Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
Yesterday I wrote about the Reichstag Fire and the resultant Order of the President of the Reich for the Protection of People and State or as it is more often known as the Reichstag Fire Decree. I wrote about how perilously close that I really believe that we are to a Reichstag Fire moment in our country today.
That has not changed. In fact the President declared a National Emergency over an imaginary crisis at the U.S. – Mexican border, an act that he said that he did not have to proclaim as he made the declaration.
On February 27th 1933 Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party which was still a minority party in a coalition government of partners that wouldn’t have minded his failure, became recipients of of a political gift that allowed them to seize power under the very provisions of the Republic and Constitution that they despised. A Dutch Communist The very next day Hitler with the backing of President Paul von Hindenburg issued a decree under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution which though directed at the German Communist Party, which was banned along with its publications, applied to every political party in Germany.
Barely three weeks later the Reichstag, now emptied of Communists deputies gave its approval to the Enabling Act which gave the central government. Their abdication Of their Constitutional role allowed Hitler to enact laws without the approval of the Reichstag, effectively ending any sort of parliamentary democracy and eviscerating the constitution.
These acts gave the central government in Berlin to usurp State governments in States where non-Nazi parties held democratic majorities and to outlaw political opposition. The only party to oppose the Nazi moves toward dictatorship were the Social Democrats who voted against both laws. Their party was banned shortly after the Enabling Act was passed. Their leader in the Reichstag, Otto Weis proclaimed the last free words uttered in the Reichstag:
“No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible … You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour. We are defenseless but not honourless.”
The other political parties in Germany, including the conservative parties and center parties who had allied themselves with Hitler voted to dissolve themselves by the end of July 1933. None of the conservative opposition wanted to face the wrath of Hitler or his newly established extrajudicial Concentration Camps which were not run by the Ministry of Justice, but the Nazi Party.
In Germany it was the burning of the Reichstag but in any crisis the same could happen here. I think this is very possible with President Trump and a compliant Republican Party which has surrendered any sense of responsibility, including the defense of things that it fought against for years in order to maintain power by supporting a man that just two years ago most mocked and opposed; so much like the non-Nazi German conservatives and Hitler. That was demonstrated today as Michael Cohen, the President’s former lawyer and “fixer” testified before Congress. His testimony was compelling, credible, and backed up by documentary evidence, including documents signed by the President signed after he took office. All the Republicans could do was attack the messenger, they never challenged a single fact.
Now let’s think about today and lets let our minds wander into possibilities that are much more likely than they would have been a few years ago. So let’s take a journey to a future where most of us would not want to go. I mean really, I don’t want these things to happen, if not for any other reasons than things than effect me. I want to attend my 40th high school reunion on September 1st and a trip to Germany to the Oktoberfest and to visit our German friends later that month. So some things are about me, I mean if were going to lose all of our freedoms I want to get a few bucket list items in, but I digress, let’s go back to the unimaginable.
Rather than standing up for truth, the Republicans, like the non-Nazi German Conservatives in 1933 are more concerned with holding power to fulfill their agenda than with the character of the man they are backing. Today Cohen warned them when they attacked him:
As Mr. Cohen told Republican lawmakers, “I did the same thing that you’re doing now. For 10 years. I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years.”
He then issued this warning to them: “The more people that follow Mr. Trump — as I did blindly — are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.” Mr. Cohen later explained the ethos of Trumpworld: “Everybody’s job at the Trump Organization is to protect Mr. Trump. Every day most of us knew we were coming and we were going to lie for him about something. That became the norm.”
This has now become the norm of the Republican Party, which if I need to remind you I served and believed from the time that I volunteered for Gerald Ford’s campaign before I could vote in 1976 until I left the party following my return from Iraq in 2008. I stopped defending the indefensible eleven years ago.
I would say close your eyes but then you wouldn’t be able to read unless you have some sort of software that turns my written words into spoken words, or unless you want me to start a podcast. If you want the latter make it worth it by doing something to get me a few extra bucks for more beer before everything goes to hell.
Let us imagine that following increased tensions in Venezuela that a real or alleged terrorist group claiming to support the Venezuelan dictator Maduro attacks the NY Subway and the Washington Metro subway systems with Sarin and phosgene nerve gas. Another alleged Venezuelan terrorist shoots down an American Airlines Airbus 330 with a SAM 7 as it attempted to land In Philadelphia. In the attacks, thousands of people die. In another attack a heavily armed terrorist group attacks the Mall of American with assault rifles, RPGs, and grenades. Between Miami and the Bahamas an explosion rocks a Disney Cruise Ship, killing many passengers and crew and leaving it disabled and requiring Coast Guard and U.S. Navy assistance to save the ship and bring her back to port.
While Federal, State and local law enforcement investigate at the points of attack, the FBI, CIA and NSA attempted to ascertain if and what foreign power or terrorist groups were behind the attacks. Venezuela was at the top of the list, but Iran, Hezbollah, North Korea, and even Russia were suspects, but it took time to find the culprits.
In the mean time the country went into a panic. Retribution was the watchword. Thousands of people were killed and injured in the attacks. Following them the subways, airports and maritime ports shut down. The economy went into shock. Prices soared and Wall Street crashed, dumping some 30% of its value in three days. Prices for imported goods skyrocketed, and all commercial air traffic was grounded leaving millions of people stranded. It didn’t matter that the President’s Fixer Michael Cohen had implicated the President in high crimes and misdemeanors, just a week before, emotion, hatred and the desire for revenge ruled the day. Trump understood that better than most.
In response the President invoked measures from National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20 of 4 May 2007, while Congress by a wide margin grants him the authority to pursue the attackers both at home and abroad. Neither the President’s opponents in the GOP or most Democrats object, after all it was about national security and the nation had been attacked; people had died, and the economy was in a major crisis.
The President, whose poll numbers were cratering and was coming closer to being implicated in by the Muller investigation uses these new powers to shut down opposition to him, including the Muller investigation in the name of national security, the siren song of all tyrants.
Democrats in Congress finally realized that they have been outmaneuvered in the crisis but it was now too late. Their protests about the illegalities and questions needing to be answered go nowhere and they are labeled enemies of the state, as are responsible journalists who seek to uncover the truth. Those protesting the violations of the Constitution are jailed indefinitely without being charged in Federal and State facilities as well as for profit prisons.
But the Venezuelan connection to the terrorist attacks was disproven and even though the CIA and FBI put Russia at the center of the attacks, aided by North Korean agents the reports were initially disregarded by the administration.
As the investigation lead to the North Koreans, the President, who had spent two years trying to say that the North Koreans were not a threat and holding summits to North Korean dictator Kim Jun Un, rapidly turned on his heal and ordered attacks on North Korea, leading to a nuclear exchange and major land war on the Korean Peninsula.
While North Korea was obliterated, South Korea and Japan also took massive hits, as did the American bases on Okinawa, Guam, and Pearl Harbor, all of which are hit by North Korean nuclear missiles. Trump then declared Martial law is and ordered 2020 elections postponed indefinitely with the promise that once the crisis is over that they will be restored. Despite the disasters the President’s approval rating shot up from under 40% to nearly 65%. A Supreme Court Justice who went along with the emergency degrees would later say:
“There was a fever over the land. A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within, and successfully attacked by enemies abroad. Above all, there was fear. Fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that – can you understand what Trump meant to us. Because he said to us: ‘Lift your heads! Make America Great Again! Be proud to be American! There are devils among us. Liberals, Jews, Muslims, Immigrants, Gays! Once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed.” (*adapted from the speech of Ernst Janning in Judgment at Nuremberg)
Thankfully none of this has not happened, but if Americans fail to appreciate the danger that lays ahead then all bets are off. Those who cooperate in moves to damage and undermine the American experiment in democracy and a constitutional republic with its safeguards and checks and balances will be show by their inaction and lack of resistance the truth of historian Dr. Timothy Snyder’s words: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
However, during the Cohen hearings today most Congressional Republicans in showed that if push came to shove that they would toss aside the Constitution in order to defend a man they have sold their souls to.
Those that might doubt my concerns need only to look at the life and actions of President Trump, the cunning of Russia, North Korea, and the hyper-partisan nature and gullibility of much of the American electorate, and the response of the United States government and populace during past crises and threats to our national existence.
That cannot be allowed to happen. If it does, it will harm every American, no-matter what their political beliefs or affiliation is.
Until tomorrow,
Peace
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 