Letters to the EditorDear Sir,It has been clear to me for a long time that the manipulation of the ideals of the democratic system could easily lead to the entrenchment of dictatorial ideals that over time would slowly strip away our hard-fought civil rights and liberties. Have the actions that had caused the Second World War been that much forgotten? What’s going on in America today in some ways is not that much different to that which happened in Germany that started the war. From the moment Donald Trump started to run for the presidency of the United States, and especially while I had been observing his presidential campaigns over time, it has become even more clear to me that America was on its way to a date with hellish disaster. It all started in 1933 in Germany when the Nazis took control of the Reichstag (the German parliament) and over a four-year period they had eliminated or removed just about all those that opposed them from civil office. By the time Hitler had become chancellor of Germany, all government-run ministries, the parliament, the courts and the news media were under Nazi control. The Nazis were all about racial purity and they exterminated all those that did not fit into their racist programme, starting with the Jews, people who were handicapped and those of different ethnic backgrounds.Germany had become the homeland of white supremacy. Is that the road Donald Trump is taking America down? The United States has always had a strong undercurrent of white supremacist idealism throughout its history influencing negative European culture. The way in which Trump is behaving is starting to look too much like Adolf Hitler. It is beginning to look so bad that it seems that most of those in the Republican Party are backing him even when it is clear that he is in the wrong. I once told a friend that America was once again teetering on the edge of a civil war; of course, he did not want to believe me. It has been over this year alone that there has been a long line of mass shootings all across America, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. There are people everywhere you look across America, arming themselves with some of the most powerful military firearms that money can buy. Most of the people that have been doing these killings have turned out to be supporters of one of many white supremacist groups across America. These people have Trump’s ear and he has shown that he feels very comfortable cosying up to them. If the American people don’t get their house in order, I think that it won’t be too far down the road that the rest of the world will be burning under the flames of war.Oh, by the way, that includes us as well in Bermuda. E McNEIL STOVELLPembroke