People who know me, know how fond I am of dispelling the notion that "the sky is falling" when it comes to doomsday politics. No POTUS in my lifetime has ever made me truly worry about them, because I studied the US Constitution, and I am well aware of the limitations of power in that office.
Until now.
For the very first time in my life, I am actually worried about this country.
I cannot count the number of times that I have dialed people down in using the term "Hitler" to describe The Orange One. To me, historical context around that name is extremely important, as in order for Hitler to come to power in the first place took an inordinate type and number of circumstances. Permit me a little cold (and high altitude) history lesson, but please do note some striking similarities:
WWI was a war that Germany (which was a relatively new country at the time) was ill-advised to get into in the first place with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (that was collapsing); they had been decimated in terms of the number of young men who died needlessly, which helped to bring industry in Germany to a grinding halt; the Treaty of Versailles mandated that Germany repay the other European countries for war expenses and did not allow Germany to keep an active military. The eventual default of Germany on their loans resulted in an economic micro-depression before the Great Depression of 1929 making the German Deutschmark completely worthless. DM1,000,000 could not buy a loaf of bread. Hyper-inflation, starvation and disease gripped the entire country, and the German people were left holding an empty bag. People left the country in droves as economic refugees. Pretty damned hopeless.
In 1918, a ne'er-do-well named Anton Drexler started a little movement in Bremen, Germany in order to restore the economy and national pride to Germany. The truth is, there many such groups in Germany that were tried to do this, but Drexler's group gained the public trust. In February 1920, this group became known as "Der Nationalsozialistische Sozialdemokrat Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" (National Socialists German Workers Party), better known as the NSDAP, or Nazis, and moved their headquarters to Munich. Their platform was that they would restore the God-given glory that absolutely belonged to the German people and do so thru citing "Christian beliefs, actions and ideals" as their central message.
In November 1923, the Nazis had an uprising against the Reichstag in Munich, led by a former Wehrmacht corporal, Adolf Hitler who was a soldier in the front lines of WWI. They were declaring that the German government was incapable of governing properly and tried to start a larger movement to overthrow it. They failed, miserably, and the Nazis were banned in the country. As a result of the uprising, Hitler and several others were jailed in March 1924, where Hitler wrote the book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) which became the playbook for the Nazi Party. In it, Hitler raged against those that started WWI and against the conservatives that were in power at the time because of their "weakmindedness" and inability to see things thru. Instead, he suggested it was time for the workers to take the country back as God originally intended. Hitler was pardoned from prison just a few months later, and with his party re-instated, managed to secure a seat in the German Reichstag.
The Nazi Party was definitely a fringe group, and despite the violence of their actions steadily grew more and more popular with a lot of the German people. In early 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire, and while it was never conclusively proven, the popular belief was that the Nazis did it. (They probably did) This was the last straw for President Von Hindenburg who had grown more and more scared of Hitler and his thugs. He made Hitler Chancellor of Germany and capitulated the entirety of the Reichstag to the Nazi Party.
Hitler immediately banned all other political parties, instituted martial law, suspended elections and the police departments in favor of a Nazi run organization called "der Gestapo" (who were basically nothing more than terrorists) and seeded the entire government with his cronies. He also appointed a new cabinet position called The Ministry of Propaganda and put his friend, Josef Goebbels as Minister. He assigned his very elite (and most psychotic) troops called the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron) or SS into roles in the Wehrmacht (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy) and the Luftwaffe (Air Force) in order to ensure that his control was complete. In November of 1938, the Nazis staged "Krystalnacht" (The Night of Broken Glass) against the Austrian Jews, which is considered to be the first act of The Holocaust.
Not wanting the rest on his "laurels", in 1938 he also annexed Austria and declared the Sudetenland (an area annexed by Poland within the borders of Czechoslovakia) was actually part of Germany; in 1939-1940 he invaded Poland, France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway and parts of Sweden and attacked England and so on......and from 1938 to 1945 managed to kill 85% of the Western European Jews, and most of the Romani, Jehovah's Witnesses, old and infirm and many, many, MANY more.
And all in the name of "Making Germany Great Again".
I am, in no way kidding. This is not hyperbole.
Historically, there have been several Constitutional items that kept Cheetos Christ from actually being Hitler. The first one was that the POTUS is only 1/3 of the government, and he's the weakest part of it in that his time is limited as are his powers. He is the Commander-In-Chief of the military. (but the military can refuse orders if they are illegal) He has the ability to pardon crimes. He has the power of veto from bills being passed into law, he can appoint judges to the Supreme Court and he has a limited ability to execute temporary measures called "executive orders"- and that's it. Full stop. He doesn't control the banks and he can't enact laws -not even thru Executive Orders . He doesn't employ the government (except for his immediate staff) and he has to answer to the people for his actions.
He is also a US Citizen, and as such he is held to the standard of the law.
Or should I say, he was. But that's not all. Not by a long shot.
Schedule F is a proposed restructuring of US Government personnel that would change 50,000+ government positions to be at the discretion of the POTUS. That is on The Orange One's radar, and if it becomes the law of the land, he will literally have 50,000 jobs that he controls and can say who has them or not. So much for cheques and balances.
In Project 2025, which is 900+ page document created by The Heritage Foundation- which is the transition plan from what we have now to complete Orangedom, it outlines things like the abolishment of the EPA, FBI, Department of Education and a host of other things that we have all taken for granted.
And, since this country's laws are based on the Rule of Precedent, once these things go into effect, it will be very difficult to extract ourselves from them.
With these three things and stroke of the pen on some tactically made Executive Orders, he will have roughly the same kind of power and control once afforded to little man with a bad moustache and Parkinson's disease that made a lot of trouble for a lot of people all over the world.
If you've read this far in this post, I sincerely hope that this comparative history lesson is making your blood run a little cooler that it was. If it hasn't done that, remember that the #1 reason that Germany started WWII was Hitler wanted to make Germany great again. And before you think that my entire alarm is over the similarity of *that guy's* slogan, think again. The similarities between what Donald of Orange has been thru and the things he's done are so eerily similar what happened back then. Remember, too, Hitler did NOT run on the promise of ridding the country of the Jews- that came later, and it wasn't his original idea. That, like Christian Nationalism, had been around for a long time, bubbling just under the surface, looking for a rogue hero to set it free. And look what that cost in the runtime.
I love this country. And I'm proud of my heritage as well. I can't stand to see what's happening here.
So- what do we do about it?
I've been thinking a lot about this. Here's some ideas:
- We all need to ardently defend our correct history in order to know what's wrong here. Know your Constitution. Know what's in it. It's not complicated.
- VERIFY the things you hear on ALL sides. I'm sorry, but I've heard a ton of refutable crap coming out of all sides of the rhetoric. It's more important now than ever to be accurate and discerning.
- Know the enemy and do your homework. Check out things like Project 2025 and Schedule F and the host of dysfunction that is headed our way. It's easy to find on the interwebs.
- GET INVOLVED! Do things like attend school board meetings and your local governments. There is great, great power at the local level.
- DO NOT BURY YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND. This is as real as it gets, folks. This country stands at the edge of a very dangerous precedence.
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