SEND in the STORM TROOPERS (Part III)

In my last Post, we took a look at some of the main tactics used by the Nazis in the 1930’s to win over the town of Northeim, and ultimately to win the support of the voters of Germany to their cause of establishing the Third Reich.  Each of those tactics can easily be seen as having a parallel in Radical Right Republican actions.

To review briefly, those tactics consisted of:

1.      Incessant propaganda – Republican radicals are particularly adept at this with unified themes and emphasis right down to the synchronized wording used by local operatives. 

2.      Keeping detailed records –Donald Trump’s suggestion for a database to track Syrian refugees (and other Middle Easterners) fits exactly into this tactic

3.      Adapting message to audience – Pandering to their ultra-conservative base is something most right-wing Republicans do best.

4.      Castigating the opposition continuously; using violence when necessary or expedient.  There are many examples of this from Republicans, but none as graphic and hate-filled as their acknowledged excoriation of President Obama at every opportunity. 

5.      Projecting an image of fervent patriotism and avid militarism. Donald Trump may be the epitome of tough talk that spurs nationalistic fervor. This last week, Republicans took advantage of the terrorist bombings in Paris and the rejection of Syrian refugees in some 31 states, culminating in the House passage of restrictive legislation pertinent to Syrian refugees. 

6.      Sending in the Stormtroopers – demonstrations of strength and violence are intimidating to most, and attractive to some which is why the Storm Troopers attended most Nazi rallies in their brown-shirt uniforms.  Just recently, Trump’s goons worked over a Black protestor who tried to bring attention to what many consider Trump’s racism.    

The Radical Republican objective is not a second amendment right to own a gun, but having the ability and power to take over a government that challenges their views, their politics and their way of life.

7.      Infiltrating local governments and offices –radical Republican takeover has already begun with their gains in municipal areas by running for school boards, councils and legislatures.

8.      Picking on an enemy (or scapegoat) –Just recently, Republicans chose to make the Syrian refugees the target of their villainous Xenophobia, potentially denying thousands of young families the ability to seek the safety and protection of this land. 

9.      Joining local organizations and movements and then promoting and proclaiming one’s own philosophy and cause(s) at every opportunity, such as a school board meeting or a coalition of churches.

10.  Using religion as a pawn—the Nazis warned the faithful to beware of fundamentally anti-church socialists and communists who were atheists.  Republicans constantly warn their Evangelical friends to be wary of the anti-Christian and socialist leanings of the national government.   Republican support for the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds is the epitome of this kind of manipulation of religion.

11.  Assisting workers and others down on their luck –This tactic is well known to both Radical Republicans and to Jihadists who have done similar “good works” in their respective areas.  The pandering of Republican presidential candidates to the pressing needs of the working class is another example of this. What they plan to do when in office is quite different.

12.  Emphasizing youth membership and give them very visible things to accomplish – by keeping its activities as much social and adventurous as political.  Republicans are paying special attention to religion-affiliated colleges where more right-wing students can be recruited to join the Young Republicans. 

13.  Destroying trust in government and its leaders –It is clear that radical Republican debasing of the political process and of the leadership of that process (including the President, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the former Speaker of the House) has produced a repugnance among the citizenry for the whole process of governing. 

14.  Using and abusing the election process to win offices and to gain control.  Gerrymandered districts, Super-PACs, attacks on voter registration and the ability to vote, plus attempts to manipulate the actual returns and voting processes, are all ways that Republican radicals have used and abused the election process. 

 In this Three-part posting, I have attempted to point out that citizens tend not to recognize an organized movement when we see such tactics and strategies in isolation one from another. That misperception turned out to cause major problems for the residents of Northeim, and of Germany.  We should not and cannot close our eyes to a collection of tactics that are now extant and clearly being used by ISIS and by the radical Right-wing of the Republican Party (abetted by more moderate Republicans who refuse to speak out). The weight of evidence points to a fascist strain in both of these uber-nationalistic movements.  Moreover, the tactics being used and supported by the Republican Party point to an authoritarian tendency that goes far beyond the checks and balances and other restrictions on governmental power built into our system of government (such as warrantless forced entries and lengthy incarceration for non-violent drug charges).   

It has been my contention that the concepts of the Third Reich are worth another look because they may provide basic insight into where we may be headed under Radical Republicans who:

• support Party purity and power;
• seem captivated by a strong Social Darwinist Leader (or “Fuehrer”);
• glorify the continual demonstration of military might by our armed forces, and
• militarization of our local police forces.

 Many Nazi documents spell out the primacy of these concepts, including the following example:

“The political guide and philosophical creative force of the unified people and the Reich is the Party. The Party is the bearer of the National Socialist conception and the moving force of state and people. From its ranks sprang the Fuehrer of the Reich and the supreme commander of the Wehrmacht.

“The Fuehrer is in command of the Party, the State and the Wehrmacht, all based upon the racial unity of the German people. The essence of the Fuehrer principle has thus become the central star of our entire political life.  

“The Wehrmacht is the arms bearer and the soldierly training ground of the German people….Every male German has the duty to do military service. In a state of war, beyond actual military service, it is the duty of every German man and woman to render service to the fatherland”  (from the Holocaust Museum archives). 

Finally, the author of “The Nazi Seizure of Power,” presents some compelling conclusions for our consideration, as he asks the question: what is to be learned from Northeim’s experiences?”

1. The Nazi electoral surge and seizure of power was done on the local level.  It was in hundreds of such localities that the Third Reich was born.  It can be argued that Democrats have not recognized the importance of local politics, while Republicans have infiltrated school boards, legislative councils and offices of mayor and county executive, and are winning state governorships and legislatures at a rapid pace.  They have gained substantial local control already. The quick response of mostly Republican Governors to the Syrian Refugee crisis is indicative of their gains at the state level.  Ironically, ISIS will surely benefit from Republican tactics in the treatment of Muslim refugees, making it easier to recruit others to their movement through excoriation of American tactics.
2. The most important factor in the victory of Nazism was the active division of the town along class lines.  Do we have to ask why Republicans favor the rich and only cater to the middle class and the working poor when it suits them to do so (for money and votes)?  The middle and upper classes of many local communities too often make it extremely difficult and almost impossible for those in poverty status and those in minority communities to grasp opportunities for advancement and enhancement.  Segregation is real.  Joblessness among certain minority groups is way out of proportion and a voice and presence in government, the unions, high-skilled industries, and even in skilled or semi-skilled labor is not encouraged, planned for or offered.  Educational assistance for our young people in poverty or minority status is also minimal. Much too often, certain groups are simply ignored.  The inevitable result in Germany:  some of the most brutal and vengeful of the local Nazi leaders were from the oppressed class, and their social resentment was obscene to say the least.  Can we expect any less vengeance from right-wing radical militias, or from gun-toting radical Rightists who believe that government is their enemy?  Can we expect any less resentment from the ignored, the dis-enfranchised, the jobless and the denigrated under-class of our own communities?

3. What was needed in Northeim was a coalition of decent and active citizens to recognize and oppose the destructiveness of the Nazi party, and lack of such a coalition made it easy for Nazis to gain control.  Progressives cannot dither around any longer.  There is some coalition-building happening in certain areas, but it is spotty at best.  Progressives are not generally or naturally ready to form coalitions because they are so often one-issue groups.  Collaboration is a necessity if the Right-wing conspirators are to be opposed and hindered in their quest for total control of society.   Encourage a coalition to start in your area, or find one and get involved, or simply join a campaign for a progressive candidate and volunteer to be an active member of a progressive organization.  Political apathy is the sure way to destruction of our democracy by the radical Right, and the lack of progressive coalition opposition is not encouraging.
4. The erosion of social activities and organizations through exploitative false threats and intimidation was a major factor in destroying the formal social fabric of Northeim.  In addition, the attack on institutions like schools and unions and small businesses resulted in an isolation that allowed a Nazi takeover.  The radical Republican Right has had a hand in destroying our unions, and in a move to destroy our public schools by farming them out to private companies for profit-making (Charter School movement).  These tactics are not just the actions of a few governors.  This is the platform and policy of the Republican Party. 

Isolation from our institutions is already beginning.  Will the isolation of religious groups that do not follow evangelical Christian doctrine and practice be next?  It has already begun, if you take very seriously the reaction of some of the Republican candidates to the Syrian refugees – some were willing to admit Syrian Christians (and probably meant by that Evangelical Christians).  Radical Republican discrimination and divisiveness is what they plan to bring to our nation as a whole, because it undermines our dedication to the principle that out of diversity comes a strong unity.

5. Perhaps worst of all was the ability of the Nazis to take over the towns and the nation because of something they helped to create in the hearts and minds of the people: a moral numbness that failed to see how much they had strayed from the ideals of their Judeo-Christian heritage.  The promotion of unquestioning patriotism --or rather of misplaced patriotism -- is a force that is invasive and destructive.  In touting American “exceptionalism” no matter the realities of our national life, is to numb us to realities that are destructive of our ideals and of our true patriotism.  We cannot and must not buy in to a cheap and ugly nationalism that makes excuses for educational, social and moral failures while celebrating militarism and mediocrity; that denies reality and settles for standards that denigrate our own heritage.

We are fortunate to have some progressive politicians and leaders right now in our nation who are calling us to recognize the moral dimension of our political and social actions.  The President is one who comprehends the danger of the radical Right to our way of life.  He has set a moral compass on true North, and we ignore his values and opinions to our own detriment and peril.  Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton both emulate his leadership in recognizing that what we do as a nation and as communities to aid and enhance the lives of others will determine how moral and just we are as a people.  “Exceptionalism” is not so much found in being first in various fields of endeavor, or being strongest militarily, or being out front earning unmatched profits.  Greatness or exceptionalism is rather found in how much we can, as a people and a nation, give to others; on what we can share to enhance life upon our earth, and on what we can promote so that others can have the opportunities that we have.  The Republican Right wing is attempting to pull us in the opposite direction so that we value self-protection more than accepting refugees; so that we value profit more than quality or equality, strength more than empathy, and self-aggrandizement rather than charity.  We must not allow Right-wing fanatics to rob us of our heritage, and to use a growing moral numbness as a tool of destruction of our democracy.

For example, the income gap is a moral issue because it harms the lives and souls of most of our people.  The lack of universal health care is a moral issue because care of the sick, the elderly, those with disabilities, those who are poor, those who are chronically ill, and those who are vulnerable to rare disease – their care is our moral responsibility (according to our major religions), especially if they have no way to care for themselves.    Education of our young is not simply an obligation of citizenship, nor simply a program that spends our tax money; it is a duty to humankind.  We have a responsibility to produce and to nurture the best-educated, best-prepared, best-thinking people that we can possibly produce for the benefit of all of the people of our society and of the world.   Equal access to a broad-based, factual and scientific Public Education is the means by which we develop an informed and productive citizenry as well as effective and just systems of government, commerce, trade and social welfare that are truly exceptional.  Most importantly, we must each make a moral commitment to personal involvement in every way that is necessary for the well-being of all.

6. In Northeim, it was not only a moral numbness that allowed Nazism to flourish.  It was also a lack of comprehension of what was going on or of what could happen if this National Socialist Party were to garner electoral success.  What people saw was maybe one or two aspects of their hideousness, and easily dismissed such aberrations, but few seemed to comprehend the fullness of their lust for power, and the horrific tactics they would use to achieve that goal.  The “Niemoller warning” was, after all, a reminder that many in Germany overlooked the aberrations until it was too late to stop the takeover and the carnage.

In the past two posts, I have tried to lay out for you a compendium of the strategies and tactics of the Nazis that closely parallel those of ISIS and of the Right wing fanatics of the Republican Party (and their spineless neo-conservative supporters).  I am not claiming that the Republican Party consists of a bunch of Nazis. What I am saying is that there are abroad today the same tactics and strategies used by the Nazis to gain total control of the German government in the Third Reich.  Taken together, those Right-wing tactics and strategies are a threat to our democracy.  If we don’t act against them now, and rid ourselves of candidates and office-holders who are the promoters of such immoral actions and beliefs, we shall surely have to learn to live in a much more brutal, stifling, oppressive and unjust world than we presently inhabit. 

Above all, I am saying that the Republican Radical Right must be soundly defeated in 2016.

SEND In the STORM TROOPERS (Part II)

In my last post, I discussed the broad strategies of the Nazi Party of the 1930’s related to the takeover of a small town in central Germany; the town of Northeim, as told in the book, “The Nazi Seizure of Power” by William Sheridan Allen.   Author Allen told us about some of the strategies used, and I summarized them under four large headings: 1) Use Outside Threat(s), 2) Use False Hope, 3) Send in the Storm Troopers, and 4) Seize Complete Control.  In today’s post, it is important to explore the tactics used by the Nazis at the grass-roots level, in order to bring that town, and all of Germany, within its complete control. 

It is of great importance in our current circumstances to illuminate the one weapon used most effectively by the Nazis, and that is the engendering of reactions that further their cause.  The point cannot be over-blown that what ISIS counts on in terms of their strategies and tactics is the reaction of those who are on the receiving end of their threats.  They must be overjoyed by what they have seen, particularly in the United States.  In France and Europe, they are witnessing a growing concern to restrict air travel, to tighten entry surveillance, to ramp up all kinds of additional surveillance, and to lessen the restrictions on search and seizure.  It is quite similar to the reactions of the Bush administration after 9/11.  The more reactions they provoke that instill fear and restriction of freedom, the closer they are to their goal of total control.

More to the point, ISIS must be absolutely exuberant over the Xenophobia exhibited by most of the Republican presidential candidates (along with a majority of Governors and a huge majority of the House Representatives who pushed legislation to keep Syrian refugees out of the country for now).  The candidates and their followers have issued all kinds of warnings and actions regarding keeping Syrians from crossing our borders for fear that some of them may be Jihadist terrorists. Calling for substantial boots on the ground in Syria, as well as taking restrictive and prejudicial actions against Muslims, are additional actions and attitudes that serve the Jihadists’ cause.  Take just the one example of about eight Syrian refugees (including four children) who presented themselves at the Mexican-US border in Texas.  That circumstance was immediately used by Donald Trump (and others) as a foregone conclusion that they could be terrorists.  Turns out, they were families with children who presented themselves to authorities rather than crossing undetected (i.e. illegally).

One point:  those who react with threats of war and threats of more surveillance and repressive actions that reduce individual rights are playing right into the hands of the terrorists, as the citizens of Germany did with the Nazis of long ago. 

The over-reactors like Trump and Carson are cultivating the possibility of new members for the very terrorist cells that they want to destroy.  They lay the groundwork for recruitment of new Jihadist members by lumping all Muslims into the terrorist camp, and especially referring to refugees as "rabid dogs."  Those outcomes are exactly what the Nazis wanted, and are a tremendous help to the Jihadi terrorists in preparing the groundwork for attitudes upon which they can build.  Let us, then, not support those who unwittingly support the terrorists by their words and actions.  Creating fear, suspicion, xenophobia and repression is not helpful, and the radical Republicans fail miserably in understanding that their reactions are helping to build the ISIS movement. 

In addition, we have to point out the obvious: the problem is not with Syrian refugees. There were no Syrian refugees involved in the latest attacks in Paris.   And, of the 2,000 Syrian refugees accepted into our country since 2011, NONE have been arrested or deported for terrorism!  The real problem is the fertile ground in which home-grown terrorists are being cultivated (recruited and trained) by ISIS for terrorist activity.  And that problem is exacerbated by xenophobic congressmen and women, and Republican presidential candidates (and others) who scapegoat innocent refugees (75% of whom are women and children).  The engendering of fear, hatred and scapegoating is a betrayal of our core American values.  It is also a classic tactic utilized by radical rightists in their quest for absolute power.  We should have learned this long ago.

With some editorial comment from me, I hope this posting will enable you to detect the parallel actions of radical Right Republicans and of Jihadi terrorists as compared with Nazis of the 1930’s.  Most recent events and past atrocities have indicated the fascist tendencies of ISIS and reactions to some of those events and their consequences have also shown more clearly what stripes are being carried by the Right-wing radicals of the Republican Party.  Here are a few of the Nazi tactics that deserve your scrutiny and understanding in relation to our own national circumstances.

• Incessant propaganda – Republican radicals are particularly adept at this with unified themes and emphasis right down to the synchronized wording used by local operatives.  Not only do they make use of propaganda to convince an unthinking public of their beliefs and policies, they use lies and manufactured crises and threats to put fear in voters’ lives and misconceptions into their heads.  Just like Jihadi Terrorists, radical Republicans use this tactic to recruit new members as well. 
• Keep records – of all kinds: who attends meetings; topics that work; numbers in the audiences, etc.  Donald Trump’s suggestion for a database to track Syrian refugees (and other Middle Easterners) fits exactly into this tactic, as do special ID cards suggested by others.
• Adapt message to audience – adapt to public interests and what works.  Pandering to their ultra-conservative base is something most right-wing Republicans do best.
• Castigate the opposition and keep doing it; use violence when necessary or expedient.  One mechanism that worked well in Northeim was a weekly Nazi newsletter that contained furious attacks on the communists and the city council.  Jihadists tend to use electronic means and Republicans tend to use TV, especially Fox News, but are now using electronic social media and databases at a more effective level.  There are many examples of this from Republicans, but none as graphic and hate-filled as their acknowledged excoriation of President Obama at every opportunity. 
• Project an image of fervent patriotism and avid militarism.  Radical Republicans use this tactic whenever possible because Americans are generally receptive to it, as it is an integral part of the American experience.  Donald Trump may be the epitome of tough talk that spurs nationalistic fervor, but John McCain has always been the stirrer of the pot when it comes to war-talk.  This last week, Republicans took advantage of two circumstances that presented themselves: the terrorist bombings in Paris and the rejection of Syrian refugees in some 31 states, culminating in the House passage of restrictive legislation pertinent to Syrian refugees.  Such reactions were nothing more than bluster as most military solutions proposed by the Republicans for battling the terrorists have already been implemented by President Obama.  State restrictions on refugees are nothing more than symbols of toughness because Governors have no say over federal law that governs what happens with those seeking asylum or protection in this country. Nonetheless, they serve to promote nationalism and militarism.
• Send in the Stormtroopers – demonstrations of strength and violence are intimidating to most, and attractive to some.  Terrorism works to impress certain groups which is why the Troopers attended most Nazi rallies in their brown-shirt uniforms. 

Radical Republicans don’t support gun violence just because they support the 2^nd amendment right to own firearms.  They also support secret and not-so-secret militias; unrestricted carry and self-defense laws, and guns for children.  They vigorously support the idea that the more people carrying guns, the better prepared they are to fight off an out-of-control central government.  Their main objective is not a second amendment right to own a gun, but having the ability and power to take over a government that challenges their views, their politics and their way of life.

• Support and infiltrate local governments and offices – important to Nazi takeover and to radical Republican takeover (they have already made gains in municipal areas by running for school boards, councils and legislatures).
• Pick on an enemy (or scapegoat) – choose one that others will also identify as a problem –like Jews in Europe, illegal immigrants in America, and Christians or Israelis in the Middle East.  Just recently, Republicans chose to make the Syrian refugees the target of their villainous Xenophobia, potentially denying thousands of young families the ability to seek the safety and protection of this land.  At least twenty-eight Republican governors actually have led the fight to exclude those refugees from their states, in defiance of federal law, and 50 Democrat Representatives in the House just supported Republican passage of a bill that will do just that, but the President has vowed to veto.
• Join local organizations and movements and then promote and proclaim one’s own philosophy and cause(s) at every opportunity.  Ever been to a school board meeting or a coalition of churches where right-wingers are in abundance and are attempting to impose their beliefs on everyone present?  It’s not pretty.
• Use religion as a pawn—the Nazis warned the faithful to beware of fundamentally anti-church socialists and communists who were atheists.  They also excoriated the Weimar Republic which they said leaned toward communism and therefore would damage the Christian (Lutheran) church.  Sound familiar?  Republicans constantly warn their Evangelical friends to be wary of the anti-Christian and socialist leanings of the national government. 

Voter restrictions to combat voter fraud, walling off borders, abortion and same-sex marriage have been lead subjects for Republicans – why?  Because they know this is the way to garner solid support from middle class church-goers for what is essentially an immoral approach to denying homosexuals, African-Americans and Hispanic Americans (particularly Mexicans who cross our border illegally) as well as poor women and children certain benefits and rights to which they are entitled. The Republican support for the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds is the epitome of this kind of manipulation of religion. For Ultra-Rightists, Religion is a means to an end: a very useful pawn in their battle for control of people’s lives and their votes.

• Organize to assist workers and others down on their luck – when the depression got worse, the Nazis organized a soup kitchen to feed the unemployed but went even further to provide bed and shelter for those in need of a place to stay.  This tactic is well-known to both Radical Republicans and to Jihadists who have done similar “good works” in their respective areas.  It is a tactic and not charity, for they expect to recruit new members from such activities, much like the evangelical missionaries of a by-gone day and certain faith communities today.  The pandering of Republican presidential candidates to the pressing needs of the working class is another example of this. What they plan to do when in office is quite different, for they plan to destroy the programs and policies that aid the “unwashed” and the “unworthy” (read their budgets!).
• Emphasize youth membership and give them very visible things to accomplish – by keeping its activities as much social and adventurous as political, the Hitler Youth groups for boys and for girls made a lasting impression on its members and on the community.  Republicans are paying special attention to religion-affiliated colleges where more right-wing students can be found to join the Young Republicans. 
• Destroy trust in government and its leaders – the Nazis attacked and vilified a particular senator in the Civic Association of Northeim.  They did it for a reason that explains why Republican radicals vilify and downgrade government and prominent office-holders every chance they get. It’s also why they themselves act in a seemingly raucous and mean-spirited manner.  It is clear that radical Republican debasing of the political process and of the leadership of that process (including the President, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the former Speaker of the House) has produced a repugnance among the citizenry for the whole process of governing.   This attitude exists to the extent that a majority of Republican voters now favor outsiders (non-politicians) as their candidates for President in 2016.  The chief effect of the blockages, disharmony, disarray; the partisan bickering and the relentless attacks on President Obama is not to turn people away from a particular Party necessarily, but to undermine the People’s trust and respect for government itself and for its leaders.  Why? Because that very distrust and disgust can be used by a radical group to worm its way into power with a promise to make everything right through a strong authoritarian leader (Hitler, by the way, was a definite outsider and so were many of the local Nazi leaders!).
• Use and abuse the election process to win offices and to gain control.  This must be a never-ending pursuit and the Nazis did so over decades until elections were no longer needed.  Gerrymandered districts, Super-PACs, attacks on voter registration and ability to vote, plus attempts to manipulate the actual returns and voting processes are all ways that Republican radicals have used and abused the election process.  The fact that the Supreme Court has joined in this strategy by approving legal bribery in their Citizens United decision is abominable.

Although there may be other tactics used, the point of this exercise was mainly to point out that when we citizens see such tactics and strategies in isolation from one another, we think little of it as a movement or conspiracy.  That misperception turned out to cause major problems for the residents of Northeim.  We cannot close our eyes to a collection of tactics that are now extant, now being used by ISIS, and more especially by the radical Right-wing of the Republican Party (abetted by more moderate Republicans who do not speak out when they should).   The author of “The Nazi Seizure of Power” presents some compelling conclusions for our consideration, as he asks the question: "what is to be learned from Northeim’s experiences?”  More on that next time.

Send In the Storm Troopers (Part I)

The story begins in a small town in Germany in the 1920’s.  It was not, in many ways, an average German town.  It was mostly middle class and more rural than industrial.  It was overwhelmingly Lutheran, and surprisingly, it turned to Nazism earlier and more strongly than the rest of Germany.  Nonetheless, it had some representative characteristics:  sociological strengths and weaknesses of the Social Democrats; nationalistic attitudes of the local middle class; the growth of partisan activity and violence.  In other ways, it emulated small towns the world over, with its gossip, lack of privacy and the mostly benign social interactions of daily life.

The setting is the town of Northeim, located in the center of prewar Germany, a town in the former Kingdom of Hanover.  In the days of the Weimar Republic, it was still a small town with a population of about 10,000.  About one of every seven Germans lived in such towns.  In 1930, Northeim was the “kind of town that English tourists were fond of discovering: provincial and off the beaten track, semi-medieval.  It was nestled against one of the many low, wooded foothills that frame the valley of the Leine River.  It gave the town a sense of being snug, enclosed, protected from the outer world, symbolized by walls around part of the town, enclosing a medieval core of Northeim. 

Within an oval about six hundred yards long was a neat but imprecise jumble of half-timbered houses with steep red-tiled roofs along winding cobble-stone streets.  Along this main commercial avenue (Broad Street) were shops in about every house.  In the middle of the town was a wide square used for the weekly produce market and for open-air meetings.  Other open spaces included one in front of town hall, another in front of the large sixteenth-century Lutheran Church.  There were over five hundred houses in this old section for almost half of the townspeople lived there.  Emanating from that inner core were three areas where the town had expanded up the hill and toward each of the two rivers, one district for the rich, two others for the lower classes.  The center and essence of the town was that old medieval city surrounded by slowly crumbling walls.

As in much of Germany, World War I brought significant change, including a revolution led by the working class that overthrew the Kaiser and established a democratic Republic.  It created divisions and affiliations that had not previously been as pronounced.  Many Northeimers refused to accept the new state of affairs and became a relatively strong center for a far rightist organization, and nationalistic farmers.  On the other side were Socialists of whom many were students.  An indication of those divisions comes from the results of voting in the 1925 Presidential election: 

Socialist-Catholic candidate – 2.080 votes; 

Rightists – 3,375 votes; 

Communist – 19 votes.  

In addition, there were class lines between workers and bourgeois; occupational lines between the stable and the insecure; areas of segregation between the relative newcomers and the old families, and there were religious and social divisions.  There were also, of course, areas of common interest and cohesion such as local government, schools, clubs and interest groups.  They were somewhat united by religion as 86% of the townspeople were Lutheran.

The whole area where Northeim was situated had a reputation for being stubborn and reserved, as New Englanders were often said to be.  One man who came to Northeim in 1930 found that it “took him two years to get to know anyone well and to be accepted in social circles, even though he was fairly extroverted and held a job of high prestige.”

One final set of numbers reveals the class structure of the town in which there was certainly a petite bourgeoisie: the raw material from which Hitler forged his movement. 

            Lower class – 37% (unskilled and semi-skilled workers)

            Lower middle class – 32% (skilled workers, white-collar workers, farmers, pensioners)

            Upper middle class – 27% (craft-masters, civil servants, businessmen)

            Upper class – 4% (businessmen, self-employed, professionals)

The book is titled “The Nazi Seizure of Power” by William Sheridan Allen.  The author’s intention was to “understand one of the central political and moral problems of the twentieth century:  "how a civilized democracy could be plunged into a nihilistic dictatorship.”  This posting today is a lesser attempt to shine a little light on two groups who, in my estimation, mirror too many of the activities and beliefs of that nihilistic, ultra-nationalistic movement. 

It is impossible in this limited space and time, to present this thesis in great detail.  However, even an outline of the similarities between the beliefs and activities of the Nazi movement of the early twentieth century and those of Radical Right Republicans and the radical Jihadist terrorists of ISIS (or ISIL) is chilling enough to lead us to conclude that vigilance is a necessity. Sometimes Americans are led to pay far too much attention to the authoritarian and extremist views of the far Left (communism; socialism) and far too little to the nihilistic and destructive terrorism and authoritarianism of the extremists of the far Right (is that a 'tactic' in itself?).   

Let us return to the book to begin our research for this outline of similarities.  It is difficult to evoke or maintain a stable democracy in the midst of mass extremism, intolerance, a desperate desire for radical (or regressive) change, and a moral passivity.  All those factors and more were present in Germany then and in our nation now as the fertile “breeding grounds” for right-wing extremists.  Let us briefly explore the strategies the Nazis of Northeim used to reap the harvest of control.

1)  Use Outside Threat(s).  In 1930, “it was the depression or more accurately, the fear of its continued effects that contributed most heavily to the radicalization of Northeim’s people.”  Said one keen observer: “Most of those who joined the Nazis did so because they wanted a radical answer to the economic problem.  Then too, the people wanted a hard, sharp, clear leadership – they were disgusted with the eternal political strife of party politics.”

There can be little doubt that the “Great Recession” of 2008 and beyond has been the breeding ground for radicalization in our time.  Economic uncertainty is the same for Tea Partiers as it is for Jihadists.  It not only is a major contributor to their extremist views, but it is also a major impetus for their takeover of the entire political structure.  However, that is not the only threat upon which the radicals have seized.  Republican radicals have promoted threats of all kinds:

socialism as personified in the Affordable Care Act;

potential terrorist attacks from Al Qaeda and ISIS,

an invasive national government,

potential loss of Social Security and Medicare because of insolvency,

the foreign-born President with Marxist background,

threat of invasion by foreign forces,

threat to Christianity from Jihadists and from sharia law,

threats to our capitalist free enterprise system from regulators,

threats to our Christian heritage and ethical underpinnings from abortionists, homosexuals,             and Islam;

threats to our national security from cyber-hackers

threats to our personal privacy and security from our own government as in monitoring of                   emails and phone calls

Disguised as threats to jobs or property values or law itself is the threat of illegal immigration             which radical Republicans cannot refrain from stressing for it is at its base, an unspoken threat              to white control and power which they cannot abide losing

Jihadist terrorists are not much better, but encapsulate it all in the threat from America, the Great Satan.

It is not just the enumeration of threats that is important here: it is the engendering of fear(s) (at the core of their strategy and tactics) that can only be eliminated, it is declared, by the takeover of the rough and tough Jihadists and Tea Partiers.    

      2)      Use False Hope of a better future by returning to past Glory, Prosperity or Security.

This often involves not only a regression to a “better time” but a re-vitalization of fundamental religious tenets and practices and an urgent appeal to nationalism or national pride.

The radical Republicans want us to return to either the Reagan era, the 1920's and the Gilded Age, or perhaps even the 1890's when a much smaller national government was in existence  and several large American industries like GE and IBM were being founded and others flourishing under capitalist innovators and entrepreneurs with few restrictions on their monopolistic operations.  It was a time of merriment and optimism in spite of a severe recession in 1893.

The radical Jihadists are intent on establishing an Islamic Caliphate that is in some sense equivalent to the Third Reich, but with much greater emphasis on religious tenets.  The Caliphate is a parallel entity to the concept of The Third Reich meant to cover several countries and to unite Germanic peoples from different lands under one regime.  The Caliphate is meant to do the same by uniting a religious community across borders.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this modern attempt to establish a Caliphate:

“The group Al Qaeda in Iraq formed as an affiliate of the al Qaeda network of Islamist militants during the Iraq War. The group eventually expanded into Syria and rose to prominence as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. In the summer of 2014, the group launched an offensive in northern Iraq, seizing the city of Mosul and most recently taking control of large swathes of territory in Syria (which for a prolonged period of time comprised over 50% of that country and Iraq). The group declared itself a Caliphate under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who took the name and title of Caliph Ibrahim, and renamed itself as the "Islamic State."  ISIS's claim to be the highest authority of Muslims has not been widely recognized beyond the territory it controls with 10 million people.”

3)     Offer the  Strong Man.  It cannot be under-stated that one of the most attractive pieces of Nazi philosophy to the German locals was that of Social Darwinism: the myth that a strong man in charge will make all things right again, and contribute to the strength of the Aryan race at the same time.  It was epitomized in Hitler, but emulated down the line even by local Nazi operatives and the local officials they put in office.  It is also important to recognize the place of intimidation and violence in the myth of the strong man.  The existence of the SS and more especially the “Sturmmabteilung” or Stormtroopers was a key element in the intimidation of the middle class. 

Perhaps the most important aspect of the concept was the honor, veracity and competence associated with the strong man who could get anything done for the cause and for the People.  In Northeim, this was a key to their strategy of takeover – the Nazis ran things to perfection, whether it was a parade, a meeting, a demonstration or a soup kitchen or employment office.  They made sure that their strength showed in their competence, their timeliness and in the results.

Need I mention the obvious – “the Donald.”  You are listening carefully to him aren’t you?  Be careful of your assessment.  There were many who considered Hitler a clown and a showman.  The words are those of a Social Darwinist; of someone who believes that might makes right or will win the day.  When that strong man theme is echoed by every other Republican candidate, including Carly Fiorina, it is time to pay attention! We are talking about authoritarianism – the principle of subjection to authority as opposed to a principle of individual freedom.  We’re talking about the actions of a potentially peremptory, dictatorial strong man (or woman). 

ISIS followers thrive on this – on being the strong man able to kill children, rape women, behead men – without a thought or pang of conscience whatsoever.  These Jihadists celebrate their cruelty and their horrific acts of shooting down airplanes leaving  no survivors; or killing innocent people all over the streets and by-ways of Paris.  They believe they were sent to do this work in order to establish and maintain the Islamic Caliphate.  They are murderers and abdominal representatives of their religion. Like their religion-less precursors of decades ago (who still exist in too many forms), they must be marked for destruction.  How that should be done is a question for another time.

4)  Gain Total Control.  If you do not understand that phrase, then you do not understand the ultimate objectives of the Nazis, the Jihadists or the radical Republicans.

It involves a purge of leadership, then of the middle management and finally of the rank and file workers.

 Then comes the dismantling of the mechanisms of democracy itself – the vote, the rights, the freedoms, along with much of bureaucracy, liberal judges, ‘socialist’ leaders, and programs (sound familiar?)

Then comes retribution and punishment as opposition leaders and even rank and file are imprisoned or lose their jobs and property. 

 Meanwhile new mechanisms are put in place to allow the flow of top-down decisions from the President (“Fuhrer”) to the local operatives. 

Nationalism becomes the religion and schools, organizations, agencies, even churches become propaganda machinery.

Power, brutality and immediate justice often without trial become the norm.

Oppression, repression and terrorism are used as weapons to keep order and to ensure loyalty to the regime

Rumors, lies, distortions, neighborhood spies and press reports are used to inject more fear into the populace

Social life is cut to a minimum and political parties outlawed to prevent people from meeting and planning together

Resignation and futility take hold of the citizenry as complete control is achieved.

Just in case you haven't noticed, the Republican radicals are adept at twisting all of this around to make it look as though it is the Opposition that engages in these activities.  Often, instead of reference to President Obama as a socialist, some lackey of the Right-wing will accuse him of being a Nazi or a fascist.  It's difficult, to say the least, to have it both ways.  It is simply a diversionary tactic to draw citizen attention away from the horrific activities of  Radical Right-wing Republicans.  

Let us end this piece today with the above list of strategies that took advantage of the breeding grounds for the Nazi takeover of Northeim and of Germany.  Next time we shall explore the kinds of tactics used by the Nazis to win over the people of towns like Northeim, and the conclusions of the author as to what can be learned from that experience.  With some editorial comment from me, I hope my next posting will enable you to detect the parallel actions of radical Right Republicans and of Jihadi terrorists who simply share the goal of total political, economic and social control of their respective societies.

Incident at Spring Valley High & The "Niemoller Warning"

What will it take?  Must we each be pummeled in order to understand fully the devastating effects of brutal over-reaction by some police?  The October 26^th attack by a white police officer against a (supposedly) resistant and disruptive student of color in Columbia, South Carolina is not an isolated incidence, but one more link in the chain of institutionalized racism.  The police officer himself has a spotty record of accusations of similar acts against Black persons.  Like others of this limited group of a similar ilk, he has been exonerated in the past, but still has at least one complaint by a Black male student left to be adjudicated.   The latest incident is under investigation by the federal government to determine if the civil rights of the young female student were violated.  As you know, the officer, Ben Fields, has been fired from his job with the sheriff’s office.

We are seeing what would amount to an epidemic if such incidents occurred as often in predominately-white suburbs, white schools, or white churches. This incident is more significant than it first seems,and that’s the point -- we still don’t seem to understand in an incisive way, and why I write about it now, almost two weeks later.  We tend to think and feel that “life goes on.”  Our experiences, and our contacts, tell us “not to get involved” in things we can’t change.  We continue to position ourselves in such a way that we cannot be touched, or harmed, or involved beyond our means.  We mostly “go along to get along.”  But, these attacks – both those that involve random gun violence in schools, churches and theaters, and those that involve police harming or killing people of color under suspicious circumstances – these acts are no longer isolated; they are seemingly becoming a part of daily life.  They are pernicious, totally invasive and completely disruptive of freedom, and of life itself.   Understanding you want to ask “WHY?” I have to take a major detour at this point to get at the core of the matter.

Slavery of black Africans was initially established in this country around 1600 when White European landowners decided that Native Americans would not serve their purposes. We need to remember that the white settlers of Jamestown and the Massachusetts colony were seeking religious freedom, but some of their Christian concepts were arguably twisted and misguided.  They believed that non-Christians were inferior pagans and  savages, even sub-human.  They believed such aborigines needed the transforming influences of the Gospel that Puritans and Pilgrims too often associated with order, discipline, holiness and destiny.  Their destiny they believed was to establish a righteous kingdom on this earth so that God’s will might be done.  Mix those ingredients with a sense of racial superiority and a desperate need and desire for land and property, protection and survival, as well as a hope for prosperity, and you have the makings for a division of races and something like a caste system, or at least a system of elites and undesirables; conquerors and vanquished.  Slavery of Black men and women was not only an extension of those concepts; it was an inevitable result of those precepts. 

According to Howard Zinn’s Untold History, a ship arrived in 1619 at Jamestown in the colony of Virginia flying a Dutch flag.  Her cargo included twenty Black slaves from Africa.  Although they might have been servants similar to some white servants under indenture to a ‘master’, they were treated differently.  They were sold as objects and property; torn from their land and culture and forced into a situation where the heritage of language, dress, custom, family relations were bit by bit obliterated except for some remnants that Blacks held onto through sheer persistence.  In European countries, where the idea of private property was becoming powerful, theft was brutally punished. 

In the Congo, where the idea of private property was a strange one and communal life was favored, thieves were punished less stringently.  Slavery did exist in the African states, and this was sometimes used by Europeans to justify their own slave trade.  However, as the author points out, servants or slaves in Africa were altogether different from the human cattle of the slave ships and of the American plantations.  “African slavery lacked two elements that made American slavery the cruelest form of slavery in history: the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture; the reduction of the slave to less than human status.”

 There was a relentless caste system built upon color, where white was master; black was slave.  Such a system was built around control: the master controlling every aspect of the slave’s life so that the owner’s property was secure and compliant.

What does all this history have to do with our premise?  Simple: the Emancipation Proclamation may have freed slaves, but the effects of slavery upon our nation and our people have persisted throughout our history and into present-day life and institutions.  We may have made some strides in race relations by means of changes in certain patterns of conduct and passage of certain civil rights laws and rules, or by electing black men and women to office (particularly by electing Barack Obama to the Presidency).  However, that does not change the fact that a caste system continues to exist. 

“Superior” versus “inferior” is still a prevalent concept and an active profile by which we conduct our “business” in too many respects.  Our predominantly White power structure has been able to rid our nation of slavery, but we have not delivered ourselves from the protection of a privileged position or status, and the fear of losing the same.  The means used to protect White power and  supremacy – suppression of civil rights, racial separation and segregation notably in housing, inadequate schools for Black children, lack of jobs and union memberships for Black men and women, uneven justice for racial minorities, incarceration beyond reason for non-violent crime committed by Black men -- are all in place and are indicative of the suppression, control and punishment left over from slavery and its successors like Jim Crow laws and the War on Drugs.

The incident in Spring Valley High School in Columbia, SC is one more illustration of the far-reaching effects of slavery and the suppression needed to keep slaves “in their place.”  It is said that the young black teenage woman attacked by the white police officer talked back and refused to follow what she was told to do.  It is also said that she ‘touched’ (maybe ‘struck’) the officer when he approached her (or was it a simple defensive reaction?).  No matter.  There is nothing she did that warrants the over-reaction of that officer.  He was asserting nothing less than the “control and suppression” that has been used to subjugate blacks to whites throughout our history.   Beatings and forms of lynching are still used as deterrents; so are  attacks on fundamental rights like the vote, free speech and the right to be safe in one’s own home.  Moreover,  removal of supports like government-led social programs, the waging of a War on Drugs and disproportionate punishment for non-violent offenses  -- these are all alive, well and flourishing under the leading proponents of superior versus inferior – the right wing of the Republican Party.

One more major Point:  one citizen or non-citizen denied rights or opportunity because of race, national origin or ethnicity is equivalent to all of us being denied those rights.  We can’t ignore, overlook, or escape what is unjust and unfair, or damaging to others.   This is what too many voters fail to realize and address.  Attacks on rights, equality, justice, and equal opportunities --  whether perpetrated on individuals or on institutions and organizations like Labor and Planned Parenthood – must be addressed.  If citizens do not speak out, act upon, or protest in some way when others are attacked, be aware of the warning given by Martin Niemoller, an anti-Nazi German pastor and theologian, in regard to the Nazis: 

“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”

What hurts one individual or group will eventually hurt us all.  For we are not simply a gathering of separate individuals, walled-off by certain characteristics.  We are a nation; we are a People; we are a commonwealth.  We are a community of inter-connected individuals bound together by our human nature and unalienable rights.    

Here is your chance: speak out just as classmate Niya Kennedy did.  Speak out about the unlimited power and lack of oversight of police forces and the unlimited discretion given to district attorney’s offices.  We cannot tolerate:

·         denial of a person’s rights and freedoms

·         militarized police forces whose purpose is not to protect but to attack

·         unsupervised and unrestricted police, DAs, and judges, as well as inadequate public defenders and lack of mentors

·         armored police vehicles and police forces separated from the communities they serve

·         the abuse of our children by police, teachers, education administrators, or anyone in public office, including legislators who write and pass legislation antithetical to the health and well-being of children

·         the alarming rate of  incarceration of people of color for non-violent crimes for which they are disproportionately sentenced, and then made to pay for the rest of their lives with the label of “felon.”   

That teenage girl you saw violently flipped out of her chair and then tossed across the room toward the door – that girl – Shakira - is the daughter of us all.  She deserves our support and our commitment to speak out when the White power bloc denigrates her personhood with physical abuse and then places blame upon her for being “disruptive.”  We cannot tolerate such abuse for it is not only contrary to our principles; it is not in our best interest. As injustice and intolerance always do – they catch up to us and take away something precious from our lives and from the ideals upon which this nation was founded.  The path to destruction of our ideals and our principles is strewn with lost opportunities for protest and redress of grievances.  We cannot maintain our form of democracy by ignoring threats to liberty, equality and justice for all.    

The subject of Civil Rights is never just about people of color.  My civil rights, Shakira’s civil rights and your Civil Rights are inextricably intertwined.  Restricting the ability of certain groups to cast a ballot in a free and unfettered process is anathema to a democracy.  What’s more, when African and Hispanic Americans (and others, like students and some workers) are denied their right to vote because of petty nuances and strictures -- such as government-approved ID cards and the closing of registration offices in particular neighborhoods -- such actions diminish my vote.  Why? Because it means I am a privileged voter in a democracy that has no place for such elitism.  It means that I have cast a vote that outweighs the effect of someone else’s vote, which therefore makes my vote a dishonest and unjust vote. 

When the Supreme Court justified the rapacious removal of a part of the Voting Rights Act “because we don’t need it anymore,” the Court took part in thievery, inequality and injustice.   When the Court decided that the federal government no longer needs to pre-test the efficacy of state voting laws and practices, it laid the scourge of disenfranchisement back upon those who are not protected by their own state government.  Accepting that particular ruling of the Court means that when I go to vote, I am unwittingly supporting and condoning not only the Court’s neglect of the voting rights of certain citizens, but of all citizens.

 Civil Rights and Voting Rights are not “passing fancies.”  These rights go to the essence of our form of governing.  We must act toward them as Guardians of our Republic, not as Protectors-at-all-costs of a political Party.  Likewise, when we see what happened to that young teenager in South Carolina, we must recognize its universality, for it happened to us all.  Our Civil Rights were abrogated; our bodies were slammed.  Our sense of equal justice and of human dignity was brought low.  We were all attacked because she was attacked. 

Speak out now, for tomorrow may be too late and you and I could have no one left to speak on our behalf when our rights are trampled and denied.