You have to admire Democrats; they have their positions dug in and impenetrable, whether even they believe in them or not.

If a right-wing Trump-supporting extremist had shot up a Democratic Party congressional baseball practice, they would have used the incident as incontrovertible proof that we need more gun control.  As it happens, a left-wing Bernie Sanders fanatic shot up a Republican congressional baseball practice, so...they use the incident as incontrovertible proof that we need more gun control.

The idea that right-leaning citizens, let alone congressmen, should have a right to defend themselves against left-wing antifa thugs, whether on a baseball field, in a mall, in a nightclub, or on a college campus, leaves them cold.  The idea that left-leaning citizens have a right to defend themselves against right-wing thugs (and therefore should support the 2nd Amendment) leaves them blank – first, because all the left-leaning "citizens" who count to them are already surrounded 24/7 by armed special forces commandos courtesy of the American taxpayer, and second, because there are no significant attacks by right-wing thugs against innocent left-leaning citizens.  Extreme right-wing violence is a straw bogeyman, and the Democrat leadership knows it.  Political violence and intimidation are a leftist game in America today.

The goal of the radical leftist leaders is not to empower their mascots, but to keep them in perpetual fear and dependency.  "Trump is Hitler!" they proclaim, confident that few of their followers will do so much as watch a documentary to find out who Hitler was.  If they did that, they would note that Hitler required the entire German army to swear a loyalty oath to himself personally – not to the nation, not to the flag, but to Adolf Hitler the man.  As far as I know, Trump encourages the Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag, under God), and that's about it.  Hitler rounded up millions of innocent people, not for deportation, but for death.  His domestic critics were so fearful of his wrath that they shut up, fled the country, or went underground.  Do you perceive anything remotely comparable to such terror among, say, the director and cast of "Julius Caesar" in New York (Trump's town)'s Shakespeare in the Park theater?

And how did Hitler acquire such overwhelming power in the first place?  One of the foundational policies achieved early in his Reich that rendered all opposition futile was comprehensive gun control.

Rather than argue against the charge that Trump is Hitler, maybe we should encourage rank-and-file Democrats to actually believe it.  If the Democrats believed their own words and were honest, they would be marching in the streets with the NRA right now.  But they don't, and they aren't.

Howard Hyde is a fellow of the American Freedom Alliance and author of the book Escape from Berkeley: An EX liberal progressive socialist embraces America (and doesn't apologize).