SOME SCARY SIMILARITIES

By Ruth Sheets

Lately, things in the good old US of A are getting a bit scary, and that is on purpose.  One of our political parties, Republicans, has decided that democracy might not be what they want for America.  The party and its corporate managers want something else.  It is not clear just what that would be, but they are throwing spaghetti ideas against the wall to see which stick. 

OK, calling what Republican leaders are throwing against the wall, “ideas,” is probably inaccurate, but the truth is, what they are tossing with the greatest arm strength are ways to ignore our Constitution, how to lie incessantly and break laws with impunity, models for cheating the American people of our rights, while gaslighting their supporters and the rest of us that they are doing no such thing.  You’ll probably remember that gaslighting comes from the movie “Gaslight” in which a husband tries to drive his wife mad by changing lighting levels and other things around the house and either pretending he doesn’t notice the changes, so they must be all in her head or that she must have made the changes herself and doesn’t remember. 

Republicans no longer hide their racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, or xenophobia.  These have been integral to the party for decades but what used to be said behind closed doors is now spoken openly, while practitioners claim “I don’t have a racist/sexist bone in my body” or other inaccuracies.  Then, We the People are told we really didn’t hear what we heard, see what we saw, and aren’t being threatened the way we are being threatened.  The Republican in Chief brags of violence erupting if he is indicted on charges for crimes he actually committed.  He doesn’t admit the crimes or simply claims he had the right to do them by virtue of him being president or just being Trump).

We’ve seen some of the Republican-inspired violence at Charlottesville in 2017, the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, and smaller outbreaks all over the country.  Now, Democrats and anyone who does not go along with the Republican playbook of lies, hatred, targeting, and dehumanization of women and non-white people, often receive death threats and warnings. Trump himself warns that if he is elected president again, he will take revenge on all of those terrible people who crossed him.

To me, this is sounding an awful lot like Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s.  The economy was bad after World War I and the people’s anger and frustration were carefully funneled into blaming and hatred of Jews, despite the fact that Jews had fought on Germany’s side during the war, were making significant scientific advancements for their country, and were integrated into nearly every part of German life. 

When the fires of hatred had been sufficiently stoked by Hitler and his band of thugs, they moved on to maligning political figures who opposed the newly powerful Nazi Party.  When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he had those political leaders rounded up and thrown into prison camps, those who were not killed.  Once Jews were safely on the nation’s hit list, the Nazis needed more groups to hate, so the net expanded to include:  Communists; the Roma people; Jehovah’s Witnesses; “homosexuals,” then, disabled persons as burdens on society.  The thought must have been that everyone in Germany would find at least one group among the many targets they could hate sufficiently to permit harm to be done to them.  

The horrors the Nazis and their allies perpetrated on the people named above did not begin all at once.  Those in power had to do it a bit at a time so the German public could get used to seeing Jews and others, men, women, and children, at first humiliated, then beaten, then murdered in the streets.  When the trains rattled toward the concentration camps filled with those Germany had decided had little or no right to live, neighbors might notice some folks missing, but they could lie to themselves they had just left the country for somewhere else.  And, the freight trains were carrying trash, right?  It seems we humans can convince ourselves of just about anything with the right motivation.  Hitler et al could not have done what they did without a whole lot of community participation.  Many Germans after the war said they didn’t know what was happening.  I suppose they thought it made their post-war suffering seem undeserved, even righteous.  They may not have known the details, but they knew enough. 

Our current position is at the top of the slippery slope toward some kind of autocracy or oligarchy (it is uncertain which Republicans and their rich puppeteers are hoping for).  Either type of government would be disastrous for this nation.  Loud-mouthed Trump painted a picture of revenge that soothes the hearts of people who believe they are entitled to something they don’t yet have.  Clearly if they don’t have everything they want like the rich men they admire, someone must have kept them from it, sounding similar to the propaganda that was ubiquitous in 1930s Germany.  In both cases, the leader claims to be the only one who can save them from this horror. 

 German media played classical music while regularly breaking in to spew lies, both the positives the leaders were supposedly doing and the negatives about the targeted groups.  All day into the late evening it played.  One could be fined for not having the radio on.  That’s kind of like Fox for many Republicans, twisted/alternate facts, all day, all the time, (no good music, though).

 Our media, owned by rich corporations rather than a corrupt government as in Germany, is failing our people as the media of Nazi Germany failed the German people.  Our media claims to be “fair and balanced” even when it gives as much coverage to an extremely minor, unsupported viewpoint as to a viewpoint that has a strong majority, even scientific support.  Whatever Donald Trump, an ex, twice-impeached president does or says is covered extensively by the media, often with no indication as to whether what he has said is the truth or what he has done is legal, a continuation of a practice for the past 8 years. 

By the mid-1930s, the German courts no longer even pretended to hand down justice, just the rulings Hitler and his crew wanted.  Our courts are acting in similar ways.  They care little to nothing for what the American people want or need, mostly what matches their personal beliefs and their corporate donors’ desires.  One might think the Supreme Court, having lifetime appointments and decent salaries wouldn’t get donations, but alas, there are plenty of corporations, in exchange for judgments on their behalf that will donate.  Who can call them out on it since there is no standard of ethics for the Supremes?

Last year, the media spent more time worrying over who leaked the Alito draft of the anti-woman, anti-Roe BS at the Supreme Court than what pain the decision would cause women in the poorest states with the least ability to withstand forced birth.  It was clearly Alito who leaked the anti-Roe draft to his family or friends.  He was just so proud of his poorly reasoned, ignorant draft he just couldn't stop himself.  His targets, women of reproductive age.  The Alitos in our society are still going after women and our right to bodily autonomy.  They hope this will all be taken care of soon and women will be properly cowed.  Like the Germans, once one group is dealt with, move on to the next target to keep the people off-balance fearful they might be next.  Scared people can be manipulated. 

Trump and Kump’s next target is the LGBTQ community, trans children and youth in particular, vulnerable young people who often require some medical intervention and counseling to manage their gender dysphoria.  Through laws passed by mostly ignorant, pseudo-Christian legislators, families and doctors are threatened with severe fines and imprisonment if they treat trans young people.  Women protested after Roe fell and are trying to find ways to get around the rabid red state white legislatures.  Some people are standing with trans youth, but who will help get those young people what they need when basic medically proven treatments become illegal and unavailable?  We have seen the “drag” community targeted in several states as though “drag” is a new thing.  The Germans didn’t like “drag” much either and stomped on that too.

We have seen the police brutalize communities, kill young Black men just because, break up peaceful protests, and other tactics used by the German police 90 years ago.  Back then, people who spoke up were often silenced while the police became more and more powerful and unethical.  Sound familiar?   

The really scary part for me is, what’s next?  Which states will begin the killing?  Imprisoning folks for almost nothing, including inability to come up with bail, is already going on.  White men (only) are encouraged to have guns and the laws in many places now let them open carry with no permit or background check.  All they have to do, just as the police have been doing, is say, "I feared for my life," when they shoot someone they don't like or approve of.  Children are murdered in schools, but somehow Republicans just can’t manage to outlaw military-type weapons in the civilian community. 

Some members of our congress are insurrectionists who claim the various elections have been stolen when they are clearly lying.  A representative, albeit from a backwater part of Georgia, says she wants a civil war and with others, is trying to get things going.  The House of Representatives has as Speaker, a fool, Kevin McCarthy who wanted the Speaker title more than he cared about our Constitution and our nation and proves it every day in office.  The media seemed mostly OK with this.  Congressional Republicans were OK with McCarthy’s handing over classified materials to an insurrectionist media madman.  How is this acceptable?  This too parallels the Nazi rule. 

German corporations weren't too concerned about what Hitler was doing as long as they were bringing in the bucks.  Heck, they even got the slave labor of Jews and the other hated groups to keep them going while "the boys were at war."  If fascism happens here as some Republicans would like, would our corporations be right there, thinking up ways to use their fellow American citizens for their corporate profit and other benefits?

We the People need to find ways to stop a repeat of the suffering of 1930s Germany here.  We can't wait and hope things will blow over.  There are already a bunch of scared white people who believe they deserve power over those they think of as “non-humans.”  Why, they should be able to make them servants (slaves maybe, or dead).  I am guessing many of the MAGAs would be happy to participate in harming, mass-imprisoning those people, a few at first, then more and more of them over time to get even, for something they wouldn't have to name. 

Many conservatives/Republicans don’t want students or really, anyone to study the holocaust.  Probably, it’s because if we study it, we will start to notice the scary similarities between what happened to get the horrors going in Germany and the taking away of citizen rights here and now, , the rights to:  vote, bodily autonomy, medical care, be LGBTQ or whatever we are meant to be, affordable housing, seek asylum, learn the full flow of American history, read books we choose, have dependable media, know the truth without the lies and gaslighting  by Republican politicians.  It's time for the downward slide into ignorance and cruelty to stop!  We can’t pretend we don’t know what’s going on!