"In today's information age, what happened in Germany would never go unnoticed here or abroad. Too many bloggers, news reporters, and just plain nosey people around."
Unless, of course, every time a blogger or a reporter notices and tries to call attention to what they've seen, everybody else responds, "Don't be silly, in today's information age that could never happen here."
It's not that the US in 2008 is Exactly The Same As 1930s Germany; it's that there are enough similarities -- and trends -- to be concerned about not letting things get any more like that. And yes, some of the circumstances are different, but we've got at least two groups (with some at-least-apparent cross-membership) wanting to take advantage of things like the Threat To The Homeland that 9/11 presented, we've got politicians and pundits seriously arguing that a) we need to surrender some of our freedoms for safety and/or b) the country needs a more totalitarian/less hampered by checks-and-balances government in order to survive this threat, and not getting laughed out of the room for saying things like that.
It's a different situation, yes, but enough historians are getting concerned (I've quoted a couple of them before) to make me concerned that "sit back and ignore it and it'll work itself out" could be the wrong answer.
The biggest reason most people give for "it can't happen here" is that American citizens wouldn't put up with it. But if we're all so certain that other citizens will take care of stopping such things, and too few of us actually do the work of defending liberty, then by the time everyone gets fed up enough to admit that there's a problem, it'll be too late.
If it doesn't happen here, it could possibly be because the conditions aren't right or the players who want to take the reins aren't skilled enough or ruthless enough -- maybe -- or it could be because enough of us notice the similarities and the direction and speak up to prevent it. If I have to gamble (and I do, I'm not being given a choice here), I'm going to make the safer bet and encourage people to ensure that it doesn't happen here instead of relying on American Exceptionalism to allow us to ignore the lessons of both distant and recent history.
Note that folks like me aren't saying that Bush is like Hitler; we're saying that he's on a course similar to that Hitler took to become Hitler, and we shouldn't just hand him all the tools he would need if he's really going to go there.
(no subject)
Unless, of course, every time a blogger or a reporter notices and tries to call attention to what they've seen, everybody else responds, "Don't be silly, in today's information age that could never happen here."
It's not that the US in 2008 is Exactly The Same As 1930s Germany; it's that there are enough similarities -- and trends -- to be concerned about not letting things get any more like that. And yes, some of the circumstances are different, but we've got at least two groups (with some at-least-apparent cross-membership) wanting to take advantage of things like the Threat To The Homeland that 9/11 presented, we've got politicians and pundits seriously arguing that a) we need to surrender some of our freedoms for safety and/or b) the country needs a more totalitarian/less hampered by checks-and-balances government in order to survive this threat, and not getting laughed out of the room for saying things like that.
It's a different situation, yes, but enough historians are getting concerned (I've quoted a couple of them before) to make me concerned that "sit back and ignore it and it'll work itself out" could be the wrong answer.
The biggest reason most people give for "it can't happen here" is that American citizens wouldn't put up with it. But if we're all so certain that other citizens will take care of stopping such things, and too few of us actually do the work of defending liberty, then by the time everyone gets fed up enough to admit that there's a problem, it'll be too late.
If it doesn't happen here, it could possibly be because the conditions aren't right or the players who want to take the reins aren't skilled enough or ruthless enough -- maybe -- or it could be because enough of us notice the similarities and the direction and speak up to prevent it. If I have to gamble (and I do, I'm not being given a choice here), I'm going to make the safer bet and encourage people to ensure that it doesn't happen here instead of relying on American Exceptionalism to allow us to ignore the lessons of both distant and recent history.
Note that folks like me aren't saying that Bush is like Hitler; we're saying that he's on a course similar to that Hitler took to become Hitler, and we shouldn't just hand him all the tools he would need if he's really going to go there.