Writing in the Washington Post the other day, lefty columnist E.J. Dionne is pumping the old leftist narrative that President Trump is a tyrant, producing pious drivel like this:

How do democratic countries get to the point where they give up on self-rule?  Under what circumstances do demagogues capture large audiences through irrational, emotional appeals unmoored from fact, logic or morality?  When do politicians responsible for maintaining a democratic system surrender to dictators?

These questions are more pertinent to us in the early 21st century than we would wish.

As if we're not supposed to think of President Trump with such endorsements, given the press's wall-to-wall claims that Trump is a tyrant.

But just in case we're a little clueless, Dionne makes it clear for us that Trump is the guy he's talking about as the New Hitler:

Consider this declaration from Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's chief propagandist: "Certainly we want to build a wall, a protective wall." 

He gets even less subtle here (emphasis added):

Conservatives everywhere should ponder the choices made by the German establishment, including big business, the military, culturally traditional Protestants and big landowners.  They all helped bring Hitler to power because they hated the left [editor's note: Hitler was a National Socialist] – including the moderate Social Democrats, the backbone of the Weimar Republic – more than they loved republican government and political freedom.

Oh.

I'm going to look at another presidency from the early 21st century, that of one Barack Hussein Obama.  Because the path to autocracy is familiar, and we saw it during the eight years of Obama, and pundits such as Dionne supported it every step of the way.  What did he do?  How did he do it?  Allow me to refresh Dionne's memory:

He broke bankruptcy law by rewarding his political supporters, the unions, over secured bondholders whose claims took priority. 

He lied continuously to get his precious Obamacare through. 

He taxed and regulated as fast as he could to take greater government control. 

His IRS targeted political opponents to shut them up. 

He weaponized the Justice Department and the Intelligence Community to spy on and otherwise target his political opponents. 

He lied continuously to get the Iran deal done. 

He repeatedly said he didn't have the authority to change immigration laws and then dictatorially and unconstitutionally did it anyway. 

He used the FBI and Justice Department to protect Hillary and himself as well as to target Trump.  Despite being mired in scandals, he never fired anyone, let alone appointed a special counsel to investigate. 

He left Americans on the ground representing America to die while concocting a lie about a video to protect his political power. 

He allowed uranium to be sold to a dangerous country. 

He told Russia he would be flexible if he was re-elected. 

In summary, Obama tried to usurp power for himself and government as fast as he could.

In contrast, Trump is trying to give the power, purse, and freedom back to the people as fast as he can, which is the opposite of what an autocrat, dictator, or fascist ever does.

So Dionne in his leftist wisdom is absolutely correct.  An autocrat is easy to spot, and he and most of his fellow sycophant journalists supported one for eight years.  It is a shame he was so willing to bend over as the country, as it was founded, was being destroyed.  It is pathetic that Dionne and others did so much to intentionally mislead the public down that dangerous path.