History Repeats: Old Prophetic Article from 2001

[Tommymac]

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Bush_Hitler.html

I know a lot of this stuff has been bandied about, but it's always good to refresh our understanding of the parallels in history that we should try and avoid. Interesting thing about this article is it was written in 2001....

Quotes for thought from the article:

Bush and Hitler:
Is History Repeating Itself?
by Cheryl Seal
Democrats.com, July, 2001

"Hitler also made sure that the media did not give provide the public with any coverage of dissenters or public protests because it was "encouraging of destructive elements." (Recently when I asked a reporter at the Associated Press why protests are not being covered, he said reporters are instructed not to because to do so "would be encouraging of destructive displays.").

At the same time, Hitler actively promoted "family values" and high moral standards. He believed women should go back to being at home with their families and not in the work force. He also believed there should be little or no separation between the state and his brand of Christianity, especially since he firmly believed that the emotional fervor of religion could be used to effectively to promote the states objectives.

Another Hitler tactic learned by the GOP was the use of the smear. Hitler advised telling a damaging lie about an "enemy," then repeating it over and over, no matter what proof may be offered to counter it. The GOP poured an unprecedented amount of money into the 1936 campaign of their candidate Alf Landon. The party launched what was then dubbed the "nationwide selling campaign strategy." To do this, observed political writer Ralph D. Casey in 1937, the party was showered with the money and vigilant efforts of "a small but determined group of businessmen." Casey says the campaign was designed to be "an intensive, subtle, highly-organized salesmanship drive to unsell President Roosevelt and to sell Governor Landon and his highly-advertised common sense." .

The GOP "sales team" identified several key points of attack, which they have used with almost no variation in every campaign since, whether appropriate or not.
* Accuse opposition of overspending
* Accuse opposition of supporting "big government"
* Identify a bogeyman - usually the communists and/or liberals , although they have gotten a bit creative and now include environmentalists, anti-gun folks, and scientists on their list of "enemies of freedom"
* Condemn New Deal (i.e., government social programs) as communistic or in some other way unAmerican
* Manipulate statistics to own advantage
* Accuse opposition of waging a class war.

It was the GOP that started the bane of our current system: paid political ads. In the 1930s, these were called "radio spots." It was in the ugly election of 1936 that the first conservative "talk show" was set up. These programs were created expressly as outlets for GOP propaganda. "No political party has ever excelled the businesslike effectiveness of the Republicans in the distribution of their party propaganda," observes Casey.
In the 1936 election, farmers and ranchers were courted by Republicans who shamelessly praised them for their "All-Americanism" a "rugged individualism." At the same time, of course, the same Republicans were supporting the right of bankers to foreclose on farms and ranches and opposing efforts to provide farm relief.

[helderheid]

1. recommended

[ComerPerro]

2. Hitler references from July 2001? I'm kinda suprised

in July 2001 I conisdered Bush to be just a dangerous alcoholic idiot who would be impeached soon. I didn't yet realize that we could be stuck with him indefinately.

[Tommymac]

3. Neither did the German people in 1933...

Hitler believed that to consolidate his power, he needed to create an "enemy of the state." Contrary to popular belief, the first "enemy" Hitler formally targeted was not the Jews but the Communist Party. Why? Because they were the most outspoken activists against his regime. Hitler was thus the first to invoke the spectre of "the Red Menace." He intentionally sought to provoke party activists to violent protest so, under his new aggressive laws suppressing public dissent; he could round them up and arrest them. Aware of this ploy, the Communists laid fairly low for a time, believing that Hitler was merely a puppet of reactionaries and his regime would not last

Who'd a thunk it in JULY of 2001....that in July 0f 2005 we would be suffering a lot of the same fanatical crap from the neocons that the world faced with Adolf in 1938....

Cheryl must have had a 'Nostradamus moment' ...

[ComerPerro]

4. Yeah, that's what I mean

It just seems odd, because from what I can remember back before 9/11 Bush was just an incompetent idiot who would probably be gone soon.

Then only thing that really terrified people then was the idea of a Bush impeachment, leading to a Cheney Presidency...

[PATRICK]

5. Something more than being true to form

There is direct linkage to the use of methodology that goes so far as repeating nearly verbatim Nazi talking points. The Bush people make "liberal" use in unbroken connection from their fandom days of pre-war fascism to the "neutral" study and adoption of tactics by American Intel to the inclusion of these overseas covert methods back onto American soil for campaigns and policy and media control.

It looks so startlingly similar because there is an unbroken connection of ideas, loyalties and methods cynically unchanged from the days of their most monstrous exposition and defeat. Often imported Germans and Nazi officers at that, multi-national corporations with Nazi support ingrained into their genes, are as prevalent as any other cast of scoundrels in Bush politics for generations.

Comparison s are less than startling in these circumstances. What is startling is with what openness these connections are available for scrutiny without ever, ever triggering deeper questioning or investigation or any political price, even among the Jewish population.
The government soft-peddling and institutionalizing cold pragmatic lessons and personnel from Hitler's impressive use of power(despite the real lesson of his monstrous crimes and total defeat) provided a fetid swamp to enable the Bush dynasty to flourish with its pack of rats.

Too often the Democrats confuse the perfume covering the swamp odor for the myth of democracy and America itself and cannot even see, much less finally deal with either the cross fertilization of evil or the unresolved evils of slavery and other assorted cancers.

Surprise is a sick person finally acknowledging the seriousness of a long felt symptom. Should have, could have and usually did know all along. It becomes plainer that the disease is not spontaneous or just natural, but an infection grafted onto other homegrown diseases, possibly mutated but still lethal.

The larger philosophical question of the weary similarity of human and social evil can be the GOP textbook too, but in particular the remarkable similarities to Nazism goes to the dumb uncritical nature of the Bush family connections, the Straussian think tanks, and their use of hidebound losers from the actual Third Reich who don't even know enough to change the braggart vocabulary of tyranny that was specific to their fallen Fuhrer.

Newspeople and historians ignorant of the Bushes and their imports and ex black-ops scratch their heads at these signs and are repelled by what seems a prejudicial poor fit. It would be nice if such people ever would get a little more into their actual jobs or listen to the people who do the legwork for them- instead of swallowing Rove directives like mint juleps.

[dogday]

6. Maybe that is why the "Nazi" word offends them so much

it is the truth and the truth hurts...