Donald J. Trump’s candidacy bears a strong resemblance to the rise of dictators likeMussolini and Hitler. A columnist for the Toronto Sun who compares Trump to Hitler claims that we Americans need to reboot our political gene pool, while the president of Mexico, in these very pages, likens Trump’s demagoguery to “how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in.”

 These easy allusions are to be expected, but what is surprising are the frequent references that align the flamboyant Trump and some of the other candidates with Al Capone, the legendary gangster who has been dead since 1947. In articles and blog posts, depending on the political persuasion of the writer, the mobster’s name is evoked as a quick and easy way to say that a vote for any one of the candidates is akin to a vote for Al Capone.

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