Over the course of my lifetime...approaching 75 in a couple of months....I have had an enduring interest in World War II and especially the European Theater. Perhaps being born in 1945 has something to do with this, but, for whatever reason, I have read extensively, about the air war, the ground and naval war and even about what it was like to be a civilian on the homefront on all sides of the conflict.
I was about 13 or 14 when I began to really focus on the Holocaust. I saw a cavalcade of photos in "Life Magazine's Pictorial History of World War II"....a large format, so-called 'coffee table' book in our school library that had to be recovered multiple times because I was not the only kid in the school who wanted to know what went down just before we were born. All of my classmates had fathers who had been in the war. A teacher in our school had heart-rending scarification and a plastic nose....because he had been in a Sherman tank when it was hit and caught fire.
In the 90s I began work on a novel, "Above and Beyond" and it narrates the story of a young German boy, a farm- boy growing up in the Allegau, i.e. Schwabian Bavaria, around the city of Kempten. I lived in Germany for about 3 months in 1971, and visited the same area again in the late 90s. I wanted to absorb the atmosphere and learn what life in rural Bavaria is like for a boy growing-up there.
Along the way, I came across stories about the early days of the Third Reich and how it all came to pass that a psychopathic dictator managed to gain control over 68 million people in a country that was among the most advanced, in every area of endeavor, on the planet. Shouldn't decent Germans have known better? If they got hood-winked, how exactly did that happen? I observed attitudes, and read all I could, also interviewed any older German who had an experience of the Third Reich....and was willing to speak with an 'Ami' about it. Not easy....but, doable with persistence and patience.
Well, one of the most prominent takeaways from all of this was the realization that a primary and very powerful element in that descent into madness......was TERROR. The Nazis understood it and how to use it very effectively. Even before Hitler was Chancellor, his gangs of Brown-shirts roamed the streets of most larger German cities and towns. They would chant slogans, and sing marching songs...and if they marched past a person standing on the curb, who failed to execute a Heil Hitler, extended arm salute.....the last two or three in the formation would drop out and assault him or her....a regular 'beat down'....then back to marching. People got the message very quickly.
Hitler was also, like Trump, fascinated with large crowds and especially a mass gathering. In this kind of a situation Hitler really came into his own with his emotional delivery, sometimes screaming, alternatively, speaking in low tones that could then segue into a crescendo. It's a fact that he practiced his speaking gestures in front of a mirror. He was a masterful speaker and could really get the crowd fired up. (sound familiar?) His pinnacle rallies were the once a year mass gathering at Nuremburg, i.e. the 'Reichsparteitag'. I have stood on the podium in the Reichsparteitaggelande....a stadium so grand that it can accommodate at least six soccer fields on the infield....and it's no trick at all to close your eyes and hear the massive crowd screaming "Heil Hitler" and "Sieg Heil" (Hail Victory). It must have been a truly life-changing experience and the feeling that they were all in it together would be undeniable.
My own personal reaction to standing alone at the podium from which Hitler addressed the throbbing throng of Germans, was to haul it out and empty my bladder right there. Yes, I did that, and I will treasure the moment as long as I live.
Fast forward to the present: July 2020. We have a man in the White House who wants not merely to stay there another four years....he has some not-so-secret ambitions to stay there indefinitely. He's joked and hinted at this multiple times. His buddy, Vlad Putin, and Xi of China, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Erdogan of Turkey, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and a number of other lesser leaders have secured their powers in this respect. Given that he's openly admired these 'strong men' it's not much of a leap to assume that the Idiot would just love to never leave office.
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| Pretty far fetched, right? Just wait. |
As many pundits have already pointed out: this is how you would expect the government to act in a dictatorship. It is definitely NOT how you expect legitimate law enforcement personnel to act. And, my initial reaction when I saw this in the news was, "Holy Shit! He's using storm-troopers!"
To just grab someone by the arms and shove them into an unmarked van....not saying a word about it, not why, for what reason...and to refuse to identify themselves.......is, quite simply, TERRIFYING. You don't know who it is that has grabbed you, their faces are hidden, and they act like Imperial Stormtroopers.....are you kiddin' me? That is the application of TERROR...according to every working definition of it that I could recall.
Every totalitarian government uses terror. It's easily the most effective way of getting people to 'sit down and shut up'. It says, "We are in charge, and you are helpless to resist." So, get used to it.
Lying as much as the Idiot does, it becomes difficult to find even a small kernel of the truth in anything he says. He opens his ugly yap....and lies come out. It's what he does; it's who he is. And, now he's apparently decided that instead of acting like a decent leader...it's his time to start subjugating his enemies. And, he's not going to stop or even slow down if he gets the message that he can get away with this.
It feels to me that this is one of those all too frequent occasions when each person needs to speak out. Write, email or call your representatives. Let them know that this is outrageous and unconstitutional, dictatorial behavior and you need them to stand up and be counted against it.
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