During the 1930s Germany faced growing unrest. The Great Depression had left the nation in economic tatters, and the people were ready to respond to someone who could turn things around.
A charismatic activist, Adolf Hitler, appeared on the scene and ran a campaign to lead the nation. He focused on several key issues and promised to
Fix the economy
Make Germany a great world power again
Take back territories it had lost in the first world war
Create a strong, absolutist government
More traditional German political leaders believed that they could control Hitler’s radical leanings and maintain control. They proved unspeakably wrong.
After being appointed, not elected, chancellor in 1933, Hitler immediately began to dismantle the government. He abolished several civil rights embedded in Germany’s constitution, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. Officials could then control information disseminated to the citizens. They could arrest anyone considered disloyal. They could invade anyone’s privacy, search private homes with impunity, read personal mail, and eavesdrop on personal conversations.
Hitler had been in power not even two months before a final straw broke the German government’s back. The so-called Enabling Act was passed, allowing the Chancellor to create new laws on his own. No checks, no balances, just power. And his new paramilitary forces—the Sturm Abeilung (SA, aka the “brown shirts”) and the Schutzstaffel, or SS—became the strong arm of the new government, and we all know what happened next.
Granted, Germany in the 1930s was vastly different than America in the 2020s, but the parallels cannot be denied. Hitler was a messianic sociopath. Our current president is a profound narcissist with a sociopathic personality.
Hitler surrounded himself with sycophants, with Himmler, Goebbels, and Göring leading the pack. Trump has White-supremacist Stephen Miller, drunkard Pete Hegseth, and Kristi Noem, the cosplaying dog killer.
Hitler believed in purity of the races. To Trump, only Whites matter, and then only cis Whites, preferably men.
History tells us things all the time and urges us to listen. What is it telling us now?
Have been replaying this grim scenario all year and now it’s here. One hopeful thought is that easily half the country is already very anti Trump. I’m not so sure how easily they’ll lay down. All the people loosing government jobs will also add to the resistance. But make no doubt this is very frightening. I’m sick over it.
So true, Ed. Dad, but frikkin true.