Dangerous Parallels-Election Year 2024, Pick Your Poison!

 Dangerous Parallels-Election Year 2024, Pick Your Poison.

By Ralph L Myers

With the 2024 Presidential election looming, America is facing serious consequences. The fate of the Republic and Democracy is on the line, depending on the outcome of the election, as many from both the left and right political spectrum are fearing, based upon their opinions. Being a conservative, I support the viewpoint of the right, most times. Trying to decide how or for whom I should vote is probably the most difficult this year than in all the other presidential elections I have voted in since 1964. Sadly, this election also presents a scenario where either person elected may be unfit to serve as the president of the greatest nation on earth. Although the constitution does not permit it, I say sarcastically, maybe it is time for America to consider adopting the policies of other countries where a vote of no confidence leads to a new election and the formation of a new government. While this idea may further divide America, it is imperative to control a federal government that is currently prioritizing its own agenda over the principles of the founding fathers, “For the People, and by the People, and of the People.”

This essay will be a comparison of Nazi Germany 1933-1945, and the outcome of what many consider the reshaping or destroying of the American Republic, or Democracy depending on who wins the 2024 Presidential Election Biden, Trump, or another, in a fair election?

Let’s start with Nazi Germany, 1930s as Hitler comes to power.

January 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Reich Chancellor. 

 

In 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. The granting of these emergency powers could happen because of the continued decline of the economy, and the inability of the German democratic parties to form a united front, allowing Hitler to be recognized as the de facto leader of the opposition.

 

In March 1933, an enabling act, (a four-year presidential decree-law power that circumvented the Reichstag) Hitler was conferred by the Reichstag with dictatorial powers, he then managed 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 impoverished camps.

 

In April 1933, the persecution of Jews became an active policy. On April 1, 1933, Jewish doctors, shops, lawyers, and stores were boycotted, and six years later the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed. This law banned Jews from being employed in government.

 

In 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 Fuher Hitler. Because of this, and now a tame government with no opposition parties, allowed Hitler’s total control of law-making. Also, the Army swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler, which gave him power over the military.

 

In May 1935, Jews were forbidden from joining the armed forces. * Also, anti-Jewish propaganda started appearing in German shops and restaurants and the Nuremberg Racial Purity Laws were passed besides the law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor which prevented marriage between any Jew and non-Jew. The Reich Citizenship Law was passed and reinforced by a decree that all Jews, even a quarter of 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.

 

When Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazis set out to reconstruct German society. To do that, the totalitarian government attempted to exert complete control over the populace. Every institution was infused with National Socialist ideology and infiltrated by Nazi personnel in chief positions. Schools were no exception. Hitler had hinted at this even before coming to power in Mein Kampf (My Struggle 1925-27.) He had his plans for broad educational exploitation. The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda exercised control over every form of expression, radio, theater, cinema, the fine arts, the press, churches, and schools. The control of the schools began in March 1933 with the issuing of the first educational decree, which held that German culture must be treated thoroughly.

 

In 1933 Hitler set up the Hitler Youth organization. Its purpose was to educate and train male youth in Nazi principles. By 1935, almost 60% of all German boys belonged to the organization. On July 1, 1936, it became a state agency that all young Aryan Germans were expected to join. Also, two youth leagues existed for girls, The League of German Girls for girls ages 14 to 18, (Bund Deutscher Madel) and Jungmadel, (Young Girls, 10-14 years of age.)  

 

Throughout the 1930s, Hitler and the Nazis passed more laws and decrees that prohibited Jews from holding professional jobs. Laws were passed that forbid government contracts from being awarded to Jewish businesses and that only Aryan doctors could treat Aryan patients, and since Jewish doctors were banned from practicing medicine medical care for Jews was seriously hampered. 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 by the Nazis from attending regular schools.

 

November 9-10, 1938, the hatred, persecution, and violence towards Jews reached a violent breaking point throughout all of Germany as Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked as attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps.^] British historian Martin Gilbert wrote that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and the accounts from foreign journalists working in Germany drew worldwide attention The Times of London observed on 11 November 1938: “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.”

Estimates of fatalities caused by the attacks have varied. Early reports estimated that 91 Jews had been murdered. Modern analysis of German scholarly sources puts the figure much higher; when deaths from post-arrest maltreatment and subsequent suicides are included, the death toll reaches the hundreds, with Richard J. Evans estimating 638 deaths by suicide.

 

Historians view Kristallnacht as a prelude to the Final Solution and the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

 

·       I believe it is worthwhile to note, in World War I, that 100,000 German Jews fought for Germany. Twelve thousand of them were killed, and 18000 were awarded the Iron Cross. Adolph Hitler was awarded an Iron Cross by his Jewish Lieutenant Hugo Guttman. Even during WWI, the Jews were looked upon with suspicion, and in 1916, at the peak of the war, the military issued a census of Jews, (Judenzahlung). The purpose was to show the Jews were responsible for Germany losing the war. However, this could not be proven, and the census was never published.

 

I have gone to extreme lengths in describing Nazi Germany and the policies of Adolph Hitler in the 1930s. My reason for this is to draw a parallel between the platforms of the Democratic Party under the leadership of President Biden, and his Republican opponent, Donald Trump. Especially because Trump is often labeled as being like the Nazis were in the 1930s, when to me, in reality, the Democratic Party of today wants many things to happen under their watch, much as Hitler did, and as they accuse Trump of advocating. For the rest of this essay, I will attempt to explain why I feel this way, and choosing who to elect as our next president is indeed a conundrum.

 

It only seems natural to start the comparison of 1930s Germany with the current candidate, and former president, Donald Trump, as he is the one most accused of or charged with being Adolph Hitler reincarnated.

 

Mr. Trump has made many claims in his campaign to date about what he will do if elected in November 2024. CNN’s Abby Turner authored an in-depth article about fourteen promises he has made. While I will not address every one of those promises in this article, I will talk about some of them. I will compare what has happened in America under the Biden administration, and how they have affected American culture like Hitler did in the 1930s. Hitler also established the Hitler Youth organization, first for boys, and then later for girls. Its purpose was to educate and train all German boys in Nazi principles.

 

In education, Mr. Trump has promised he will put parents back in charge and give them the final say.

 

During Hitler's 1930s, he infused every institution with Nazi ideology, placing members of the party in chief positions with the goal of exploitation of education. All forms of expression, radio, theater, cinema, the fine arts, the press, churches, and schools are under the control of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment.

 

However, in the Biden administration, “Woke culture, parental authority over their children taken away, attacks on religious values, the creation of gender identity,” to name but a few, and an overall attack on America’s sovereignty. Instead of an organization like the Hitler Youth, the Biden administration has set up its own Ministry of Public Enlightenment, which here in America is the Democrat-controlled media, the teacher’s union, and the radical left’s politically correct wokeness.

 

The rise in crime in America seems to be out of control. A major reason for this is the progressive left, and the Democrats are too lenient on criminals, including recidivists. They want to coddle the criminal elements in society today, blaming their criminal acts on sociological inequities, many of them manufactured by radical left prosecutors, the war on the police. That, and the weaponizing of the American Criminal Justice System, and the DOJ. I speak of this from experience as a survivor of a murdered son whose murderer was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison and is now paroled, out walking the streets as a free man, given a second chance at life. Something my son will never have the opportunity of. The Biden administration has pursued Donald Trump primarily for its entire three years in power, and the four years of Mr. Trump’s time in office as president. President Biden, and his administration’s actions, mirror that of Hitler during the 1930s as he has marshaled the forces of the media, DOJ, and FBI like to destroy Mr. Trump as a political dissident and opponent. It was in February 1933 that Hitler used similar tactics to Biden has when he persuaded Hindenburg to convince the German parliament to grant him an emergency powers decree that allowed him to establish totalitarian control over Germany. Mr. Biden, as president, certainly has executive powers granted to him by the constitution, but this same document places limits on his actions, and he like Hitler did not like the freedoms granted in it to the Volk, (people.)

 

What Mr. Trump promises, if elected, is to instruct the Department of Justice to open civil rights investigations into the “radical left” prosecutors’ offices that engaged in racial enforcement of the law, and to encourage Congress to use their authority over Washington, DC, to restore “law and order” and overhaul federal standards of disciplining minors to address rising crimes like carjackings. He will not hesitate to send in federal law enforcement to restore peace and public safety. This promise by Mr. Trump is far less onerous, or a threat to democracy than what has been happening since 2021.

 

From 2008 until 2016, then Vice President Biden, along with President Obama, waged a non-stop attack on American’s right to bear arms as guaranteed by the 2^nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Once Mr. Biden became president, his utter disregard for his oath of office, wherein he swore to uphold the Constitution, became more emboldened. Through executive order, weaponizing of the ATF, and DOJ, an all-out war broke out between the administration, and advocates of gun ownership, and the right to bear arms. Our founding fathers warned citizens should and even must maintain the right of firearm ownership as a means of protection from a tyrannical government. If firearms are confiscated, that means only criminals will have them, plus the same government officials will be protected by guns vis-à-vis armed bodyguards.

 

We often hear that Hitler banned guns in Germany when he came to power. Records show that he actually lessened gun control. However, he advocated that only members of the Nazi party should be allowed to have guns. It is paradoxical in a sense if Biden is successful, this would be the effect of firearm ownership becoming illegal in America. Only government officials, and of course always the criminal element in society since they do not obey laws anyhow, would have guns. Mr. Trump has promised to tear up Biden’s executive order targeting the firearm industry. He also has promised his administration will not infringe upon our Second Amendment Rights, and push Congress to pass a concealed carry reciprocity.

 

Anti-Semitism and hate are probably at the highest level since the Second World War. Even our own government, while supporting Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, at the same time favors the creation of a Palestinian state. I subscribe to the Israeli belief that a Palestinian State would irrevocably harm Israel’s right to exist and would bring about its demise much sooner. The Biden Administration wants to place limitations on how Israel can fight those that are avowed to destroy it. Most recently, the U.S. did not support Israel in a vote at the UN General Assembly, as it voted in favor of a cease-fire. Adding that to Senator Charles Schumer advocating for a new election in Israel to replace Netanyahu, which to me is a blatant attempt to influence an overthrow of a duly elected government of a sovereign nation, has caused Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to cancel a visit to the United States and the Whitehouse. This certainly fits Webster’s definition of irony in these events. They are incongruous, not consistent with, or suitable to the surroundings between the expected results of a sequence of events. The Democrats in the 2016, and 2020 elections railed against the so-called Russian influence on America’s presidential elections.

I think no matter who I vote for in 2024, the winner of the election may well be leading us on a course to fascism. Biden’s policies during the past four years and leftist views are fascist, and Trump's statements of what he will do if elected again I can see are easily interpreted as being fascist. However, I believe Mr. Trump’s MAGA Movement is the correct way.

 

While President Biden is criticizing Mr. Netanyahu’s desire to defend the borders of Israel, he is at the same time allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to flow across our borders. Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to protect the citizens of Israel, while President Biden wants to weaken our security and sovereignty by allowing an unlimited number of illegal aliens to invade our country. To me, I see this as a not-so-thinly veiled attempt at assuring an unfair 20234 election as these undocumented aliens will vote.

 

I look at our choice in 2024 not so much as the end of democracy and the beginning of fascism as I do rebalancing the power of control by the federal government, and transferring it back to the people, as our founding fathers intended it to be. I remember the late Senator Edward Kennedy saying in the 1980s when the government was more conservative under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan, “We will be back,” meaning as I understood it to mean, a return of a more liberal approach of governance. My only worry is that the election will be fair, and not decided by millions of votes of illegal immigrants or those that are not entitled to vote. This being said, election year 2024, pick your poison!       

Write thoughts on historical rebellions.

 Write Thoughts on Historical Rebellions

By Ralph L Myers

Recently, President Biden said, during a press conference announcing his new gun crime prevention efforts, “The Second Amendment has always had limitations, and those who think they need weapons to overthrow a tyrannical government would need F-15 fighter jets and nuclear weapons.” But what he really means is, just in case, and to be on the safe side, we better disarm those who would attempt to overthrow a tyrannical government.

I don’t argue with Mr. Biden’s logic that American gun owners would not stand a chance against the U. S military’s might and power. But I disagree with him if he thinks, even for one moment, the oppressed citizens of America would not fight back in the face of overwhelming odds against them. Let’s look back on some historical precedents, starting with our American Revolution.

On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops set off from Boston toward Concord, Massachusetts, to seize weapons and ammunition stockpiled there by American colonists. Early the next morning, the British reached Lexington, where approximately 70 minutemen had gathered on the village green. Someone suddenly fired a shot—uncertain which side—and a melee ensued. When the brief clash ended, Americans had killed eight people and injured at least an equal number, while one redcoat had sustained a wound. The British continued on to nearby Concord, where that same day they encountered armed resistance from a group of patriots at the town’s North Bridge. The colonists and redcoats exchanged gunfire, resulting in the death of two colonists and three redcoats. Afterward, the British retreated to Boston, skirmishing with colonial militiamen along the way and suffering several casualties; the Revolutionary War had begun. Ralph Waldo Emerson later memorialized the incident at the North Bridge in his 1837 poem “Concord Hymn,” which opens with the stanza: “By the rude bridge that arched the flood/They unfurled their flag to April’s breeze/Here, the embattled farmers once stood/And fired the shot heard round the world.”

Nathan Hale, a heroic American patriot, uttered these powerful words during the American Revolutionary War. “Give me liberty or give me death.” His unwavering commitment to freedom and independence resonates throughout history. Historians believe that an American Colonist, soldier, and patriot named Patrick Henry uttered these powerful words during the American Revolutionary War. After being led to the gallows, legend holds that the 21-year-old Hale said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”    

 

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The wrong part will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death, to public liberty. ... What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as facts and pardon and pacify them. What signifies a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

 “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson.

 “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subject of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.” — Woodrow Wilson

“I am an American, free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”–Theodore Roosevelt.

 

Fighting against an overwhelming military, the Colonists faced a massive British Navy and Army. Just like President Biden has threatened. Throughout all phases of the American Revolution, they employed guerrilla warfare. First used at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, this style of unconventional fighting proved invaluable to the Continental Army. Revolutionary war tactics varied depending on the phase of the war and location. For instance, during the winter of 1777, Washington encouraged the military to raid British supply lines and ambush larger detachments of British soldiers to catch them by surprise in the Forage War. It ultimately resulted in about 900 casualties for the British. Similarly, George Washington used a spy network called the ‘Culper Ring’ to gain intelligence on British troops and troop movements, as well as spread disinformation to deceive the British into thinking that the Continental Army was much larger than it actually was. In the West, frontiersmen, such as Daniel Morgan, also took part in fighting and harried British forces for portions of the war.

However, the greatest use of guerrilla warfare during the American Revolution occurred during the Southern Campaign. During the later years of the war, the American general, Nathanael Greene, and Baron Friedrich von Steuben actively employed guerrilla warfare. In the forests of the South, Greene could draw British forces away from their supplies and then engage them with small fighting units to inflict damage. By dividing his forces, Greene could spread his soldiers across a wider area. As a result, British General Charles Cornwallis and the Southern detachment of the British Army often found extreme difficulty finding the Americans and successfully contending with them in skirmishes.

 

Our third president, James Madison, stated, “Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.” To me, this is what President Biden has in mind with his F-15, nuclear weapons comment. I believe David, with far less inferior weapons to what Goliath had, prevailed in his battle with the help of God. The odds of patriots succeeding in a battle against the government are impossible. The administration should not take them for granted.

President Madison also observed, “The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences of the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.   

The anti-gun, anti-second amendment proponents often resort to an argument that the firearms available during the founding of America and the establishment of the 2^nd Amendment, the technology of firearms in America’s founding is entirely different from that of today. James Madison made this observation clear about this when he said, “The Second Amendment isn’t about technology, and it isn’t even about guns. “It’s about a principle, the right and ability to overthrow a tyrannical government. That principle is as legitimate today as it was in 1791.”

The right and advice to overthrow a tyrannical government probably doesn't exist in other countries, unlike what America's founding fathers advocated when drafting the Bill of Rights. Military and civil coups are as old as civilization itself. To say that America has reached the boiling point of another civil war, and civil insurrection, is not far-fetched. She has far too many problems that are being ignored, or advocated by an administration that too many are tyrannical.

The purpose of my essay is to express my opinion and observation of what I sincerely and fearfully feel is the path America is on. Unless we alter the direction she is heading, it may well be the death rattle of the Republic and democracy.

Ralph L Myers  

Christianity and Christians, adversaries against the Evil One

 An online publication, "The Daily Digest," has published an article about research showing that those they have labeled as Christian Nationalists and Christians who believe the Holy Bible is to be taken literally are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.

As in every argument, I think it is necessary to put all arguments in a proper context. The article used Christians' religious beliefs as a basis to assume that all of them believe in conspiracy theories. The article has, in a sense, profiled Christianity. Profiling is a practice that the secular world decries. Yet, it appears to be a major tool used by secularists to discredit those whom they don't agree with.

The argument that Christians are more susceptible to believing in "conspiracy theories" falls right into a definition known as "the fallacy of composition," which states that the fallacy of composition is an informal fallacy that arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole.

Scripturally, in 2 Timothy 3:13-16 Christians receive a warning about evil men and seducers who continuously worsen, deceiving and being deceived. 10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, 11Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But you, continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

This article exemplifies the battle that is raging in the U. S, and the secular world today. A battle between evil, yes Satan, and the scripture's teachings. 

Ralph L Myers