Many Americans feel our constitutionally granted rights are
being chipped away, one by one and under constant attack by the Obama
Administration. What do you think? To me, as an avid history buff, author and
one that feels not only could this happen it is in fact happening I fear as I
write this opinion piece.
Members of the left liberal camp during the George W. Bush
Administration took great satisfaction in demeaning him, often times comparing
him to Adolph Hitler. I think it is only fair to examine the political events
that took place in the early 1930’s in Nazi Germany and compare them with what
is happening in America today just as the left did during the Bush Administration.
Germany, 1930’s;
January, 1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed
Hitler as Reich Chancellor.
Since the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency, to me there are many
actions he has taken that while not as severe as those taken by Hitler in the
1930’s I feel there is and can be drawn examples of events that compare to what
transpired back then. Events that have posed an imminent threat to our Republic
form of government and our cherished rights provided by the US Constitution and
the Bill of Rights.
February, 1933 the German Reichstag burned to the ground and
now Chancellor Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to convince the German parliament to
grant him an emergency- powers decree suspending civil liberties and the
governments of the German federal states. This was allowed to happen partly
because the continued decline of the economy and the inability of the
democratic parties to form a united front, Hitler came to be recognized as the
de facto leader of the opposition
After Hitler was appointed
Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg he was able to convince
the German Parliament to give him emergency powers that allowed him to issue
decrees that effectively suspended German civil liberties. However, here in
America the power of the Executive Branch of our government is supposed to be
constrained by the Legislative and Judiciary Branch. President Obama doesn’t
believe in the constitutional constraints of the checks and balances that our
founding fathers set in place whose intent it was to prevent any of the three
branches of the American government to become more powerful than the other, (even
though he will say he does, his actions of trying to circumvent the Legislative
and Judicial Branches are stark revelations that he doesn’t.) So, like Hitler
he is trying to rule by decree, usually bypassing congress and having the department
of justice disagree with past rulings and attempt to go around the Judiciary.
The difference to me is that Hitler didn’t start issuing decrees until after he
was given authority to do so by the German President and parliament. Obama on
the other hand is attempting to rule by decree or executive orders and has done
so more times than any other American President in history. I have read to date
he (Obama) has issued several hundred executive orders many of which are considered
by several members of Congress to be in direct conflict and usurps his
constitutional authority or more importantly the provisions of the US
Constitution.
March, 1933 with an enabling act (a four year presidential
decree-law power that circumvented the Reichstag) Hitler was conferred by the
Reichstag with dictatorial powers and he then began to manage political
emergencies of the German State by decree. Given this new power Hitler and the
Nazi Party established totalitarian control; they abolished labor unions,
political parties and imprisoned their political opponents, sending them to
improvised camps and then to concentration camps.
April, 1933 the persecution of Jews became active Nazi
policy. On April 1, 1933 Jewish doctors, shops, lawyers and stores were
boycotted, and six days later the Law for the Restoration of the professional
Civil Service was passed. This law banned Jews from being employed in
government.
August, 1934 President Paul von Hindenburg died and no new
president was appointed. Instead the powers of the president and chancellor
were combined into the office of the Fuhrer. Because of this and now a tame
government with no opposition parties, allowed Hitler total control of
law-making. Also, the army swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler which gave him
power over the military.
May, 1935 Jews were forbidden to join the Armed Forces.
Also, anti-Jewish propaganda started appearing in German shops and restaurants
and The Nuremberg Racial Purity Laws were passed in addition to the Law for the
Protection of German Blood and Honor which prevented marriage between any Jew
and non-Jew. At the same time the Reich Citizenship Law was passed and
reinforced by a decree that all Jews even quarter or half Jewish were no longer
citizens of their own country. Their official status was reduced to that of
“subject of the state” which meant they had no basic civil rights, including
the right to vote.
For the balance of the 1930’s more laws and decrees were
passed by Hitler and the Nazis that banned Jews from all professional jobs.
Laws were passed that forbid government contracts being awarded to Jewish
businesses and that only the Aryan doctors could treat Aryan patients and since
Jewish doctors were banned from practicing medicine medical care to Jews was
seriously hampered. All of these anti-Jewish laws and decrees led to male Jews
having to add Israel to their names and female Jews had to add Sarah to their
names and a larger letter J was
imprinted on their passports. Soon after all Jewish children were banned from
attending normal schools.
As I have attempted to show in this thesis once Hitler assumed full
power and control of the German government (given to him by the parliament) was
the beginning of his efforts to strip all rights of German citizenship from the
Jews that the German constitution had given them in 1848. Again, while not as
overtly ruthless as Hitler or the Nazi government was in going about a systematic
stripping of the Jews civil rights which ultimately led to the annihilation of
more than six million of them the Obama administration is using the power of
the IRS, his appointed Attorney General
and the DOJ to silence his critics. Only in the case of today the term or
entity of those being targeted are not Jews instead they are Conservatives or any
American that believes the Federal Government has become too powerful and is
only interested in gaining complete power and control over its citizens, as the
actions being taken against them are primarily by decree or executive order, ignoring
the constitution’s guaranteed rights.
So, could what happened in Germany in the 1930’s happen here in America
today? As a veteran of the cold war and
one who is interested in history and the events that took place nearly 90 years
ago in Germany I believe not only that it could but is already taking place
now. The Obama Administration has resorted to Executive Order which to me is
nothing more than by decree as Hitler did in the 1930’s to eliminate all
Americans basic civil liberties and constitutional rights. Through executive
order he has attacked our 1st Amendment Rights through his Health
Care Law of forcing religious organizations or individuals to accept abortion,
birth control if they believe they are morally and spiritually wrong and goes
against their beliefs. He has attacked and tried to diminish our 2nd
Amendment Rights by issuing Executive Orders on gun control since his efforts
failed in congress. He has through executive order tried to go around the 4th
Amendment Rights by telling mental health professionals they must share
confidential doctor/ patient information of their patients to the Department of
Human Health Services if they have been treated for conditions that could be
interpreted (if it serves the interest of this administration and the gun
control advocates,) that they are a credible threat to society. While this is
cause for concern the issuance by Obama of an earlier Executive Order urging
health care professionals to question their patients if they have firearms in
their homes is yet another example of a tyrannical president and administration
disregarding our basic constitutional rights.
It is up to each of us to judge
this for ourselves and to rise up in opposition to an administration that is
ruling by decree as Hitler did in the 1930’s and exercise our basic civil
rights granted in the U.S. Constitution while we still can if we think not only
could this happen in America but in reality already is.
One of the greatest statesman of the 20th century, Winston
Churchill was quoted when talking about power, the following “When one has
reached the summit of power and surmounted so many obstacles, there is a danger
of becoming convinced that one can do anything one likes and that any strong
personal view is necessarily acceptable to the nation and can be enforced upon
one’s subordinates.” My personal view Mr. President is you can’t and won’t
impose your strong personal view on me and a vast majority of all Americans.
Ralph L Myers
January 8, 2014
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