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 2nd 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!
