Responsibility for Trump
Tonight I am offering a few thoughts before I have to bury myself writing final exams for my students, then grade those exams and some late papers on Tuesday. Thus, I won’t be writing anything else before Trump’s inauguration and the initial descent into the Trump reign of tyranny.
William Shirer the American correspondent in Europe and then Germany for two wire services before being recruited by Edward R. Murrow as a radio correspondent for CBS. As such he witnessed the fall of democracy in Germany and Austria, before Hitler’s Blitzkrieg across Europe culminating in the fall of France and the establishment of the pro-Nazi Vichy government.
In his book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer wrote something that many people in the United States would not like to own. The fact is that most every group, be they conservative, liberal, or moderate have some responsibility for the coming reign of Trump. I am talking about political parties, religious, business and media, mind you, maybe not every individual, but probably most of us did in some way, maybe not directly, but like me what we did decades before. Shirer wrote:
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it.”
For me it was my blind allegiance to the GOP before I returned from Iraq in 2008 realizing the full extent of the deception and rot in the party that led to that criminal invasion, regardless of how bad a guy Saddam Hussein really was. Our policies fucked our country and our long term interests, sacrificed the lives of thousands of American and coalition soldiers, while injuring tens of thousands of others. Likewise, it diverted U.S. from the complete overthrow of Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, which without the Iraq invasion would have been done by 2003. We had Bin Laden trapped, and he escaped because of George W. Bush’s screwed up priorities and strategy. Those misadventures nearly bankrupted the country, and because the money was diverted sabotaged the modernization of the military and the replacement of older weapons systems, aircraft, and warships that we need now.
I figured that out and then the right wing propaganda and lie machine began some of the most disgusting racist attacks on Barack Obama, including questioning his citizenship with the birth certificate conspiracy in which Donald Trump played a big role. They then nominated the most unqualified, poorly educated, religious extremist to be their Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. That’s when I left the GOP, but by then the real damage was done. After John McCain’s defeat the GOP drifted more and more to the extreme beginning with the Tea Party Movement and the Freedom Caucus. Then came Trump, and the rest is history and even more tragically our future.
Others have to own their responsibility, but that will be hard to do. Admitting responsibility for something so disastrous for our country, people, and the world. The consequences for all of us will be dire.
But now we must resist by every means possible without giving Trump easy victories to further his control of those who voted for him, and his political, media, oligarchic, and entertainment allies who seem to be growing in number with every passing day. Wealthy people will willingly surrender their benefits for truth, or anyone else.
As General Henning von Tresckow who helped plan numerous attempts on Hitler’s life, and died as a result of the failed attempt to kill him and topple the Nazi regime said:
“We have to show the world that not all of us are like him. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler’s Germany.”
I would add that I do not recommend or condone any attempts to kill Trump. That thought is revolting to me, an assassination would only play to his political supporters use of violence. We must use peaceful means, and be smart about how resist. But resist we must, and after the debacle of 2024 we must show the world that we are not like him, otherwise this will always be Trump’s America.
See you in a few days.
But before I go, I am running a special offer for current and new subscribers. If you are a free or monthly subscriber and upgrade to a one-year $50, or founder’s subscription, $75, I will send you an inscribed copy of my book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion and the Politics of Race in the Civil War Era and Beyond, a $37.99 at list price, with free shipping.
Likewise, remember to set your watches back to 1934 on Monday.
Exceptionally crafted piece!!
As a military brat it seemed appropriate for me to slide into the Republican Party once I registered to vote—in first cohort of 18 year olds who could. I will do time in purgatory for casting my first presidential vote for Nixon. It was not until he resigned and I had transferred to UCLA that I re-registered as an independent voter. Since that year, I have wandered the political landscape.
On 9/11, I knew what this country would do and since my son was in the Air Force Security Forces, I grew despondent and increasingly angry. Marched in a protest against the impending invasion of Iraq. Actually grew hopeful during Arab Spring that social media might truly be a liberating technology, in spite of my generally less than ga-ga attitude over the latest trend. My original Orwellian sensibility seems more valid.
I don’t know what to say to my grandchildren. At some point my son will have that burden.
Yesterday my wife and I marched in Eureka’s People’s March, 300+ with our signs, songs, chants, and dogs as accompaniment. Our signs had Martin Niemöller’s poem, an Arendt quote, and the banned WAPO cartoon. My wife and I expressed how we felt. Many cars honked in support, one guy in his truck flipped us off. Today the sun burned off early morning marine overcast and we played pickleball with friends at a neighborhood park.
I will not partake of the inaugural as await some version of the Reichstag fire.