You can tell a lot about a person by the books they read is a paraphrase of a quote from Joseph Patrick Pascale. (He said "the books they carry"). So, I want to look at the books our leaders are or have been known to read or promote. Let's start at the top, with President Donald Trump. First, I don't have any knowledge whether he actually read the book itself or not but his early church upbringing was with his father at the Collegiate Marble Church in NYC. For those unfamiliar with the Collegiate Marble Church, it is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregations in the country, having been established in 1628. It is affiliated with two distinct "Reformed" denominations, the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America. At the time Mr. Trump was attending there it was led by Norman Vincent Peale, author of the book, "The Power of Positive Thinking".
The book teaches techniques of affirmation and visualizations i.e. positive thinking to make one successful. These techniques include repeating "If God be for us, who can be against us" and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” ten times every day. It also says one must believe that "you receive power from God" to accomplish anything, even if that endeavor is a secular in nature. He also admonishes readers to "always believe in success and not to believe in defeat because most obstacles are mental in character”. He teaches to never admit you are wrong as that is negative thinking. He touts a version of "Fake it til you make it" philosophy. He teaches that we must always claim that everything we do is successful, even if there is evidence to the contrary. He says that if we repeat that we are the best or the greatest often enough, even when we are not, it will come to pass. He teaches never to admit defeat. In 1955, Psychiatrist R. C. Murphy compared Dr. Peale's message to hypnosis techniques. Murphy explains that such repeated hypnosis defeats an individual's sense of reality and ability to think critically. He called Dr. Peale's theories a dangerous form of self-hypnosis, which since it is based on repeating things that aren't true at the time, can do more harm than good. R. C. Murphy writes that Peale's teachings “endorse the cruelties which men commit against each other” which encourages readers to “give up their moral strivings and feel free to hate as much as they like”. Psychologist Martin Seligman, also condemned Peale's methods in his book, "Authentic Happiness". There he wrote; " Dr. Peale's positive thinking often involves trying to make people believe upbeat statements in the absence of evidence, or even in the face of contrary evidence." Any of this sound familiar?
Next let's turn to the book that Ivana Trump told her lawyer, Michael Kennedy that Trump "kept in a cabinet by his bed and read at night." That is a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order. The subject came up again when Trump began repeating certain Nazi or fascist rhetoric during his campaign. One of these Hitler speeches spoke of Jews "polluting the blood" of Germans, a reference Trump made of immigrants to the US. Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, Steven Miller said, "America is for Americans only". (I don't think he was referring to "First Nations Americans, either). This is a variation of a quote from a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, where the speaker promised that the Nazis would "restore America to the true Americans." Both Hitler and Mussolini said in many speeches that Nazi's were going to "make Germany and Italy great again". They also coined the term "drain the swamp" and it was used in many of Hitler's speeches. Hitler spoke of eliminating the "vermin" Jews. Trump said he would eliminate "the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,". When the media made note of these comparisons Trump's campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said of those making the comparisons, "their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.” When called out by the media for his remarks, Cheung doubled down and said, "I should have said their sad miserable existence". It seems that Mr. Trump has embodied much of the things found in these two books. I don't want to speculate how much of this is a conscience decision on his part or not. I can only say that he continually uses phrases and techniques of both Fascists and Dr. Peale, both books he has been exposed to.
Now let's take a brief look at the Vice President, J.D. Vance. He has endorsed a book called "Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them). It is by Jack Posobiec, a well known right wing media personality along with ghost writer, Joshua Lisec. It says in part “For as long as there have been beauty and truth, love and life, there have also been the ugly liars who hate and kill. these “people of anti-civilization” have always gone by different names: communists, socialists, leftists, and progressives. They should be called unhumans. With power, unhumans undo civilization itself. They undo order. They undo the basic bonds of society that make communities and nations possible. They destroy the human rights of life, liberty, and property—and undo their own humanity in the process by fully embracing nihilism, cynicism, and envy. They rob and kill. They don’t believe what they say. They don’t care about winning debates. They don’t even want equality. They just want an excuse to destroy everything. They want an excuse to destroy you. On a base level, unhumans seek the death of the successful and the desecration of the beautiful.They simply hate those who are good-looking and successful.” He also says "“Our study of history has brought us to this conclusion: Democracy has never worked to protect innocents from the unhumans. It is time to stop playing by rules! They won’t!” So, is this the kind of rhetoric or attitude about those who happen to disagree with your political opinions that we want from our leaders? That question is still up for debate!
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