3 thoughts on “Not our President. New York. 11/12/06”
He sure isn’t mine.I am encouraged. The best the Germans could say after was well I didn’t vote for him. Well we didn’t either but the Germans went along. Nice to see many of us are not.
Hitler, Trump, German and American voters
Most Americans have been told that a majority of German voters elected Hitler. That isn’t true. Hitler and his Nazi Party never got more than 37.8% of the vote and that was in the spring of 1932. In the fall of 1932, there was a second election to break the stalemate in the Reichstag, the parliament, because Germany had no majority political party to run the government. The second election still solved nothing; the Nazi vote declined from 37.8% to 33% ; and the stalemate continued in the worst year of Germany’s Depression.
Germany needed a government and on January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg made a fateful decision: He reluctantly APPOINTED Hitler to the chancellorship, even though Hitler and the Nazis had no electoral or constitutional mandate to become chancellor or the ruling party. Many Germans were outraged, including a former Hitler supporter, Fieldmarshall Erich von Ludendorff, who wrote a scathing, prophetic letter to Hindenburg about “appointing one of worst demagogues in history and that future generations would forever condemn him for it.” A month later, Hitler and the Nazis swiftly seized power after the Reichstag fire, arrested all leaders of opposition parties, tossed them into prisons or makeshift camps, and the rest is tragic history.
What about Trump? Yes, he’s a demagogue with the potential to do unimaginable harm to the country and the world. That’s frightening enough! Though, the difference between Trump’s accession to power and Hitler’s is that Trump enjoys far greater popularity among Americans than Hitler ever did among Germans in 1932, and arguably even after Hitler became Germany’s dictator. Although there’s economic dislocation in the United States, it’s not as great as it was in Germany after the First World War that spawned Hitler or during its Depression, yet there are tremendous outrage and anger in our country into which Trump has tapped so brilliantly. The differences between Germany of 1932 and the U.S. of today are a matter of degree.
So, American voters, unlike the majority of German voters of 1932, you bear direct responsibility for electing one of the worst demagogues in our history who’ll have the federal courts and regulatory agencies in his hands with all the blessings of a Republican Congress. Trump won’t need a “Reichstag fire” to seize power; he had it handed to him directly by you, Mr. and Ms. American Voter and with legitimization by the electoral college. Trump won according to the rules; Hitler didn’t, even with the “Enabling Act” which he also violated, though by that time there was no one left in leadership positions to challenge him for any illegalities.
Has anyone ever lived in a dictatorship who can tell us how “easy” it is to organize resistance, especially in one’s own country? How easy was it in Hitler’s Germany? Anyone familiar with the “White Rose?” With the 20th of July (1944) plot, or with more than ten other plots in Germany to kill Hitler? How easy was it in Stalin’s Soviet Union? In Mao’s China? In Saddam’s Iraq? Or in any modern totalitarian dictatorship since the end of World War II? Let’s not be smug or take things like the 1st Amendment freedoms for granted…
This is what happens when the Queen of Monsanto and her crew corruptly misleads voters, and tries to disadvantage a very good and dedicated man like Bernie Sanders who thought he was on Hillary’s DNC team. Little did he know, they weren’t on his team. Perhaps these protestors will send some sort of message to Trump. But after the anger and disappointment wears off, they might be wise to rebuild the DNC from the ground up.
Looking back, I remember when there was a lot of disappointment in the country when Gore lost to Bush in the same manner not very long ago. It seems strange that no major move was made by any politician since the Gore / Bush contest to abolish the rule that allows the Electoral College tally to override the tally of actual votes that were cast by the voters.
Fred Klonsky 
He sure isn’t mine.I am encouraged. The best the Germans could say after was well I didn’t vote for him. Well we didn’t either but the Germans went along. Nice to see many of us are not.
Hitler, Trump, German and American voters
Most Americans have been told that a majority of German voters elected Hitler. That isn’t true. Hitler and his Nazi Party never got more than 37.8% of the vote and that was in the spring of 1932. In the fall of 1932, there was a second election to break the stalemate in the Reichstag, the parliament, because Germany had no majority political party to run the government. The second election still solved nothing; the Nazi vote declined from 37.8% to 33% ; and the stalemate continued in the worst year of Germany’s Depression.
Germany needed a government and on January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg made a fateful decision: He reluctantly APPOINTED Hitler to the chancellorship, even though Hitler and the Nazis had no electoral or constitutional mandate to become chancellor or the ruling party. Many Germans were outraged, including a former Hitler supporter, Fieldmarshall Erich von Ludendorff, who wrote a scathing, prophetic letter to Hindenburg about “appointing one of worst demagogues in history and that future generations would forever condemn him for it.” A month later, Hitler and the Nazis swiftly seized power after the Reichstag fire, arrested all leaders of opposition parties, tossed them into prisons or makeshift camps, and the rest is tragic history.
What about Trump? Yes, he’s a demagogue with the potential to do unimaginable harm to the country and the world. That’s frightening enough! Though, the difference between Trump’s accession to power and Hitler’s is that Trump enjoys far greater popularity among Americans than Hitler ever did among Germans in 1932, and arguably even after Hitler became Germany’s dictator. Although there’s economic dislocation in the United States, it’s not as great as it was in Germany after the First World War that spawned Hitler or during its Depression, yet there are tremendous outrage and anger in our country into which Trump has tapped so brilliantly. The differences between Germany of 1932 and the U.S. of today are a matter of degree.
So, American voters, unlike the majority of German voters of 1932, you bear direct responsibility for electing one of the worst demagogues in our history who’ll have the federal courts and regulatory agencies in his hands with all the blessings of a Republican Congress. Trump won’t need a “Reichstag fire” to seize power; he had it handed to him directly by you, Mr. and Ms. American Voter and with legitimization by the electoral college. Trump won according to the rules; Hitler didn’t, even with the “Enabling Act” which he also violated, though by that time there was no one left in leadership positions to challenge him for any illegalities.
Has anyone ever lived in a dictatorship who can tell us how “easy” it is to organize resistance, especially in one’s own country? How easy was it in Hitler’s Germany? Anyone familiar with the “White Rose?” With the 20th of July (1944) plot, or with more than ten other plots in Germany to kill Hitler? How easy was it in Stalin’s Soviet Union? In Mao’s China? In Saddam’s Iraq? Or in any modern totalitarian dictatorship since the end of World War II? Let’s not be smug or take things like the 1st Amendment freedoms for granted…
This is what happens when the Queen of Monsanto and her crew corruptly misleads voters, and tries to disadvantage a very good and dedicated man like Bernie Sanders who thought he was on Hillary’s DNC team. Little did he know, they weren’t on his team. Perhaps these protestors will send some sort of message to Trump. But after the anger and disappointment wears off, they might be wise to rebuild the DNC from the ground up.
Looking back, I remember when there was a lot of disappointment in the country when Gore lost to Bush in the same manner not very long ago. It seems strange that no major move was made by any politician since the Gore / Bush contest to abolish the rule that allows the Electoral College tally to override the tally of actual votes that were cast by the voters.