"The Trump movement commits threats, violence
and lies. And then it tries to escape accountability for those acts through more threats, more violence and more lies. At the heart of the “but the
consequences” argument against disqualification is a confession that if we hold
Trump accountable for his fomenting violence on Jan. 6, he might foment
additional violence now. Enough.
It’s time to apply the plain language of the Constitution to Trump’s actions
and remove him from the ballot without fear of the consequences. Republics
are not maintained by cowardice.-
David French, ‘The Case for Disqualifying Trump Is Strong’, NY Times
The classic historical case of voter malaise, frustration and discontent leading to catastrophe was in the "good"Germans catapulting Hitler and his Nazi party to power in 1933. Years preceding the calamity, much of it attributed to the Treaty of Versailles, citizens of the Weimar Republic beheld continual unrest and violence in the streets, soaring inflation - with a loaf of bread in 1923 costing over a billion marks.
Finally, with the 87-year old Chancellor Paul von
Hindenburg unable to do much of anything to quell the violence or staunch inflation, voters had enough of the Weimar Republic (and
democracy) by 1932-33.
German author Konrad Heiden in his classic book, The
Fuerher, documents much of this process as an actual living journalist
of the era. The results are as startling
as they are percipient in also shedding light on our current political
situation with Donald Trump. In particular,
the most chilling sections of the book are in Chapter XXIII, Coup De’Etat By
Installments .
Therein, we learn how Hitler subverted the minds
of the masses, and subverted democracy – the actual ballot box- to his own ends
of becoming a permanent dictator. The
key point is that power was not seized all at once, but gradually and
incrementally, allowing citizens to let their guards down as well as become
agitated by the status quo. The specter
of political coercion was then not far away, given Hitler and the Nazis could
play the machinery of Weimar democracy to catapult themselves into unearned
power.
In respect of the latter, as Heiden points out on p. 468:
“To a frightening degree the masses themselves had lost their sense of loyalty and reason. Many showed a suicidal frenzy in breaking with their customary ideals, connections, parties, leaders. They looked on in silence as their political world fell into ruins and tacitly acknowledged that a new, uncertain, but bold edifice, was gradually going up. There was no sudden, general flocking to National Socialism but rather a cynical lack of resistance:
‘They
have won out. Why fight it?’
A million people would not have voluntarily participated
in the Nazi celebration at Tempelhofer Field in Berlin, but the workers in
large factories let themselves be coerced with little opposition. In every city then the masses marched out to
sone meadow as Hitler’s voice thundered from loudspeakers.”
So in many respects, by the time the aging von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor in 1933 (basically capitulating to his demands), the die had already been cast. The citizens of the Weimar Republic had already sold their minds and souls to Hitler’s lies and what they believed to be a better future. Thus, by March, 1933, the end of democracy became formalized with the Enabling Act,
http://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839Some months later, in one of his worst tirades, via a radio speech on
October 15, 1933 (quoted from Konrad Heiden's book) Hitler bellowed:
"These ruinous and inferior characters have succeeded in arousing a
world psychosis!"
Thereby targeting, identifying the number one enemy of the state in the Jews. Once the demonization ("vermin" became accepted by a large enough segment of the German population) the remaining coercive phase could be implemented. This started with the seizure of all property, including bank accounts, homes, and then migrated to the closure of the German regular press so news could only be distorted or perverted. Courts became the next target of the Nazis, and all ended up in subservience to Hitler's ends - mainly putting all his political enemies away in concentration camps or prisons. Heiden's 'super power' as an author is that he was an actual contemporary of Hitler's, lived at the time, and beheld his rise to power in real time - not merely from a displaced historical perspective.
Thus, my emphasis that we need to apply his warnings to our situation now, not dismiss them. Especially how Hitler's fascist-dictatorial aspirations became reality within months. Just as Trump's can within 10 months if too many voters remain asleep at the switch as it were.
Coincidentally, this upending using the machinery of a democratic system is the exact same plan Trump's minions will pursue e.g.
by Michael Waldman | December 1, 2023 - 7:57am | permalink
— from Brennan Center for Justice
Excerpt:
Donald Trump has made clear that, in a second term, he would govern differently than any president in U.S. history. He has hinted at suspending the Constitution, building vast deportation camps, weaponizing the Department of Justice, and mass firing career civil servants.
------------------
If Americans become so politically detached, or worse - unhinged and reckless - that they return him to power out of some misplaced frustration or sense of vendetta. Will Americans get over their minor irritations, whether concerning inflation, or Ukraine and Gaza, and grasp the ridding of Trump trumps everything else? One sincerely hopes so!
Yet young voters in particular seem not to grasp how government functions or the scale of catastrophe if they vote carelessly. Meaning not voting at all or voting Trump. This was the message in today's LA Times column ('Young Voters - Isn't Trump The Greater Evil?') by Robin Abcarian - who noted she almost "spit up" her Geritol when she read some of the replies of these young 'uns in a recent NBC News survey.
Well, I almost spit up my coffee this morning when I read them. Like one delusional Gen Z kid named Pru Carmichael - who supported Biden in 2020 but is now "disillusioned". Hey kid, welcome to the real world of politics and governance! (Which depends on the other party's cooperation as opposed to obstruction). Pru - who I presume is college-educated - actually came out with this malarkey: "I don't think the presidency has too much effect on what happens in my day to day life." Really? Well, you may be in for a shocker if Trump gains power and the Repukes take over both houses of congress and pass a national abortion ban. Then, if you get pregnant you may need to go the back door route of coat hangers like American women did 70 years ago! Or as Ms. Abcarian put it: "Maybe she believes she will never have an unintended, unwanted pregnancy." Yep, or maybe she lives in Dreamland.
Then there's another kid, Austin Kapp, blathering:
Showing clearly the level of IQ and political understanding has fallen by dozens of points. Else this kid would know Biden DID try to cancel student loan debt but was knee-capped by the Supreme Court. Even so, he still managed to erase nearly $132b of it. He also did try to codify Roe v. Wade but the filibuster by Repukes prevented it. All of which ought to show a reasonably intelligent young un that the president doesn't operate in a vacuum. And both this guy Kapp and Pru ought to bear in mind Biden's words: "Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative."
The message here is as subtle as a sledge hammer: Do voters really want to hand the country back to the Repukes and relive the chaos of the Trump years?
See Also:
by Will Bunch | January 2, 2024 - 8:36am | permalink
— from the Philadelphia Inquirer
Excerpt:
When my editors at The Philadelphia Inquirer Opinion section asked me to write this short essay on my hopes for 2024, one colleague joked that I could probably keep it to just two words: “Trump. Jail.”
Have my columns become that predictable? (Don’t answer that.) Sure, it’s true that justice for an ex-and-possibly-future president who repeatedly broke the law, most famously in plotting an attempted coup that resulted in a deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, is an outcome that I would absolutely love to see.
But that’s the thing: There are a lot of outcomes I’d be thrilled to witness over the next 12 months, including a humiliating defeat at the ballot box for Donald Trump by a President Joe Biden who got wiser at age 81 and listened to America’s young people about peace in Gaza and phasing out fossil fuels.
And:
by Robert Reich | January 4, 2024 - 8:14am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Excerpt:
Some people tell me they hate Trump but don’t particularly like Biden. They say Biden is too old, or he’s not doing enough to stop Israel’s bombing of Gaza, or he’s caved to Big Oil, or he isn’t tough enough.
So they tell me they’re not going to vote next November. Or they’ll vote for a third-party candidate.
Maybe you know someone like this. Or you yourself fall into this camp.
Here’s what I tell them: By not voting or voting for a third party, they’re actually casting a vote for Trump.
Some respond by saying that Trump may be a curse, but they’re sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.
Wrong. Biden is not evil. Trump is truly evil.
And:
by Robert Reich | January 2, 2024 - 8:27am | permalink
And:
And:
by Henry Giroux | January 2, 2024 - 6:55am | permalink
And:
by Jeffrey C. Isaac | January 3, 2024 - 7:16am | permalink
On December 22 of last year, Yale Professor Samuel Moyn published a New York Times op ed on efforts to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot, arguing that “The Supreme Court Should Overturn the Colorado Ruling Unanimously.”
Since 2016, Moyn has consistently downplayed the danger to democracy posed by Trumpism. It is impossible to read anything he writes without recalling the way he mocked and indeed pathologized liberal concerns in his co-authored 2017 Times op ed, “Trump Isn’t a Threat to Our Democracy. Hysteria Is.”
And:
And:
And:
And:
by Chuck Idelson | November 7, 2022 - 7:45am | permalink
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