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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Could this happen in America, or is it already happening?


 

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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