Thank you, but *retired* chessplayer! No historical comparison is ever exact; the goal is to learn about human behavior, methods, and warning signs. Opposing extremes against the middle is old and it works.
Don't build straw men out of every reasonable lesson. E.g., pointing out that the success of Sanders & Trump in the same year isn't saying they are the same, or equally bad. But they both represent the powerful new populist strain.
They surged in 2016 on many of the same issues, with some of the same voters. (And many diametrically opposed ones!) Many of the issues they ran on were real and relevant, others were, and are, mostly demagoguery, either utopian (Bernie) or dystopian (Trump).
My warning in my @nybooks article this week was to show how both extremes alienate the moderate majority while firing up their bases, and the historical dangers of that trend. Especially as the electoral college favors Trump in that scenario.
