Expertise
It’s been a few years, but one of my history teacher areas of “expertise” was the Second World War. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Probably the reason I became a history teacher was growing up in a household where both parents fought in that War. In fact, but for the Second World War, my parents would never have met. So World War II is a “founding” pillar of my family, and my existence.
World War II was a “simple” war. There were the “bad guys”, the Fascist dictatorships that were trying to conquer much of the world: Germany, Italy, and Japan. And there were the nations trying to stop that conquest, the “good guys”. All that was left of them after the first waves of conquest was the United Kingdom (and all of the British Commonwealth, from Canada to India to Australia); the Soviet Union (even though it too was an authoritarian dictatorship). And ultimately, two years after the war in Europe began, the United States joined the fight.
Both my parents responded to their Nation’s call to arms. Dad went to the US Army and Mom to the British Special Operations Executive. Like the rest of the “Greatest Generation”, they were willing to sacrifice everything to stand for freedom.
The Treaty
My parents were born in 1918, the year that the “the war to end all wars”, World War I, ended. It took a couple more years to hammer out the tough peace treaty with Germany. The “agreement” at Versailles left Germany with a new democratic form of government. It was saddled with its own huge war debt, plus reparations to pay to the victors. It put Germany in an economic crisis; one that the government tried to solve by just printing money. Inflation soon wracked the nation, with literal suitcases of cash exchanged for a small bag of groceries.
By 1932 Germans were desperate, and faced with a choice in government. There were the moderate, liberal, and Marxists parties, or there was the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. In 1932 there more than a million members of the Nazi Party, in a German electorate of over 27 million. So it wasn’t like the Nazis controlled everything; they didn’t. But they did offer a choice.
It was simple: give up freedoms, choose our single leader, and he will solve all of the economic problems. Keep your freedoms, choose a democracy; and you will have to do the work.
The Choice
The Nazis allied themselves with the major German manufacturers, who provided financing for their political efforts. They offered industry a “controlled economy”, and military spending unencumbered by Treaty restrictions. And the Nazis gave the people simple answers to complex problems. They created all kinds of scapegoats for Germany’s failings. It was the Communists or the handicapped or what today we would call LGBTQ folks. And the Nazis created cultural/racial scapegoats. It was Black people or the Roma. But most significantly, they used the age-old European scapegoat: it was the Jews.
The German Constitutional Democracy had a parliamentary form of government, so the vote was for which party would have the most seats in the Reichstag, their parliament. The Nazi’s got 37% of the vote, the moderate parties got 22%, and the Communist Party got 14%. Minor parties got the rest. The Nazis made deals with some minor parties, and gained control of the parliament. Within a year, Adolph Hitler created a “fake crisis”. He burnt down the actual Reichstag building, and took control of both the Reichstag and the Presidency. He declared himself “Der Fuhrer” (the leader) of all Germany, and over the next few years, consolidated total control.
The Consequences
So when the argument is made that Germans “elected” Hitler, it’s somewhat right. But he never had a majority of the Nation behind him, that is, until he gained total control of media, industry, education, military and law enforcement. Once that happened, there was no going back, and World War II, the Holocaust, and the near-total destruction of Germany was inevitable.
When we ask how a civilized people like the Germans could fall into a Fascist dictatorship and the depravity of the Holocaust, this is the answer. They lost faith in their democracy, and turned to the “easy” choice of a single leader who said he had “all” of the answers.
I Alone
Maya Angelou famously wrote: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”.
When Donald Trump came down the “golden escalator” June 15, 2015 he said in part: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
On July 21, 2016, Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for President. In his acceptance speech he said: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it”.
He has his scapegoat, migrants, that he simply will not let go of. From Springfield to Aurora, he continues to create crises that don’t actually exist. He also clearly believes, even after four years as President including a world pandemic, that “he alone can fix it”. He has already told us that he will prosecute his enemies, scour the country for migrants to deport, lower taxes for his friends, and raise costs for everyone else with economy wrecking tariffs.
Trump already tried to burn his “Reichstag”, when he set a crowd of supporters on the US Capitol on January 6th. He hoped that they would be successful, so that he could call out the military to “put down” the insurrection, and delay the transfer of power until he could alter the result of the 2020 election. The fact that he tried and failed should disqualify him, but the desire of both Democrats and Republicans to “return to normalcy” ultimately gave him a “pass”.
Who He Is
We have heard story after story from the folks who were closest to the first Trump Presidency. He constantly wanted to take singular action, only to be “calmed down” by those around him. General Kelly, General Milley, General Mattis, Ambassador Bolton, are only a few that are on-record warning us of Trump’s reach for authoritarianism. But this time, instead of those serving as guardrails, there will be nothing but enablers, a “murder of Stephen Millers”, willing to do all of Trump’s bidding.
When they ask how a civilized people like the Americans could fall into a Fascist dictatorship and the depravity of millions deported, this is the answer. We lost faith in democracy, and turned to the “easy” choice of a single leader who said he had “all” of the answers.
At the Crossroads
America is at a crossroads, a tipping point. It’s so serious that Liz Cheney and many other “regular conservative Republicans” are swallowing their policy differences for the single principle of American democracy. Policy is one thing, an existential threat to our Constitutional system is another. They stand against Trump.
Winston Churchill once said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”. Democracy is hard work; it seems easier to let a single person, “I alone”, fix our problems. In our current polarized times, it is difficult to work together, to find the “middle ground” where we can all move forward. But it would be foolish to assume that one man can solve our problems. Like Cheney and the rest, we need to stand for principle above policy and politics.
When someday they ask how Americans responded to Fascism, our answer must be the same as my parents’ response. We need to fight with all our being to protect democracy. We can do all that, with one single action: we can vote, and make sure Trump is defeated.
