March 06, 2016
As Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump stumped on Super Saturday to pick up Louisiana and Kentucky, giving him twelve primary victories to date, American comedy heavyweight Louis C.K. lit into the real estate mogul in an email to fans registered on his website.
In a postscript to a letter promoting his new web series 'Horace and Pete,' C.K. called trump an "insane bigot," a dangerous man whose political persona and populist defiance share ominous parallels to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
P.S. Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.
And I’m not advocating for Hillary or Bernie. I like them both but frankly I wish the next president was a conservative only because we had Obama for eight years and we need balance. And not because I particularly enjoy the conservative agenda. I just think the government should reflect the people. And we are about 40 percent conservative and 40 percent liberal. When I was growing up and when I was a younger man, liberals and conservatives were friends with differences. They weren’t enemies.
C.K., who was born in Washington, D.C. but spent the first seven years of his life in Mexico City, went on to warn of Trump's intention to "decimate" America's free press and weaken the second amendment despite promises to the contrary that have helped him gain support among conservatives.
As an alternative to Trump, C.K. advocates for a comparative moderate like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, though he also offers a theory to explain why American voters have shunned other candidates and embraced Trump during the 2016 primary season.
I get that all these people sound like bulls--- soft criminal opportunists. The whole game feels rigged and it’s not going anywhere but down anymore. I feel that way sometimes.
And that voting for Trump is a way of saying “f--- it. F--- them all”. I really get it. It’s a version of national Suicide. Or it’s like a big hit off of a crack pipe. Somehow we can’t help it. Or we know that if we vote for Trump our phones will be a reliable source of dopamine for the next four years. I mean I can’t wait to read about Trump every day. It’s a rush. But you have to know this is not healthy.
The comedian and social critic advises conservatives to read carefully about the most pressing issues facing the United States, listen to what a range of other conservative leaders have to say about Trump, and listen directly to Trump himself in order to fully grasp the type of society his presidency would engender.
Arguably the most insightful passage in C.K.'s email is his conclusion, in which he stops short of calling demagogues like Trump and Hitler evil monsters. The voting public makes a grave mistake, he says, by not recognizing that their humanity is what results in their abuses of power and eventual downfall.
He's not a monster. He's a sad man. But all this makes him horribly dangerous if he becomes president. Give him another TV show. Let him pay to put his name on buildings. But please stop voting for him. And please watch Horace and Pete.
Trump and the rest of the Republican field will compete next for Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, and Mississippi in the March 8 round of primary elections.
