Doing What Hitler Did
The human tragedy: The American Dictator from the get-go has taken on The Fuhrer’s mandate of destruction.
This won’t take long.
The Atlantic magazine on Jan. 8 carried an article by historian Timothy W. Ryback. It’s headline: “How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days”.
Adolf Hitler in 1941 (Creative Commons)
Since being a kid, I’ve been interested in how stories start: Where did Superman come from? How did he gain his powers? How did Babe Ruth begin playing baseball and become “The Sultan of Swat”? How did Jim Thorpe make it from a Carlisle Indian reservation to becoming “the world’s greatest athlete?”
With Ryback’s article, it was easy to see the beginning of Adolph Hitler’s chancellorship turned into a dictatorship, summarized in one paragraph:
Hitler opened the meeting by boasting that millions of Germans had welcomed his chancellorship with “jubilation,” then outlined his plans for expunging key government officials and filling their positions with loyalists. At this point he turned to his main agenda item: the empowering law that, he argued, would give him the time (four years, according to the stipulations laid out in the draft of the law) and the authority necessary to make good on his campaign promises to revive the economy, reduce unemployment, increase military spending, withdraw from international treaty obligations, purge the country of foreigners he claimed were “poisoning” the blood of the nation, and exact revenge on political opponents. “Heads will roll in the sand,” Hitler had vowed at one rally.
Does that sound familiar?
The “empowering law” Ryback writes of was designed so Hitler could dismantle the German democracy’s separation of powers:
He believed that an Ermächtigungsgesetz (“empowering law”) was crucial to his political survival. But passing such a law—which would dismantle the separation of powers, grant Hitler’s executive branch the authority to make laws without parliamentary approval, and allow Hitler to rule by decree, bypassing democratic institutions and the constitution—required the support of a two-thirds majority in the fractious Reichstag.
Sound familiar?
Trump has support of Republicans in a split Senate and a majority in the House of Representatives. So he has been able to pretty smoothly fill his administration with loyalists, including an unelected, unauthorized-by-Congress fascist billionaire leading the coup to oversee the government’s dismantling. Meanwhile Trump barrages us with endless executive actions which are leading to a flurry of lawsuits.
Instead of needing an empowerment law to dismantle the separation of powers he is using (1) Congress’s lack of opposition and (2) a direct attack on the federal court system by simply ignoring judges’ rulings against him.
His vice-president J.D. Vance made clear Trump’s dictatorial intention earlier this month when he tweeted on Elon Musk’s X platform, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Translation: The President of the United States does not have to follow the rule of law. That is, the president has a right to be a dictator. I discussed this in more detail in my Feb. 10 column “Prepare for THE Constitutional Crisis with Trump”.
We’re clearly in that crisis now. Fortunately, much of the public sees it. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if there’s any way to stop the coup as Trump controls Congress and the conservative supermajority in the Supreme Court. And a steady public approval rating of 40 percent for years now.
What Will It Take?
The March on Washington 1963
It may take a massive march on Washington AND state governments by We the People to forcefully convince politicians to alter their self-serving ways. That historically has proved effective in other countries. It has proved effective here in the past. It has proved peaceful, like the civil rights march in the ‘60s. It has proved violent like Gen. Douglas McArthur’s attacking protesting military veterans in the ‘30s and Trump’s MAGA supporters’ assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It may take a forceful coup by American patriots (not MAGA patriots) in the military, which also could get bloody, considering the nation has more guns than citizens. While over a majority of the military voted for Trump, many did not. And historically we’ve seen how military coups do take place globally. We’ll see how this powerful contingency responds to the current attack on the Constitution which they’ve taken an oath to defend “against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
A military coup can’t happen here? Yes, it can. Just like the current coup is happening.
That’s why it’s important for We the People to get organized, educated and active in exercising our Constitutional freedoms of protest and petition. And to do it fast. That can keep the power in our hands, and not force a military showdown.
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days (yahoo.com)
Prepare for THE Constitutional Crisis with Trump (substack.com)
March on Washington | Date, Summary, Significance, & Facts | Britannica
January 6 United States Capitol attack - Wikipedia