How Do You LOSE a Democracy?

   This idea that a democratic republic is ephemeral and subject to being lost, or destroyed is getting bandied about lately.  Speaking for myself, I grew-up thinking that America is the exact opposite of ephemeral.  If anything it would stand the tests of time and the vagaries of history forever....as in For-fucking-EVER.  It was unthinkable that it might just disappear or that it would ever even be seriously impinged or otherwise damaged.  It was just too perfect, too mighty and too resilient for anything to befall it. And, above all else, it was too perfectly conceived to be so vulnerable.  Right?

   Turns out, I was wrong.  As I have studied history over the last decades, I've come across lots of examples of democracies that eventually failed.  The world is, and always has been, richly sprinkled with people who harbor evil desires for power and control over others.  And, most of these dark efforts lean toward using whatever means is at hand or is necessary to gain control of a country and then shape it's government into an autocratic and authoritarian mechanism for both controlling the populace and exploiting them in whatever manner will reap the greatest benefits for the overlords.  This most often happens when a country has fallen on hard times, a depression, a war, droughts, famines....uh, pandemics.  Anything that renders a body of citizens hungry for better times can open the door. 

  If you look back over the last 200 or so years, and pick out the countries that have succumbed to one form or another of totalitarian rule, a pattern emerges.  Hard times lead to bad decisions on the part of those who both are unable to comprehend what is happening, or who have a craving for strong leadership and a government that will operate in loco parentis, thereby allowing the great majority to just follow what is given them by the 'dear leader'.  In the formative years of Hitler's Third Reich, most Germans believed his leadership was not merely okay, but absolutely the best possible response to runaway inflation and a major depression.  One of his campaign slogans that was plastered all over, was: "Hitler = Arbeit, Brot" i.e. "Hitler = work, bread".  Simple concept and a very strong appeal at a time when both employment and food were problematic.  There's nothing like runaway inflation to make people realize that things are not just bad, but out of control and getting more dire all the time. Most people have heard the stories of Germans having to take a wheelbarrow full of cash to the market just to buy some bread.  I know it was a very scary time and a friend of mine in Bavaria gave me some money from that time as a kind of joke....ten million mark notes.  But, I promise you that her grandparents did not think it was funny.

  So, things get gnarly, food becomes too expensive, jobs may be available but are mostly entry level jobs that won't pay the rent and put food on the table.  Hard times have come to Main Street.  And, suddenly there is a leader who steps forward out of the fog and has all the answers.  He (or she....although you know it's almost always a 'he'), is saying the things you want to hear.  Not only will he create stunning prosperity.....like you never saw; beautiful jobs and safe streets.....but, he will vanquish our enemies, and he'll be sure to let us know who that is, of course.  I don't think very many Germans were really all that angry or fearful of the Jews in Germany....but, a steady effluent of propaganda and lies, lies and more lies, made far too many Aryan Germans cleave to their worst instincts.  They had to have somebody to blame, and ever since Martin Luther said the Jews were the evil murderers of Jesus, they have been a go-to scapegoat....and not just in Germany either. 

   So, Hitler and Goebbles concocted 'the Big Lie' narrative and provided 'proof' of its veracity with more lies.  The 'Elders of Zion' became a massive conspiracy of senior international Jewry, who had laid out their plan for taking over the planet, in a false document called, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".  It was written by a Russian at some point after 1902-1903.  Here is a link to it on Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

  This was just one of many bold-faced lies that the Nazis used to persuade the German people that Jews were the real-time equivalent of the Devil himself.  Many people don't realize that there were only about 500,000 Jews in Germany at the onset of the Third Reich.  Many of them were married to gentiles and there was a sizeable population of "Haeflinger", people of mixed ethnicity. But, the intense and ongoing application of The Big Lie was more than enough to convince far too many Germans that the Jews were the cause of their problems and Hitler led them incrementally around to the viewpoint that the world would be a better place without Jews.  In one speech, I believe it was given in 1929, Hitler used the word, 'vernichtung' over 20 times.  This word is unequivocal; it means, 'to annihilate'.  Not a subtle shading of intentions here....but a bold statement that was intended as a precursor for preparing Germany to turn the corner towards the Holocaust.

  And, here we are in the year 2020, and our dear, sweet old republic is in deep trouble. We have a runaway pandemic that is not yet showing any signs of slowing down. Over 150,000 Americans have already died--over 660,000 souls world-wide--and we have a country that is more divided politically than it has been since the Civil War, a century and a half ago.  We have a mentally-ill president, and 40% of the people think he's the best thing since sliced bread.  I do not believe you could find a single FoxNews watcher who would agree that the Idiot is leading us toward a totalitarian dictatorship.  If anything, they believe the opposite......as did the Germans with Hitler. 

Unser Fuhrer, Dear Leader.....Donny the Savior sent by Providence

  If you have seen or have the chance to see it, "Triumph of the Will" is a documentary by a German film-maker, Leni Rieffenstahl, and it documents the annual gathering at Nuremburg, the Reichsparteitag.  As you watch Hitler arriving by plane and then taking a motorcade to the parade grounds what you see is adulation, screaming, fainting, grasping, clutching....what you DO NOT see is any hint that this man holds the power of life and death over every person who is greeting him and, indeed over every German.  They adore him.  He is clearly in the role of savior to them.

   If you watch carefully, however, there is one brief moment when he's leaving the Junkers airliner.  He sweeps his errant front lock of hair back from his forehead, with a remarkably effeminate gesture in fact, and he glances at the camera.  In that oh so brief moment one can see the Evil, the pure malevolence in this man's eyes.  It's very similar to the moment when Reinhard Heydrich glances into a movie camera and gives away the depth of pure evil in his heart.   

  This outpouring of turbulent emotions is the exact same emotional outburst that you see at the Idiot's rallies.  They are not there just to 'support' their choice for president....oh no.  They are there to scream his name and the slogans he's fed them over the last years.  "Lock her up!!!" is an old favorite now....despite the fact that Hillary is long gone. 

  So, here's this 'leader--if he can even really be called that--and he's got this mass of fanatical followers who have all bought into his bullshit, hook, line and sinker.  Had it not been for the pandemic, which actually required the attention of a real leader--someone who cares about the people (s)he is leading--he might be sailing off to another victory.  He managed to pull it off last time when even he didn't think he could.  This time around, he was supposed to sail on the wings of a booming economy, a growing sense that white people really do deserve to be 'supreme', and a healthy hatred for all who would resist him and his irresistible agenda:  America over all others, first and foremost....and, while we're at it, let's get all these people of color who are here back into a role that they deserve.

  The next 90 plus days will feel like walking on eggs to me.  Last time around, 2016, the polls--and Hillary herself--were so cock-sure that she'd win that it came as a swift kick to the nads when the announcement came that the Idiot had gotten the necessary electoral votes to put him over.  I felt a wave of nausea come over me as I listened.

  Let's not have any more such rotten surprises.  Let's ride herd on this election to make sure both the 100 million who stayed home last time--out of apathy, laziness, disenchantment, what-the-fuck-EVER....get out and vote.  Whatever it takes for the millennials, the Bernie crowd, and all those people who said, "WTF. It won't make any difference if I vote or don't," to make the effort...that's what needs to happen.

BECAUSE THAT IS ALL THAT STANDS BETWEEN US AND A NIGHTMARE.  

Believe it............................please do.