The smashing of state governments in Nazi Germany.

[Clete]

This is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of “The Rise and Fall Of The Third Reich” by William L. Shirrer. (The bold letters in the following paragraph are mine.) Some of the events happening today are eerily reminiscent of what happened back then.

<snip>
When Hitler addressed the Reichstag on January 30, 1934, he could look back on a year of achievement without parallel in German history. Within twelve months he had overthrown the Weimar Republic, substituted his personal dictatorship for its democracy, destroyed all political parties but his own, smashed the state governments and their parliaments and unified and defederalized the Reich, wiped out the labor unions, stamped out democratic associations of any kind, driven the Jews out of public and professional life, abolished freedom of speech and of the press, stifled the independence of the courts and “co-ordinated” under Nazi rule the political, economic, cultural and social life of an ancient and cultivated people. <snip>

I think California is the second state targeted for humiliation and control by this fascist, federal government. Florida is the first. Even though I am sure it is a coincidence, how ironic it is that the new candidate that the GOP is offering for the new Governor of California is an artist (this time an actor as opposed to a painter) of Austrian background like Adolf Hitler. I am not suggesting Arnold is a Nazi. I am saying that the parallel is really weird IMHO.

[BushHasGotToGo]

1. The California fiasco is Republican funded, not federal

And I really don't know why you're bringing up all of the Nazi refrences.

The constitution allows for a recall election and the law must be honored.

I would advise Californians to vote no to the recall and yes for Cruz Bustamente.

[Clete]

2. Because Hitler also used ligitimate means to consolidate his

power, until he didn't need to pretend anymore. If we Americans can't see the similarities, then we are just plain dumb.

[atreides1]

4. There's a difference between Republican and Federal?

The references show that what happened in Germany can happen here also.

"The law must be honored"

That's a good one. LOL

Now if you can only get the SCOTUS to honor the law, oops too late.


"IT'S BETTER TO DIE ON YOUR FEET, THEN TO LIVE ON YOUR KNEES"

[BushHasGotToGo]

5. Federal dollars do not fund political campaigns

Period. To think they do with the GAO breathing down their necks is a whacked CT.

[TacticalPeek]

15. Hmmm. How many trillion is the Pentagon "missing"???

The practical guide to federal funding of elections.

* Federal solon/rep inserts juicy pork tidbits for "citizen" into legislation five minutes before vote on hundreds of pages never read in their entirety by ANY member.

* "Citizen" snarfs up jillions of taxpayer funds, does a little work (good enough for gummint work ya know) and clears huge, obscene margin; or does tons of work on tailored, "cost + pct", sweetheart gummint deals and receives unbearable profits, so much it requires quick revision of "citizen"'s estate planning and review of foreign banking relationships.

* Happy "citizen", in admiration and support of solon/rep's stand on the issues (and for other good and valuable consideration, the sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged), is moved to reinvest now available excess windfall in solon/rep's campaign treasury, and to highly motivate the same to all relatives, co-workers, employees, contractors, consultants, dogs, cats, etc. Leftover excess, unspendable otherwise monies are left in the doggie dish for members of press on boards, advisory committees, consulting ventures, etc.

QED

[Oracle]

3. Don't forget Texas...it's already there....

What is that around 150 electoral votes or more with just those three states?

[TheBigGuy]

6. What Hitler did is a lot more radical than you think....

It would be tantamount to abolishing, say, the governments of the New England states and combining them into one administrative district called "New England".

But then German state boundaries where somewhat fluid anyway. The ones that Hitler had to deal with (and had survived being gobbled up by Prussia in the 1860s...the Germans had their own "civil war" during that decade too) pretty much had their boundarys set in the early part of the 19th century at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

The only states to surivie more or less intact from that time are Saxony and Bavaria.

All the other German states are synthetic creations from the post WWII era.

[Clete]

7. There are many, many differences in what actually happened.

What I am trying to bring up is that the methods used are the same. They may not be as drastic as the Nazi's and Germany was certainly in a different place as a world power after WWI, but the Nazis, particularly in Hitler's inner circle had a different outcome planned for Germany than even the nascent Nazis and the Weimar Republic had envisioned.

This minority of misfits with delusions of empire used every method available to them to rise to the top of the heap. It happened before the Germans really realized and too late what had happened to them.

[Karenina]

8. Yeah, what you said, Clete.

.

[tom_paine]

13. Well said, Clete

But even assuming the Busheviks had the best of intentions for a Benevolent Empire

(yeh, right)

historic forces and human nature would combine to drag us towards that ultimate end (of course, as we discussed it specifically might look more like Imperial Rome or the book "Farenheit 451" or some other new Totalitarian Beast.

Clete, if only people understood the ebb and flow of history.

Instead they say, "If gas chambers, concentration camps, and boxcars full of piteous victims aren't involved, then it CAN'T BE ANYTHING LIKE THE NAZIS!"

Sometimes I think Amerika deserves the future that is very likely (but not with 100% certainty) coming.

[TheBigGuy]

16. I dont even see the analogy.

For the Republicans to somehow void state governments is pretty preposterous.

The GOP is obvoulsy pushing where they see an advantage at the state level, like the Texas redistricting and now this California recall election, but I dont necessariliy see this as anything akin to what the Nazis did to set up the Third Riech.

IMO thes "nazi" parallels are way overblown.

The GOP is doing what it needs to do stay in power, but they are doing it via tactics, such as gerrymandering and using the political process, such as that recall election in Califorina (other states and localities haver recall provisions too).

Besides, the likely winner if the recall is sucessfull, Arnold Schwartzenegger, is fairly moderate by GOP standards.

[Clete]

17. Stealing elections is the modus operandi.

First they build coalitions of diverse people like the NRA and religious fundies to increase their small numbers. Next they eliminate the competition. Between throwing California, Florida and Texas to Republican governorship, it paves the way to get all those electoral votes because I doubt if we will have any honest elections if this happens in these states.

But it hasn't happened yet. However, don't say I didn't tell you so when you find a Republican governed state of California that cooks the books like Jeb does in Florida and that destroys the economy in the long run so that the rest of us will probably be nothing but serfs bound to our low paying jobs.

[BigDaddyLove]

9. If........

a Democrat were trying to recall a Republican, whould anyone here be making Nazi/Hitler comparisons?

[Clete]

12. To tell the truth,

I wouldn't want it done to a legitimately elected Governor no matter how much I didn't like him unless he really was crazy in a nutty Roman emperor sort of way.

The only reason this recall has legs is because it had the money behind it to pay those people to get the signatures. Not only that I learned a disturbing thing. It was that some of the petition collectors were telling people who opposed the petition that they had another petition for them to sign if they opposed the recall and therefore getting those opposition signatures on a petition.

I think this needs to be investigated myself.

[Must_B_Free]

10. "I am not suggesting Arnold is a Nazi."

no, of course not, that was Arnold's dad

[TheBigGuy]

11. are we going to condemn everyone from Austria & Germany?

This is actually a serious deal here.

I dont know the backround of Schwarzeneggers dad, but we are talking about someone who is now an American citizen.

Sometimes the subconcious (or is it)? German bashing here is really irritating.

[Clete]

14. Well, consider it fascist bashing, which covers many nationalities

and goverments, including our present American government run by a Republican right-wing administration. Yes, when Arnold took his oath of citizenship, he had to renounce his former country and any titles he held from that government.