We need to pay attention to words, especially words that come down through history. We need to understand the implications of those words and their historical context. There are so many lessons, so many words of wisdom and warning. Unfortunately, so many opportunities missed that, if caught, acted upon, would have saved us a great deal of angst and national wounds and division that long remain with us and continue to do grievous harm to the body politic.
"We Americans... are characters in this living book of democracy. But we are also its author. It falls upon us now to say whether the chapters that are to come will tell a story of retreat or a story of continued advance. "President Franklin D. Roosevelt's final campaign speech.
Does that ring a bell somewhere within your head? Have we not heard similar words the past few years, increasingly so as we approached these very important midterm elections, the message sent re these election choices? Have we not heard these very same warnings, from the mouths of pundits, analysts, common worried citizens, professors, lawyers, constitution experts, the President himself as he spoke of the challenge to democracy that we faced?
Almost every time a concern is raised, there is always some dolt in the room who will announce, in a pompous, pontifical, contemptuous voice, that "It can't happen here. It won't happen here." Well, he knows not whereof he speaks for we have had times where the democracy of ours was on very shaky grounds, on its way out. Only through the very careful, observant watchdog eyes of those who know the truth of the real possibility, did we oh so narrowly avoid disaster. Worse, we do not learn. We ignore history and facts, even remain ignorant or denying of it, and fall into the same traps, the same milieu of denial, over and over again.
Thus the answer of "Nope" to the question of whether or not it can happen here, is a huge uh-uh and an emphatic 'oh yes it can'. Unfortunately, there are enough nefarious dudes out there who viscerally hate democracy, its principles, its striving to improve itself, better the lot of its populace. They form posses, militias, cults, and gather to them the dissatisfied, incompetent, deluded, and nasty people, enough to fill their rolls and train to revolution, oppression, repression, and vicious hatred of 'others' who bother the hell out of them.
Always and forever, part and parcel of these antidemocratic rebels is a virulent, deadly, ever growing in violence, obscenity, and ambition, frightening antisemitism that never seems to fade away. Rather, it hangs around, found in every economic class, belief and religion. It is a go to theme, a distractor, a focus point - whatever works. It is cynical and bloody, and 80 years ago a brilliant madman and his henchmen and eager or cowardly souls, almost managed to do what has been tried through the centuries - the annihilation of Jewry down to the last newborn.
Oh, but it can't happen here, right? We have safeguards, right? Wrong, so very dangerously wrong. History tells us otherwise. It teaches us, but what is supposed to be taught never seems fully to have been caught. Tragically so.
Most people do not know that in the 1930's and 40's, in Los Angeles, there was a huge Nazi underground, at times not really so underground at all. They laid a firm foundation to take over LA and use it as a base to go national. They successfully courted politicians, workers, the wealthy, the celebrities, promising them glory and making antisemitism popular, permitted, and encouraged. There were huge German Bunds, youth groups, camps, throughout the nation, strong ties to Germany, with members taught how to fight or how to get placed in critical positions. There were huge Hitler parades, gatherings, perfect puppets to their masters overseas.
And they very nearly succeeded.
It was only through the persistence of Jews who noticed, always watchful, friends who refused to bite the bullet, and some government figures who accepted the truth of the dangerous conspiracy, that this very real and almost successful threat was defeated. There was a series about this several years ago; I wonder how many even bothered to watch.
Fast forward to present day. Look at the rebels, violent, blood on their mind putsch makers. Hear their words and rants. The Auschwitz t-shirts, the scapegoating of Jews for the troubles of the nation, all the activities of these groups prior to and after Jan. 6 and know the truth.
It almost happened here 90 years ago and very clearly, frighteningly almost happened here two years ago. And it certainly can happen at any time now. While thankfully many Trumpian deniers of election results, buyers of filth and lies, Jew haters, were defeated, there remain enough, too many, who did win, and the concern is there - should be there. First infiltrate the government, use reinforcing violence, and have at it. The likes of Boebert, Gaetz, McCarthy, the weak McConnell, the filth of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the dangerous stupidity of Walker, the viciousness of a Mo Brooks and a Ron Johnson. The hatred of Omar, AOC, Tlaib. All the characters in this book of democracy - still present and accounted for.
Which set of characters will prevail? Will a nation survive and prove true to itself? What are the odds? Check with the bookies in England for they often create the odds in campaigns, matches and such. But remember, this is not a ticket you can rip up and discard, for the effects of a losing bet are far more permanent and dangerous to life and limb.
A postscript: See the havoc, the pain, the bloodshed, the cruelty, the treating of humans as trash, as pawns in an obscene political game. Brittney Griner has been sent to an unknown harsh, the harshest of Russian gulag prisons - a general penal colony, the highest security, the harshest conditions, the worst of the worst criminals, and many do not survive their prison terms there.
We need to rescue this woman, this American, this wife and mother. I cannot sleep at times as I worry about this disaster that has befallen her.
What the hell are we doing? Where is the humanity of the world?
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