As a child growing up during WWII, I figured Germans were bad people. After all, Hitler didn’t commit those atrocities all by himself. No, he had a lot of help from the German populace. That means they’re inherently awful people, right?

But in growing up, I learned that that’s not necessarily the case, that people, no matter where you go, are basically the same. And that Germans, then and now, are mostly decent people.

But they were overwhelmed by Hitler’s constant barrage of fear and hate of “other.” Of “them.” Of their “enemy from within.”

Which is precisely Trump’s message. There’s nothing about love, or a nation united. It’s only hate, fear, and us against them.

And (Heaven forbid) when we wake up after the presidential election is decided, and find that Donald Trump is our next president, it will be, as it was with the Germans, too late to lament, “OMG, what have we done!?”