OK Gang. This is a show I have been wanting to do for a long time. Unfortunately, like many of you, I am guilty of putting off till tomorrow what should be done today.
This show involved a lot of research, and quite frankly, sometimes I am just lazy. However, knowing I won’t be here for a couple of weeks, I felt it necessary to tackle this topic and allow you to think on it until my return. So here we go.
Watching the events happening in Washington this past year and listening to all the talking heads on the national media discussing the presidential candidates and the upcoming election, I can’t help but look at the amazing parallels between what is happening now, and what has happened in the past.
I have a theory, and quite frankly, it scares me to death. Knowing what I do about history, I see great peril in our future if we do not change our present course.
Throughout history we have seen tremendous turmoil every time a nation finds itself divided on political lines. Our country is at that point.
Eight years under President Obama, awoke the far left in America. Now looking at eight years under President Trump, we are looking at the rise of the far right in our nation. The moderate political views no longer exist.
Civilized discussions between left and right no longer exist. You are either all in one camp, or all in the other.
This sets the stage for what we have seen in the past.
I am not afraid of what was put in place by President Obama or for that matter, what President Trump is doing.
I am however, terrified of what comes next. People say, “No way a Bernie Sanders can win the election and turn us into a socialist nation. I say, you are dead wrong.
Let us now turn to our history.
In the winter of 1916-17, conditions got worse for the people of Russia. Their wages were far behind inflation and especially harsh weather caused fuel and food shortages.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, women textile workers who went on strike took to the streets and demanded more bread. Other workers soon joined them and within 2 days more than 200,000 strikers were marching in the streets.
Czar Nicholas Romanov, ruler of Russia, was informed by telegraph, what was happening in the Capital. He now sent orders that at all costs the military must restore order in the Capital.
The city’s military commander ordered police and troops to disperse the demonstrators, firing upon them if necessary. After some shooting, the key turning point happened on March 11, soldiers in one regiment after another refused to fire on their fellow citizens.
On March 12, some members of the Russian Parliament, the Duma, defied the Czar and formed a Provisional government. The Provisional government now called for Nicholas to abdicate the throne in favor of his son, Alexei.
Meanwhile, Nicholas’s generals convinced him that in the interest of Russia and the war effort (WWI) he should step down from the throne. On March 15 he signed the abdication papers. He also abdicated for his son.
The Provisional government renounced the crown and decided they would pick their own leader. Russia had been ruled by the Romanov family for the past 300 years.
On March 17 the public was informed the Romanov Dynasty had collapsed. The new Provisional government consisted primarily of Moderates, with only one socialist in the cabinet, the Minister of Justice, Alexander Kerenski who pushed for a parliamentary form of government like that of England.
Kerenski was chosen to lead the new government primarily due to the fact that he had a much more militant posture.
He was a radical lawyer who was born in the same town as Lenin and had earned a reputation as a fiery speaker and Duma politician. He was also the only cabinet member who was also a member of the Petrograd Soviet. Therefore they saw him as someone who would have the support of the people and nearly all of the students at the universities.
While the revolution of March was taking place, the Bolshevik leader, 46 year old Vladimir Lenin, was still living in Switzerland, having been exiled from Russia 20 years earlier. Lenin contacted the Germans and told them if they would get him across Germany and into Russia he would launch a revolution, and if he was successful he would immediately pull Russia out of the war.
On the night of April 16 along with a number of other prominent Bolsheviks, he arrived at Petrograd’s Finland Station. In speeches that night and the next day, April 17, 1917 Lenin proclaimed his agenda.
He opposed the Soviets (local councils) policy of continued support for the ongoing war and their support for the Provisional government.
On April 17 Lenin also called for establishment of a republic of soviets of workers, he called for the confiscation of all land and the nationalization of all land.
He wanted government control over banking, production, and distribution and the abolition of the police, army, and bureaucracy. He now changed his party’s name from Bolshevik to the Communist Party.
Lenin called for a revolution of the Proletariat, the middle class, and he concluded: under the firm guidance of the party the poor peasants could also play a major part in the revolution.
He was convinced the only way to move to communism was through radical revolution. Lenin believed that his party spoke for the true interest of the workers. He believed that his party should be run through a strongly centralized, super-national party looking out for the welfare and equal treatment of all people. Sound familiar?
Key to the success of Lenin’s party was the support of the workers. As WWI progressed, Russia’s economic problems grew worse. Coal, metal and other resources became harder to obtain. Inflation spiraled upward. Business leaders became increasingly resentful of the Provisional Government.
When an all-Russian conference of factory workers met about a week before the November Revolution, 96 of 167 delegates were members of the Lenin’s Bolshevik party.
1917, Lenin told the people that if they put him in power, he would pull Russia out of WWI and give free land to all the peasants.
More than 1 million troops now deserted the front. Most soldiers were peasants, so naturally they supported Lenin’s party. Lenin called for land seizures. He wanted to take the land from the state and the Nobles and provide land to the poor people.
As the central government lost its authority these peasants formed local Soviets (councils) and their members became the chief centers of local power.
By October 1917, Lenin’s party had gained a majority of both the Petrograd and the Moscow Soviets. Lenin now traveled the countryside speaking of the glory and the honor of becoming a member of the communist party. The all-Russian Congress of Soviets was scheduled to meet in early November.
On November 6, the day before the congress was to meet, Kerenskii triggered a Communist Coup by ordering the closing of the Bolshevik Press. Troops under the direction of Lenin and the Petrograd Soviets took up positions to prevent any counter-revolutionary moves and almost immediately assumed the offensive.
On November 7, meeting little resistance, they took control of the vital buildings of St. Petersburg.
Kerensky, escaped in an automobile to the US Embassy and fled to America. The palace takeover in the early morning hours of November 8, after surprising little bloodshed, completed the Coup.
In the early hours of November 9, the Russian Congress approved a new government. Lenin was made chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars and as we say, the rest is history.
So, the government of Russia, Ruled by Czars for 300 years, was overthrown by a group of students led by Alexander Kerensky who wanted a government like that of England.
The country fell into armed camps. Those who wanted the Czar back and those who wanted a parliamentary government.
Seeing the chaos and the weakened state of Russia’s government, Lenin saw control of Russia laying there on the table and simply stepped in and took it.
The people of Russia did not want Communism once they saw what Lenin had in store for them. In fact, as soon as he came to power they voted to remove Lenin and bring Kerensky back. By then it was too late.
Lenin simply ignored the results of the election, closed the Russian Parliament, and used his power of the military to force his will on the people.
No one thought it could happen, but it did.
How about another example.
In 1916, Eighteen socialists were expelled from the German Parliament (The Reichstag) for voting against the war.(WWI)
A small group of German socialists openly opposed the war. They were called Spartacists.
By September 1918 the Germans were on their last legs and were now forced to negotiate a peace settlement.
The morale of the people now fell apart. They couldn’t believe they had lost the war! Everything they heard up until now said they were winning.
Kaiser Wilhelm, the leader of Germany, was forced to abdicate in disgrace.
The Socialists now rose up and proclaimed a republic.
The German socialists were a lot different however than their Russian counterparts. They were not communists. They would not take power without the support of the majority of the workers. This they never received.
They also never seriously considered a coup like Lenin’s
The German people had just suffered a terrible defeat and were starving but unlike the Russians, they did not want to add to their problems by launching a socialist revolution.
In Germany the people looked upon the socialist/communists as being the people to blame for betraying the nation at a time when it was hurting. Remember, the socialists had opposed entering the war.
As a result, the returning troops saw the socialists as stabbing the country in the back after they had just fought so hard to defend it.
Once the army came home it regrouped and formed the “free corps” which then terrorized the socialists creating a new form of government, Fascism.
The Fascists hated socialists, intellectuals, Jews, and the old aristocracy. There sole aim was to restore order and power to Germany at any cost.
So here we go again. The country is divided politically. Some people want the Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm back, some want socialism, and some want a new form of government, fascism, led by a strong, all powerful leader who will take control and reestablish order.
Now at the end of WWI, all the winners in the conflict met in France and laid out the terms of Germany’s surrender in The Treaty of Versailles.
Germany was forced to accept full guilt for the war. The industrial and mineral rich Saar Basin and the left bank of the Rhine River were to be internationalized. The right bank demilitarized for 30 miles.
Germany had to pay for all civilian damages caused to all allied nations during the war. Initial payment was $5 billion a year for 15 years with a balloon note to come later.
All coal output from the Saar Basin would go to France.
Finally, Germany would lose all its African colonies and could not join the League of Nations. They would also lose the Marshall, Marianas, and Caroline Islands in the Pacific, which would go to Japan.
Following WWI, with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm, the Weimar Republic of Germany was formed. It was this government that was forced to sign and agree to the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
So the people hated this new government. The Weimar Republic was made up of moderate Social Democrats under President Friedrich Ebert and the more radical Independent Social Democrats, who were hoping for a more fundamental socialist revolution.
Germany now faced insurrections by both the left and the right, trillion dollar to the mark inflation, and the occupation of the Ruhr valley by the French. Ebert died in the midst of a campaign against him by right-wing critics and was succeeded by Marshal Paul von Hindenburg.
Although Hindenburg sought German unity, he promoted the interests of the Junkers, the German landed aristocracy. (sound familiar?)
A president supporting the wealthy class and an opposing party supporting socialism.
Hindenberg ran for the presidency again in 1932 as the only one who could defeat the National Socialist (Nazi) party candidate Adolf Hitler.
So who was this Hitler guy? Just like Lenin, Hitler saw that with all the political turmoil in Germany, control of the nation was just sitting there waiting for someone to step in and take it.
After WWI Hitler rose to power as leader of the national socialist German Workers Party (Nazis)
It was only one of many political parties claiming that the government had betrayed the people.
The new party grew slowly, and principally in Bavaria. Convinced of the necessity of violence to achieve its ends, the party soon organized the Storm Troops, or SA, to defend its meetings; to disrupt the meetings of liberal democrats, socialists, Communists, and trade unionists; and to persecute Jews, especially Jewish merchants.
It was aided in these activities by former WWI army officers.
In 1921 Hitler was elected “unlimited chairman” of the Nazi party.
In the meantime, as the German Communist party, founded in 1919, grew in strength, the National Socialists (Nazis) concentrated much of their propaganda on denunciations of Bolshevism, which they characterized as a conspiracy of international Jewish financiers.
They also proclaimed their contempt for parliamentary democracy and pushed for a dictatorship.
In order to gain support for the Nazi party, Hitler pushed the theory that there was a great Jewish conspiracy and he now bought into the idea of creating a master race.
It is interesting to note that in Germany itself there was no Jewish problem. The German Jews numbered 1/2 million and made up less than 1% of the total population.
In Germany there was less resentment towards Jews than there was in England or France at the time.
Many contend that the hatred of the Jews stemmed from the fact that they owned big business in Germany. What? Go after big business as a political ploy? Surely not!
In fact, the Jew’s influence was confined to big department stores and some of the big newspapers and entertainment industries.
However, the theme of anti-Semitism worked to help unify Hitler’s party with a common goal.
Hitler contended that the Jews ruined small businessmen, corrupted the German women, organized revolutions, and spoiled German culture.
Jews also were said to overcharge the workers, make bad movies, create ugly commercialism, spy for Russia (what?), and sell out Germany to wall street capitalists. Hello…..sound familiar?
The German people, shell shocked from war and the great depression, fell for it hook, line , and sinker.
In a society where the common man felt helpless to strike back, Hitler gave him a common enemy. The Jew.
Hitler now launched a huge propaganda campaign.
He organized huge parades, and rituals which dazzled the German people.
Hitler now had the backing of nearly all the German people in bringing about a renaissance of the German spirit.
Hitler also advocated rallies which burned books he deemed harmful to the German people.
Some of the German intellectuals could see the writing on the wall and now chose to flee Germany.
Among them were Albert Einstein and Nobel prize winning author Thomas Mann.
On June 30, 1934 Hitler launched a campaign that came as a shock to even some of his closest followers.
Hitler saw the SA (storm troops) and their leader Ernst Rohm as a threat to his power now that he had gained control of the Nazi Party.
Through the campaigning of Hitler and his followers, the Nazi party gained the majority control of the German Parliament (Reichstag) in 1933. They did this at the ballot box, not at the end of the barrel of a gun.
Hindenberg was still president, but he now faced a Reichstag controlled by the Nazi Party. Again, sound familiar?
The Nazi party members now demanded that Hidenberg name Hitler as Chancellor (Prime Minister). Under extreme political pressure, Hindenberg did so.
Now all that stood between Hitler and complete control was President Hindenberg.
Ernst Rohm, leader of the military arm of the Nazi political party, now asked Hitler that he be given control of the German army—a move opposed by the army’s high command. Rohm now sided with left-wing dissidents who antagonized the wealthy conservative supporters of Hitler.
In order to placate the army and the industrialists, Hitler had Rohm and the dissidents murdered in a blood purge—also called night of the long knives—of June 30, 1934.
Hitler had hundreds of the SA killed and he now waited 2 weeks before he explained what had happened. He told the people that he was simply trying to save the nation from revolutionaries.
President Hindenberg even thanked Hitler for saving the German nation!
Hindenberg died on August 2, 1934 and Hitler now took complete control of the government naming himself as president and chancellor.
So there you have it again folks. Just like Russia, Germany found itself politically divided and opened the door for total chaos.
Now what scares me, is that this pattern continues to repeat itself. In Italy, King Victor Emmanuel was fighting against the Italian Socialist Party.
Benito Mussolini saw this, formed his own fascist party and stepped in to aid the King. He now gained the support of the King and the Italian people. Once he defeated the socialists, he simply went to the King and told him that he, Mussolini, would now be running the country.
In Spain, we had a monarchy opposed by socialists and fascists. Francisco Franco, seeing the political turmoil there, led a military coup and took control of that country.
Simply a European thing you say?
In China, the Party of Sun Yat Sen was fighting a civil war to create a parliamentary government in opposition to the ruling Samurai class of dictatorships. Japan, saw this happening and promptly invaded northern China (Manchuria) in the first step leading to WWII.
So there you have it folks. Have I convinced you that to continue down our current political path is suicide?
Our hostility to opposing political views and our total lack of compromise mirrors exactly what we have seen in the past.
The question is, have we learned a damned thing, or are we so stubborn that we will follow the same path of destruction I have shared with you.
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