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- But what makes people nervous about this arrangement is the idea of a political leader having his own security guards and a growing group of fanatical followers who are being worked up and fed propaganda by the president — who happens to be a demagogue.
There are historical parallels that make people very uncomfortable. As Salon’s Amanda Marcotte pointed out yesterday, we now have Trump supporters hurling the Nazi word “Lügenpresse” (German for “lying press”) at media representatives at rallies, with Newt Gingrich giving seminars on how to smooth out the rough edges of the fascist rhetoric so Americans can feel comfortable only believing what they’re told by their leaders. This private security service and its function as a suppressor of dissent is reminiscent of that same period.