No, this is not just another article comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. That's too easy, and there are thousands of articles already written about that. This is a parallel - to Mel Brook's 1967 film "The Producers".
In "The Producers", a washed up, aging, fraudulent Broadway producer, Max Bialystock, decides to concoct the worst-ever imaginable show - so horrible in fact, that it will be a guaranteed mega-flop. The play is called "Springtime for Hitler". It is a musical love letter to Hitler: "the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart". The play is supposed to be such a foul, offensive piece of unwatchable trash, it will completely fail and close on opening night. Max sells 25,000% of the play to his regular investors, mostly rich little old ladies, and hopes to reap a financial windfall. He plans to make off with the stolen money and escape to Rio.
But to Max's horror, the audience loves it! "Springtime for Hitler" is a smash hit. His criminal scheme crumbles as his investors expect a much larger return than can be paid out. Max and his cohorts decide to blow up the theatre to end the production, but they all get arrested and sent to prison.
Fast forward to 2016. A washed up, aging, fraudulent former reality show host decides to concoct the worst-ever presidential campaign. So horrible in fact, it will be a guaranteed mega-flop. He makes sure he will lose by admitting he hasn't paid taxes in 18 years, because he lost nearly a billion dollars in 1995. He further worsens his case by admitting he profited from the 2008 housing collapse, glibly calling it "business". And if that weren't bad enough, he proudly brags about his serial assaults on women, makes fun of handicapped people, and calls Mexicans rapists. A sure-fire bomb that will close on opening night. He has no real vision for how to run the country, because, hey, he's going to lose. Then he's going start a TV network and make a fortune off of it.
But to his horror, the audience loves him. "Springtime for Donald" is a smash hit. Saddled with numerous charges from fraud to statutory rape, the accidental winner of the 2016 election swaggers stupidly towards our White House. He bans as much press as possible, in hopes of drowning out his blistering, toxic past.
The parallel between this fictitious play from 1967 and the presidential candidate from 2016 is nakedly clear. Fiction morphs into reality and we all have a front row seat. Will he and his cohorts blow up the White House to end the production and wind up in prison like Max? Stay tuned.
