 "The yellow star? So what? It's not
lethal... (Poor Father! Of what then did you die?)" - Eli Wiesel,
Night
I would be ashamed to be a Republican. To use unelected
political operatives on the Supreme Court to take away the right
of women to own their own bodies - I would be ashamed. To use
the powers of the state to force a 10-year-old girl to bear the
child of her rapist would be so immoral, so outrageously cruel,
that in order to support this legislation, I would have to have
no heart. To continue to argue for unregulated firearms while
families are still burying their dead from the last massacres
would require me to have no soul.
If I were a Republican watching the depraved bigotry and vicious
racism of Republican Party leaders - leaders such as the
ironically named, Ron DeSantis, and the oleaginous, Ted Cruz-
and not speak out, there could be no other explanation than that
I have joined the ranks of a modern-day fascist movement. I
would be entirely complicit in trying to overthrow the
government of the United States of America, not because I took
up arms – but because I consciously voted for this party and
this outcome.
If I were a Republican today, and I still possessed a scruple of
patriotism, I would just stay home – sit it out on November 8,
2022 - or risk declaring my allegiance to this naked effort to
criminally overthrow the government of my own country.
Though I am technically old, and though I probably won’t live to
see what ultimately becomes of America, I am certain about how I
want to die. To quote Bob Dylan: “Let me die in my footsteps”. I
will not agree to let America bleed to death and not fight to
preserve its ideals, its soul.
Republicans: it’s not about the taxes; it’s not about socialism
or communism; and it’s not about the purported greed of the
"great unwashed". And after today’s televised January 6th
Committee hearing, it is crystal clear that it's not about
election fraud intended to deny Donald Trump a second term in
office.
It is now indisputable that Donald Trump was voted out of office
in 2020 by the citizens of the United States in a fair and free
election.
Donald Trump is now one of the most notorious losers in American
history. But there is still a deep pool of complicity among
Republicans and the Republican Party for not standing up to this
demagogue. No matter what benefits they thought would redound to
them due to his criminal presidency, they created a monster. A
true villain who swallowed them whole.
We watched it happen. First, we thought it was Trump’s base, a
mob of uneducated dolts with nowhere else to find a place in the
world. Then we wondered about Trump's rise to power and the
strange passivity of Republican politicians as he assumed
control of their party. Then we thought that he was merely a
tool of the 1%. But as he became an unstoppable troglodyte run
wild among the good china, not one Republican stood up. Not one
Republican came forth to defend democracy and the rule of law.
And the majority of Republicans still have not, to their great
shame.
Republicans, your party is the same party that burned down
Germany’s Reichstag (parliament building) in 1933. Your party
enabled Trump to emerge in America for the same reason German
elites in business and the military permitted Hitler to emerge
in Germany: It was for the votes their deplorable constituencies
brought to their parties. You, as a Republican intending to vote
for the GOP in 2022, are willing to disregard the venal
opportunists who lead your party and the astounding cruelty of
their policies. Your vote will allow them to achieve their goals
of minority rule in a society that has been a liberal democracy
for 246 years. Your party is now the same party that installed
Hitler in Germany. And your party made the same cynical choices
that Germany’s elites made when installing Hitler. Both the
Republican Party of Mitch McConnell today and the elites of
Germany in 1933 thought that they could control this species of
tyrant, and both groups of cynical opportunists were proven very
wrong, indeed.
Perhaps it is a cliché to compare Donald Trump’s effort to
overthrow the Government of the United States on January 6th,
2020 with Germany’s Reichstag Fire of 1933. But in light of
today’s January 6th Committee presentation, doing so tells a
gripping tale of how both Donald Trump and the 20th century’s
most reviled dictator, Adolph Hitler, ascended to power. It
reveals what tactics both men used and how their corruption,
deceit, and brutality enabled our former president, Donald
Trump, to swallow the GOP whole. Hitler was installed, first as
Germany’s Chancellor and became, within a year, Germany’s
“Führer und Reichskanzler”. Hitler, the vicious dictator who led
Germany into World War II, was finally in power.
In only a few years, both tyrants turned the world’s most
advanced and liberal societies into moral monstrosities.
In Germany, a prerequisite tactic was called “Gleichschaltung“
or consolidation. All aspects of German society were to be
controlled by the Nazi Party, and any opposition was removed. A
look at our current Republican Party tells the same story:
Anyone who does not support Donald Trump and his policies is
primaried from the right and personally defamed by Trump,
himself. Trump, through his right-wing militia, even threatened
to murder his Vice President, Mike Pence, for failing to do his
bidding.
Hitler’s party members are believed to have orchestrated the
Reichstag Fire in order to declare martial law and consolidate
their power. It is becoming increasingly clear that members of
the Republican Party helped Donald Trump organize the attempted
coup on January 6th, 2022, a coup that would have enabled Donald
Trump to declare martial law in America.
In Germany, following the Reichstag Fire, Paul von Hindenburg,
the then president of the German Weimar Republic, named Hitler
Chancellor in 1933. Shortly thereafter, Hindenburg cited Article
48 of the Weimar Constitution to declare a national emergency
and seize control in the name of restoring order. Only one month
later, Hindenburg signed The Enabling Act which gave the Nazi
regime under Hitler emergency powers.
Donald Trump intended to do the same in his attempted coup. He,
like Hitler, intended to declare martial law following his
attack on the U.S. Capital and assume dictatorial powers in the
U.S.
Republicans, please stay home on November 8th so that you do not
perpetuate this monstrosity. Tell yourselves and your fellow
Republicans - Never Again - or your complicity will result in
your own country’s demise, and perhaps yours. |
