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"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life." -- Adolph Hitler 1933-02-01
(Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ladyteal for
pointing it out.)
[Note that there are differences between this speech and the message folks will be inclined to draw parallels to. He also says, "The misery of our people is horrible to behold!" rather than 'Everything is wonderful (except that you have to be scared of the terrorists).' But it's still enough to count as a warning to be suspicious of this rhetoric whether you perceive deeper similarities or not.]
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if at any point in how far down the line of government control and loss of individual rights, its always "well, its only for a little while" and "its not that bad, compared at what Germany did".
well, if you look at what Germany did, it was NEVER a sudden, bam! here's fascism. every step towards the hell that Germany was, 1936-1945, was slow, steady, single steps at a time.
to remember that is CRITICAL to keeping this country free.
especially as each subset of the administration says their particular incroachment on our freedoms and rights isn't going to change us all that much.
no, each department's ideas of how to be "more secure" by eliminating a right we've had for decades or more isn't going to turn us into Germany. but start to add them all up and see what happens.
freedom requires vigilance.
grump
Re: grump
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trouble is, fiscally and economically, the moderates on both parties are far more alike than different, so only social policies differentiate them. that left the opening for Uncle Newt to come along and push the social differences to the point that they alone define what people see in the parties. The economic realities of the ultra-conservatives are ignored because the people have been duped by their own history to think that its what all republicans want.
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Some places you shout. Some places you whisper. Some places you ask Socratic questions. Some places you wait for a better opportunity. Use all the tools, just pick where and when to use each.
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No, I don't think Bush aspires to be another Hitler. I do think that a group of people around him collectively have similar aspirations despite none of them seeing themselves in that role individually. More importantly, I see a lot of people saying, "oh it's just this one thing," or, "oh we need to let them get away with that 'because of the terrorists'", who need to be reminded that some of these words -- and steps -- sound familiar.
It's not "Ooh, demon Bush! We hates him!" It's "Hey folks, stay alert and don't let America become Hitler's Germany."
It's a matter of keeping that thought in the back of everyone's mind: "Wait, do we want to jump right into this just because of some Christian/terrorist-FUD rhetoric? Let's slow down and consider the larger picture, possible unintended consequences, balance of power, and such first."
It's a bit late to try to convince people to vote for Kerry. Even I know that. I want to remind people to remind their representatives to preserve American democracy in the face of temptations to rub it away a little at a time for short-term benefits.
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