Tony Burman writes that the United States is beginning to look like Germany in 1933:
Each day since the siege of the Capitol, there have been stunning revelations about what actually happened. The police response to the rioters was weak and ineffective, even though the FBI had warned beforehand that extremist groups were threatening “war” on Jan. 6 as Congress came back into session to ratify Biden’s election victory.
It is now regarded as the biggest threat to domestic national security, but the Trump administration has done virtually nothing about it.
The rioters were wearing the evidence of their Nazi-inspired violence:
At the storming of the Capitol, there were numerous examples of outright anti-Semitism. One Trump supporter, later arrested and identified by the FBI as Robert Packer of Virginia, wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with the phrase, “Camp Auschwitz.” The bottom of the shirt read: “Work brings freedom” — which is the rough translation of the phrase “Arbeit macht frei,” which was above the death camp gates as its victims entered.
Also among the rioters were many members of the far-right group, the Proud Boys, which has been praised by Trump. They were wearing T-shirts with the initials: “6MWE.” Referring to the Holocaust, those initials meant: “Six million (Jews) Weren’t Enough.”
After years of soft-pedalling of Trump’s true motivations, it is striking that there are many more references in the U.S. media these days wondering about the parallels between today’s America and Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
Image: HuffPost
18 comments:
No country has more experience leading right-wing coups than the USA. I guess all their best were abroad, because they sure didn't bring the A-team to this one.
Oh well, there's always the next time. After all, the Munich Beer Hall Putsch failed too because conditions weren't quite ripe. Maybe we could jail Trump for nine months so he has time to write a book about his struggle.
^^^ Cap
If they do jail Trump, I expect it will be for longer than nine months, Anon. Please initial your comments.
It was hardly unforeseen, back in November I highlighted an article by fellow blogger Canadian Dimension who made a similar comparison, the parallels are indeed troubling as indicated at https://democracyunderfire.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-scary-parallel.html.
Yes, it will be years if not decades before the full impact of this insurrection will be fully understood IMHO.
You were right to point out the parallels, rural. What is remarkable is that so many can't see them.
I watched part of Bill Maher's "Real Time" show last night. In his closer he stressed that 74 million Americans voted for Trump but the Capitol rioters were just a small fraction of that number, almost inconsequential. To me it sounded like Maher once again getting on his high horse to lecture his own following with his dazzling intellect and vision.
I found it all a little cringeworthy. Yes, 20 or 30 thousand protesters were a drop in the bucket compared to 74 million Trump voters, but, contrary to Maher's assertions, that doesn't mean those who didn't march on Washington weren't cheering them on.
In the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, Newsweek reported on a poll of Republican voters that found 45 per cent of them said they "strongly supported" the insurrectionists. 51 per cent of Republicans surveyed said Trump bore no blame for the attack or the five deaths that ensued.
Maher was willing to overlook these polls and so much more lest these things confound his argument that "we're all Americans inside." He contends that the way to restore unity and social cohesion is to not blame Republican voters for what, through their votes and support, they too have wrought.
Democratic outreach won't tame this beast. It didn't work following the Civil War and the proof of that was on display in Washington 10 days ago. Losing an election isn't going to whet Republican appetites for reconciliation.
There's a war inside Republican ranks that pits the radical right against conservatives. From what I've read, the 'voice of reason' contingent is on the defensive.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/newspolitics/trump-blows-up-the-arizona-gop-on-his-way-out/ar-BB1cO15Q?ocid=msedgdhp&li=AAggNb9
They've gone way past the 3% that the Marxist-Leninists (Mao Tse-tung thought) guys used to say they needed. The Proud Boys must be even dumber. Maybe it's their leadership. They can ask the judge for a Mulligan while he's worm burning at Mar-a-Lago.
harper. trump, and adolf
were all word for word equal on
1) "law and order"
2) getting country back to "rightful place on world stage"
3) racist references
because if you are down in the dirt ignorant
those appeal to basic human nature
"the correct way is we are better than them....vote me"
For the republic to survive, the Republican Party has to fracture, Mound. It's not at all clear that's what will happen.
If they take away his platforms, John, he'll fade. But there's an incredible appetite for his lies.
It's an old story, lungta, and it keeps repeating itself.
I think John B. is right. This is a movement that exists independently of Trump. Their relationship was symbiotic at best. Trump did not come to the Oval Office with a fascist ideology. There was no Communist Manifesto, no Mein Kampf. He certainly had the instincts but he was too imbecilic, too narcissistic to forge a movement.
John says these movements require as little as 3 per cent to achieve critical mass. I think they are there.
I heard a clip on NPR this morning of a woman who appeared at a council meeting in Texas to object to some mask ordinance. She didn't sound unhinged which made it all the more chilling when she warned the councilors that "we didn't buy these guns for nothing." Imagine going to a civic meeting to express dissent and then ending with a threat of gunplay.
There is such a thing as collective psychosis, Mound. That's what Germany in 1933 was all about.
There was a comment by someone who said out of the U.S. before Trump was voted the 45Pres, that he Tump kept a copy of Mein Kampala night table. I can no longer remember who, tried to search it out but to no avail. The “Make America Great Again” came out of Germany when trying to convince Hindenburg General, Hitler should be the new Chancellor. “Make Germany Great” were the words used. Anyong
I assume yours was the first comment, Cap.
An interesting theory, Anyong. But I can't imagine that Trump has the attention span to read Mein Kamp.
This reminds me more of when Trudeau senior invoked the War Measures act on an excuse of the FLQ crimes and that used it as a hammer against innocent members of the seperatist movement.
Trump supporters are already being targeted. This is madness. I've voted NDP my whole life, but I don't like the increasing contempt for human rights I see the left is showing, it's increasingly becoming soft totalarianists. That us not what I signed up for.
I was in Montreal during the October Crisis, Gyor. It was a frightening time. And the War Measures Act was all Trudeau had at the time to deal with the situation. Noted human rights lawyer Frank Scott -- the Dean of Law at McGill -- fully supported Trudeau. More importantly, the crisis ultimately resulted in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Totalitarianism can spring from either the Right or the Left. But you have to use the legal tools available at the time to deal with the situation.
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