Another fascinating moment on MSNBC last night.

Rachel Maddow, talking about Bill Weld, the Libertarian candidate for vice-president, who likens Trump's deportation plan to Kristallnacht, at the start of the German Holocaust. 

That wasn't surprising. I think and write about that a lot. We are going down a path that is well-understood. What was the point of studying history if it didn't inform us about the meaning of our own collective actions. 

What was surprising is what Maddow said. I don't have the exact wording, so I'll paraphrase.

"A lot of people think that, even talk privately about it, but publicly? That's new." 

Whoa! This is the story of the rest of the election. Has been for a while. I'd say the moment when it became this serious was when Trump denied knowing anything about David Duke or the KKK, or what the term white supremacist means. Watch the video. This is the moment, imho, when any sane reasonably educated adult knew exactly where we are headed. 

"When people show you who they are, believe them." -- Maya Angelou.

Everything in this election is about this choice. Nothing else comes close. 

So, when Bernie Sanders talks about corporate ownership of the electoral process, the right response is, why the fuck isn't he talking about the rise of fascism in the US?

When Hillary says Trump isn't qualified to be President shouldn't the follow-up be about the morality of even considering a man like Trump to be President. Even if he were qualified how can we consider a man of his morality as the commander-in-chief, as protector of the Constitution.

And when Repubs line up behind him, and as they go ahead with their nominating process, even though they are educated people and understand what they're nominating, shouldn't someone be publicly saying that this may be the single most significant thing any of them do in their entire lives. 

Shouldn't there be a Wikipedia page where the names of all Trump endorsers are listed? These are matters of public record. These people should feel that in the future there will be no chance of spinning their way out of responsibility. (The Atlantic is maintaining a cheat sheet of Repubs who are supporting Trump and those who are not.)

Maybe Hillary should choose Weld as her running mate? Someone here has to have the guts to tell the truth. So far he's pretty much alone in that. That's a pretty good qualification, imho.

A lot of things become clearer if we decide to talk the truth, and not pretend this is a normal election. No matter how hard you try, you can't make Donald Trump into Mitt Romney. And that's exactly what the Republican Party, in its dying Weimar gasps, is trying to do. 

Project into the future, assume Trump wins, and we endure whatever he has in mind for us. Historians of the mid-21st century ask if people knew what they were getting into, and they conclude that we did, but no one talked about it publicly.

What story does that remind you of?