Learning from our past.

Well folks, once again I sit here pondering the events in our past that I discussed with my students during my career as a college history professor. History really does repeat itself and we appear to have learned nothing.

I recently found two great articles posted on The American Thinker. Both authors do an excellent job of comparing what happened in the past, to where we are today.

Now before we dive in, I want you to know, that I do not think the Democratic Party is the same as the Nazi Party. Far from it. What I do believe is that people are easily deceived into believing that what they are doing is what is best for the country.

I also believe that people will blindly follow the crowd to be accepted in society (check out “The Crowd” by Gustav Lebon). Unfortunately, we have become a nation of followers because it feels good to be part of the latest trends.

We see it around us every day. We eat at certain restaurants, wear the latest fashion trends, socialize in certain circles of people, etc.

That, my friends can be dangerous. Especially when people of power know this and use it to manipulate the masses.

That is exactly what Hitler did. Hitler had the complete support of his people. So, were all Germans evil Nazis? Of course not.

They saw Hitler as their salvation from the devastating effects of Germany’s loss in WWI. He gave them hope.

People were starving and freezing to death in the streets of Germany following WWI. The country suffered $trillion mark to the US dollar inflation.

Think of it this way. Prior to WWI you had 4 German marks to the dollar. Like our quarter. Two years after the war, it took one trillion quarters to equal one dollar.

10,000 marks worth $2,500 in 1922 by the end of 1923 were worth one millionth of a penny!

Life savings were completely wiped out.

A 100 billion mark note which would have bought the whole Rhineland the year before now was barely enough for a loaf of bread.

This is the environment in which we saw Hitler and the Nazi party rise to power.

Bottom line is, Hitler told the people what they wanted to hear. I will put food on your table, provide jobs for everyone, and bring Germany back to it’s former days of glory.

Even I would have flowed him if I was unable to care for my family.

So, take the article with a grain of salt when democrats are compared to Nazis. The important lesson is, how Hitler did it.

So here we go.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/03/eight_startling_and_uncomfortable_ways_the_democrat_party_emulates_the_nazi_party.html

Eight Startling and Uncomfortable Ways the Democrat Party Emulates the Nazi Party

By Steve McCann

…….The Democrat party’s two most exalted figureheads are the fervently racist Woodrow Wilson who set the Party on the path of undermining the Constitution in order to remold the United States into a “modern administrative state” (i.e., socialist) and Franklin Roosevelt who was enamored with and utilized Fascist principles in his “New Deal” thus permanently embedding them in the Party’s psyche.

An unemotional examination of the underlying philosophies and the tactics the Nazi Party used to gain and maintain power reveals not just the common impulse to weaponize the judiciary to eradicate one’s political opponents (e.g., Donald Trump) but numerous other similarities between the Nazis and the Democrat party that cannot be ignored.  Here are eight uncomfortable dimensions of that resemblance.

First, racial and ethnic division was a central component of Nazi political strategy and philosophy.  The Nazi Party was the most racially obsessed political party in human history.  Today’s Democrat party is second only to the Nazi Party in their racial obsession.   Every piece of legislation, every accusation against their opponents, every aspect of American society, even weather and climate are framed in imaginary racism.  

The Nazi Party’s obsession focused on their perverted belief in the inferiority and superiority of the races or ethnicities.  This opened the door for blaming a specific ethnic group for all the problems facing their country.  

The Democrat party is claiming the root cause of virtually all problems facing this nation is “systemic racism” as theoretically instigated by one particular race.

The Nazis used “fake news,” as does the Democrat party, in order to slice and dice the populace into identity groups and then promulgate grievance-riddled policies aimed at these manufactured factions in order to foment anger at a previously isolated group.  Which for the Nazis were the Jews; and for the Democrat party, white heterosexual Christians and Jews.

Think about that folks. First we had the Black Lives Matter movement then, quickly followed our new “Woke” society.

Second, In the 1920s and early 1930s, the Nazi Party relied on street riots, property damage and gratuitous violence utilizing their militant cadre, the Sturmabteilung (SA), to project power through intimidation while blaming others for the violence.  Their ability to terrorize the citizenry and national political leadership played a major role in their ascendance to power as they promised peace and impartial justice if elected.  Almost immediately upon assuming the reins of government, they transformed the judicial system into a vehicle of oppression directed their political foes and the Jews while their allies were not prosecuted for any criminal activity.

The Democrat party revealed in the summer of 2020 that they, too, have the wherewithal and inclination to acquiesce to street riots, property damage and gratuitous violence utilizing their militant cadre, Antifa and Black Lives Matter, to project power through intimidation while blaming white supremacy and police brutality for the violence.  

In the presidential campaign of 2020, the Democrat party implicitly promised peace and impartial justice if elected.  Almost immediately upon assuming the reins of government, they transformed the Justice Department into a vehicle of oppression directed at their political foes, Donald Trump and all Constitutional conservatives, while their allies were either not prosecuted or treated extraordinarily leniently. 

With the news this week that Hunter Biden will get off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist, it certainly raises a lot of questions.

Third, in January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.  Within four weeks a mysterious, and in all likelihood staged, fire broke out in the Reichstag (Congress) Building which the Nazis blamed on Communist agitators as their opening salvo in a violent coup.  Using this pretext, the Nazis rushed to arrest and harshly prosecute selected elements of their political adversaries, thus intimidating the balance.  They also forced through the Reichstag the Enabling Act of 1933 in March of the same year.   This law embedded the Nazis as the sole dominant political party and ensured that only the Nazis could win future elections. 

The Democrat party seized upon in all likelihood a setup disturbance at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to proclaim that it was an “armed insurrection” and the opening salvo in a violent coup attempt by Trump, his supporters and white supremacists.  Using this pretext, the Democrats rushed to arrest and harshly prosecute those in attendance in order to intimidate their political enemies.  

Now I fully admit I don’t know all the details of the January 6th incident. But I do find it interesting that the federal government is still holding participants in jail without providing them with their day in court.

In the footsteps of the Nazi Party, the Democrats immediately pushed to pass the For The People Act, which would have overturned virtually all existing voter laws, embedded the Democrats as the sole dominant political party and ensured that only the Democrats could win future elections. 

Fourth, antisemitism was a foundational principle of Nazism.  Antisemitism, through the Democrats’ nine-decade alliance with the Ku Klux Klan, has long been foundational in the Democrat party. 

Today, many elected Democrats openly denigrate the state of Israel, glorify the Palestinian terrorists, and claim that Jews are disloyal.  Thus, fomenting an exponential increase in anti-Jewish attacks in America’s major cities.

Meanwhile, virtually the entire Democrat hierarchy bows at the feet of America’s most virulent antisemite, Louis Farrakhan, who has referred to Judaism as the “religion of Satan” and Adolf Hitler as “a very great man.”   This obeisance to Farrakhan and his ilk is concordant with the mindless acceptance of unbridled antisemitism by the hierarchy of the Nazi Party in the mid-to-late 1920’s.

Let’s also not forget Rashida Tlaib, who was elected in 2018, and is the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress.

She represents Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, and was the first Muslim woman to serve in the Michigan state Legislature.

Hours after being sworn into Congress, Tlaib grabbed headlines when she told the audience at a progressive event, “We’re gonna go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherf****r” in reference to Trump.

Tlaib aligned herself with a political cause far outside the Democratic mainstream when she said that she supports the controversial Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Fifth, the Nazi Party was fixated on censorship and eliminating any cultural institution, publication or speech that did not fully support them.  Further, per socialist dogma, they were determined to destroy the family structure, replacing it with the state.   The Nazis were notorious for book-burning rituals to intimidate and send the message that they would shut down anyone and anything that did not align with their ideology.  Once in control of the national levers of powers, they did so with impunity particularly in the education sector whose revised primary purpose was to brainwash the youth.    

The Democrat Party is figuratively burning books as it uses social media mobs as the vehicle to send the message that they will shut down anyone or anything that does not align with their ideology. 

Further, they, in league with the teachers’ unions, are hellbent on programming America’s youth and destroying the family structure replacing it with the state.

Sixth, the Nazis perfected the art of indoctrinating the citizenry through propaganda and “fake news.”  Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, is credited with saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”    

This strategy has been and continues to be used to great success by the Democrat party and their fellow travelers in the so-called mainstream media.  Whether it is the Russian collusion hoax, the so-called armed insurrection on January 6, 2021, climate change as an existential threat to mankind, suppression of voting rights, white supremacy running rampant, the necessity of lockdowns for the Covid pandemic or a myriad of other fabrications, the Party hierarchy lies with impunity as a means to their ends… as did the Nazis.

Seventh, the Nazis, true to socialist ideology, preyed on class envy to stoke tensions and resentment as they blamed the Jews and wealthy capitalists for their nation’s economic woes.  

The Democrat party hierarchy began in 2009 blaming so-called “white supremacy” together with their century-old tactic of blaming wealthy capitalists for income and economic inequality in order to foment class envy and resentment. 

But the similarity does not end there.  In an extraordinary juxtaposition, the Nazis were able to vilify the wealthy and the industrialists while the subjects of their vitriol financed the Nazi Party

Hitler assured the German corporate titans that, despite their rhetoric, the Nazis would leave them alone and award them lucrative contracts if they sustained the Party through massive financial support.  

The Democrat Party has established a similar rapport with the corporate establishment, in particular the finance and tech sectors.  In the belief that they will be left alone by the Democrat party, the American corporate elites have financed the party out to destroy capitalism.

Let’s also not forget that the majority of our products now come from China. Have deals been made?

Eighth, Hitler, after serving in World War I, was an avowed communist who eventually joined the National Socialist Party, later renamed the National Socialist Workers (NAZI) Party.  He did so because it was larger and also espoused Marxism/socialism.  

Influenced by Mussolini and his Fascist Party, in the 1920s the National Socialist Party adopted extreme nationalism and government-controlled capitalism as a part of their foundational Marxist/socialist underpinning.  

While flirting with it for a number of decades, in the latter half of the Twentieth Century the Democrat party began to fully embrace an American version of the Marxism/socialism that underpinned the NAZI Party.   Mark Levin in his seminal work American Marxismlays out in detail this metamorphosis.  For all intents and purposes, the Democrat party could easily be renamed: The National Marxist/Socialist Party. 

The greatest threat to the survival of United States as founded is not offshore but within its borders: the Democrat party.

In closing, I once again want to emphasize that in order for Hitler to have succeeded he had to have the support of the people. The trick was getting good people to follow bad leaders.

So, let’s looks at the second article I found. You will see that it points out the same common thread. Get the people behind you by convincing them they are doing the right thing for their country.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/8_disturbing_similarities_between_the_democrat_and_nazi_parties.html

8 Disturbing Similarities between the Democrat and Nazi Parties

By D. Parker

Steve McCann’s “Eight Startling and Uncomfortable Ways the Democrat Party Emulates the Nazi Party” was just the tip of the National Socialist iceberg.

The fascist far left have always had to lie to survive.  They’ve always been on the wrong side of history, and the only way they can remain viable is by gaslighting people on a full-time basis.  

For decades, their biggest lie has been that the supposedly pro-freedom side of the political spectrum, imbued in the precepts of individual liberty and limited government, is somehow connected to totalitarian collectivist regimes that displayed the exact opposite of those values.

Anyone who has debated leftists for the past few decades has been subjected to the same bluff abuse in their trying to maintain that nonsensical lie.  But the close similarities between fascism and communism have been obvious for at least 75 years:

“In certain basic respects — a totalitarian state structure, a single party, a leader, a secret police, a hatred of political, cultural and intellectual freedom — fascism and communism are clearly more like each other than they are like anything in between”. 

—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Associate Professor of History at Harvard, New York Times Magazine, Sunday, April 4, 1948

Even if you set aside the preposterous argument that totalitarians would also be proponents of liberty and limited government, there are still a myriad of parallel characteristics between the Democrat party and the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party.  That’s what was so startling about the first eight ways.  

Our follow-up along those lines will make the case even more. 

1. Democrats and the Nazis were/are obsessed with gun confiscation.   

We’ll start with the one issue the fascist far left never bring up when they try to make their absurd claims: that the Democrats and the Nazis were obsessed with gun confiscation.  You will never hear them try to make this accusation of the pro-freedom right because even they know that their lies can only carry them so far.  This obvious common collectivist trait also destroys the far leftist mythology of the “party switch,” which supposedly took place sometime in the late ’60s.  This was one glaring item that didn’t switch, so they avoid mentioning it.

Anyone who has been paying attention for the past few years knows that saying that the Democrats are obsessed with gun confiscation is an understatement of massive proportions.  Every day, it seems they’ve come out with a new scheme on the national, state, and local levels to deprive the people of their commonsense civil rights.

Bear in mind that it was just yesterday that President Biden stated, “Made it harder for people buy stabilized brief— braces. Put a pistol on a brace, it turns into a gun, makes it more, you can have a higher-caliber weapon, higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun.”

Good Grief.

2. Democrats and Nazis are collectivists.

There are essentially two political philosophies: individualism and collectivism.  The fact is that all academic disciplines are based on foundational principles, and this is an ironclad rule that separates the two sides of the political spectrum and also eviscerates the fascist far left’s biggest lie. 

According to F.A. Hayek, students today are often taught that on the imaginary “political spectrum,” socialism and communism are “left of center,” and capitalism and fascism are “right of center.”  This is frightfully misleading.  Socialism, communism and fascism are all peas in the same collectivist pod.  Hayek held that they all despised both competition and the individual, and he was precisely right.

3. The overarching philosophy of both Democrats and Nazis is centralized control.

The individualists on the pro-freedom side of the political spectrum favor liberty and limited government.  The collectivists of the anti-liberty side of the political spectrum favor control and unlimited government.  This can easily be seen in the Democrat’s obsession with controlling not only basic liberties, but also gas stoves, dishwashers, and air-conditioners.

In the case of the German National Socialist Labor Party, this was set out as point 25 in their 25-point program:

25. In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

4. The centralized collectivist control philosophy of the Democrat and Nazi parties is epitomized in the phrase “the Common Good” (Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz in the original German).

How many times have you heard the fascists of the far left parrot the phrase “the Common Good” when trying to shove a draconian, authoritarian rule down our throats?  The COVID crisis was particularly egregious in this regard, exemplified by this piece in USA Today: “The COVID culture war: At what point should personal freedom yield to the common good?”

5. Far-left fascists of the Democrat and Nazi parties see force as means to their political power.

While the German national socialist party exploited force, Democrats started the practice with the KKK and perfected it with the Burning, Looting, and Murder riots during the summer of 2020, making it clear to everyone that if they didn’t get their way, the BLM violence would continue.

The tradition continues with Mr. Liberty Control himself, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), threatening a “popular revolt” if they don’t get their way in ramming the pre-stages of gun confiscation down our throats.

6. Democrats and Nazis are proponents of single-party systems.

It should also be obvious that the authoritarians of the far left would love to keep everything nice and simple with a single party — theirs.  This is why the Nazis attacked the rival collectivists of the communist party.  Just like the rival factions of Islam, they had the same ideology; it’s just that they wanted to be the people in control.

This was exemplified in a piece from the New Republic, “The Constitution Is the Crisis,” with this lovely quotation: “We’ve seen multiple periods of one-party dominance in our history; we’ve also seen defeated political parties wither and die. Why shouldn’t the Republican Party join them?”

7. Democrats and Nazis are fascistic.

You can always tell when a leftist defines fascism, because aside from the inevitable circular logic that supposedly prevents them from being fascist, such as oh, so cleverly labeling themselves as “anti-fascist,” they will define the term based on an arbitrary set of subjective (and thus meaningless) criteria.

The fact is that fascism is based on several references.  When it’s primarily defined as an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer

 (Just like China today)

In present-day parlance, it’s a “Public/Private” partnership, combining the worst aspects of unlimited governmental rule and corporate oligarchy, with the latter answering to the government instead of the customer.  The Bud Light debacle is a prime example.

When the Italian far left originally developed this reprehensible ideology 96 years ago, it was based on La Carta del Lavoro, translated as the Charter of Labor.  The New York Times enthused:

FASCISTI PROCLAIM ‘CHARTER OF LABOR’; Mussolini Is Hailed as Prophet of Cooperative Industrial Peace Under the State. LABOR AND CAPITAL JOINED Document Declaring Rights and Duties Is Presented at Climax of Rome’s 2,681st Birthday. 

ROME, April 21. — The Fascist “Charter of Labor,” embodying the fundamental principles of the Fascist-Syndicalist State, which is based primarily upon the theory of replacing the class struggle by a fruitful cooperation between capital and labor under direct State control, was promulgated tonight by Premier Mussolini at a special meeting of the Fascist Grand Council.

Strangely enough, Democrats never refer to this founding document of their base ideology.  If you study any of their “academic” work on the subject, they tend to ignore these facts.

8. Democrats are striving for a totalitarian state structure and a single party like the Nazis.

So, there you have it folks. Regardless of your political persuasion, it is hard to deny that we, as a people, are following down a dangerous path that has been tread before.

Are all Democrats evil? No

Are all Republicans evil? Again no.

Are “We the people” stupid? Absolutely not. We are simply wanting what people in our past have wanted. The question is, will we follow along blindly and repeat our previous mistakes, or will we stop, look at what history can tell us, and choose a better path?