What’s going on here? Have congressional leaders no sense for what is at stake? Lately the adjective “spineless” has come into vogue in describing congressional Democrats—no offense to invertebrates.
Nazis and Those Who Enable Them
You don’t have to be a Nazi. You can just be, well, a sheep.
In his journal Sebastian Haffner decries what he calls the “sheepish submissiveness” with which the German people reacted to a 9/11-like event, the burning of the German Parliament (Reichstag) on Feb. 27, 1933. Haffner finds it quite telling that none of his acquaintances “saw anything out of the ordinary in the fact that, from then on, one’s telephone would be tapped, one’s letters opened, and one’s desk might be broken into.”
But it is for the cowardly politicians that Haffner reserves his most vehement condemnation. Do you see any contemporary parallels here?
In the elections of March 4, 1933, shortly after the Reichstag fire, the Nazi party garnered only 44 percent of the vote. Only the “cowardly treachery” of the Social Democrats and other parties to whom 56 percent of the German people had entrusted their votes made it possible for the Nazis to seize full power. Haffner adds:
“It is in the final analysis only that betrayal that explains the almost inexplicable fact that a great nation, which cannot have consisted entirely of cowards, fell into ignominy without a fight.”
The Social Democratic leaders betrayed their followers—“for the most part decent, unimportant individuals.” In May they sang the Nazi anthem; in June the Social Democratic party was dissolved.
The middle-class Catholic party Zentrum folded in less than a month, and in the end supplied the votes necessary for the two-thirds majority that “legalized” Hitler’s dictatorship.
As for the right-wing conservatives and German nationalists: “Oh God,” writes Haffner, “what an infinitely dishonorable and cowardly spectacle their leaders made in 1933 and continued to make afterward.... They went along with everything: the terror, the persecution of Jews.... They were not even bothered when their own party was banned and their own members arrested.” In sum:
“There was not a single example of energetic defense, of courage or principle. There was only panic, flight, and desertion. In March 1933 millions were ready to fight the Nazis. Overnight they found themselves without leaders...At the moment of truth, when other nations rise spontaneously to the occasion, the Germans collectively and limply collapsed. They yielded and capitulated, and suffered a nervous breakdown.... The result is today the nightmare of the rest of the world.”
This is what can happen when virtually all are intimidated.
Our Founding Fathers were not oblivious to this; thus, James Madison:
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.... The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his 27-years as a CIA analyst, he chaired NIEs: he is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
The terrible situation is that by depriving the middle classes in this country of time to devote to thought because the people are scrambling to simply make a living, and by controlling the media, along with other actions, the people simply cannot know what is happening. The media does not link together all of the legislation since 9/11, all of the Executive Orders, all of the signing statements, the Blackwater situation, and on, and on. Unfortunately, for a great many people, if they do not see or hear it in the news, it didn't happen.
This is an excellent article. I really wanted George Bush to be a good president. How disillusioning he is!! And I worry greatly for our great-grand daughter.
by
Shirley Bianchi (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 95 comments)
on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 4:12:55 PM
It is perhaps a good thing to be ready. Food for 3 years. Weapons and ammo. I'm still tryin to figure a good item for barter besides the songs I write.
History. The auditions have been going on for years. Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, 9/11, 7/7, Oklahoma City, Tonkin, JFK, RFK, MLK, the UN, CIA, WTO, on and on. We are the next bump in their road. They've created the EU even with 70% against. NAU is next. Come to poppa.
If enough of us care to, there will be a war. Right here. If enough don't, you will not find me in the blue line.
I will not go quietly-Don Henley.
by
mikel paul (10 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 394 comments)
on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 7:57:35 PM
Go read the Reichstag Fire Decree that the Weimar Republic passed after Hitler accused the Communists of burning down the Reichstag. Compare that with what is contained in the Patriot Act, the Military Commisions Act, the upcoming Thought Crime bill and others passed since 9/11. 9/11 was our Reichstag fire, people, and the fascism is creeping in here in exactly the same way that it did in Germany.
by
Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 313 comments)
on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 12:44:35 PM
Ordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat
Order of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State
Auf Grund des Artikels 48 Abs. 2 der Reichsverfassung wird zur Abwehr kommunistischer staatsgefährdender Gewaltakte folgendes verordnet:
On the basis of Article 48 paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the German Reich, the following is ordered in defense against Communist state-endangering acts of violence:
§ 1.
Die Artikel 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 und 153 der Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs werden bis auf weiteres außer Kraft gesetzt. Es sind daher Beschränkungen der persönlichen Freiheit, des Rechts der freien Meinungsäußerung, einschließlich der Pressefreiheit, des Vereins- und Versammlungsrechts, Eingriffe in das Brief-, Post-, Telegraphen- und Fernsprechgeheimnis, Anordnungen von Haussuchungen und von Beschlagnahmen sowie Beschränkungen des Eigentums auch außerhalb der sonst hierfür bestimmten gesetzlichen Grenzen zulässig.
§ 1.
Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom [habeas corpus], freedom of opinion, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
by
Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 313 comments)
on Saturday, December 29, 2007 at 12:48:31 PM
4 comments
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