been hesitant to trample all over Godwin's Law by emphatically comparing Trump to a dictator, or even Hitler, but as I watched Trump screaming at the world in lieu of an actual acceptance speech, I couldn't help but to recall that, historically, this is how tyrants rise to power.  This is exactly how it happens: an eccentric loud-mouth with a knack for pandering to the whimsy of the people, ranting for what seems like hours and using an over-modulated tone about how he alone can implement law and order. I hasten to qualify the following by noting that it's not meant as a compliment. Nevertheless, Trump's speech was a truly masterful convergence of populist outrage and tyrannical ranting unlike anything we've ever seen in a major party convention speech. That's because even despots like George W. Bush or Richard Nixon stopped short of tossing aside decorum and going full Third-World-Strongman as Trump did Thursday night in Cleveland.  Yes, of course Trump lied a lot, despite his early declaration that his speech wouldn't contain any lies -- "believe me!" The lies weren't the most horrifying aspects of the speech. Trump, with way too much ease, expertly dovetailed a laundry list of horror stories with lofty promises about how he plans to fix literally everything, and he did it all by shouting and gesticulating wildly as if he just stepped out of a How To Become A Dictator In Three Easy Moves seminar. It was a textbook performance that included loudness patented by Hitler, who used electronic amplification and feedback to stir his throngs of sycophants into googly-eyed, white-faced frenzies. One of my conservative friends, Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College, five-time Jeopardy! champion and proud Trump critic, tweeted perhaps the most salient reaction to Trump's address: "To use the precise political science terminology, that will go down as one of the most deeply f*cked up speeches in US history"."