DEAR EDITOR:

The leader of the Republican Party recently referred to millions of Americans as “vermin.” It was not an off-the-cuff remark. It was part of his prepared speech. He repeated it afterward on social media, and he has used similar language many times before, deliberately signaling his intentions to his followers.

Rhetoric that classifies groups of people as non-human has preceded every genocide in history. In Germany, the Nazis characterized the Jewish people as “rats” and “pestilence.” In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge described their enemies as “worms” and “leeches.” In Rwanda, Hutu leaders called Tutsi “cockroaches” before massacring them. Now we have the leading U.S. presidential candidate calling millions of Americans “vermin.”

When a few (not nearly enough) people criticized Trump for his dehumanizing rhetoric, a spokesman for his campaign replied that anyone who criticizes Trump will have their “entire existence crushed” when he returns to power. Spoken like a true fascist.

None of Trump’s sycophants from Ohio criticized their master. U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, Gov. Mike DeWine, Sen. Mike Rulli, Rep. Al Cutrona and the rest of Ohio’s authoritarian “Republicans” are evidently on board with Trump’s plan.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is all just Trump’s usual childish way of talking. In recent weeks, some of his closest advisors spoke about what is being planned for a second Trump presidency. It includes:

1. purging all political opposition from the government and establishing single-party rule;

2. ending freedom of the press and jailing journalists who criticize Trump regime;

3. dismantling democratic institutions and processes, including elections;

4. suspending due process of law;

5. taking revenge against everyone involved in holding Trump accountable for his many crimes;

6. using military against civilians; and

7. carrying out raids to round up immigrants and put them in “detention camps.” (They plan to start with undocumented immigrants, but it won’t end there. Racial, religious and gender minorities will eventually be rounded up, as well.)

This is essentially what Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin did. It’s what dictators like Putin, Viktor Orban and Kim Jong Un do now. Trump has praised these autocrats and suggested the U.S. should follow their lead! That alone should be enough to dissuade true patriots from supporting him.

All Americans who believe in liberty, democracy, justice and the rule of law should denounce and oppose the wannabe dictator, his “Republican” accomplices and all their totalitarian aims.

SHAWN KOSIOR

Canfield