"The best way to be sure that 2017 is not 1934 is to act as though it were." - must-read

[highplainsdem]

Found this via a tweet from CNN's Briant Stelter:

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/820443134131900416


This must-read piece is from the New Yorker's Adam Gopnick:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-music-donald-trump-cant-hear

Assaults on free speech; the imprisoning of critics and dissidents; attempts, on the Russian model, likely to begin soon, to intimidate critics of the regime with fake charges and conjured-up allegations; the intimidation and intolerance of even mild dissidence (that “Apologize!” tweet directed at members of the “Hamilton” cast who dared to politely petition Mike Pence); not to mention mass deportations or attempts at discrimination by religion—all things that the Trump and his cohorts have openly contemplated or even promised—are not part of the normal oscillations of power and policy. They are unprecedented and, history tells us, likely to be almost impossible to reverse.

So we need to stiffen our spines and broaden our embrace, grasp tightly but reach out far. The conservatives who see Trump for what he is and are shocked by it—and there are many, though not as many as there should be—should be welcomed. We can postpone arguing about the true meaning of the Second Amendment while we band together to fight for the Constitution that precedes it.

Trump, in a tweet and then again in his press conference, actually compared the practice of leaking information about him to, of all things, the horrors of Nazi Germany. We are told, rightly, again and again, that such comparisons should never be made. The experience of Germany in 1934, and of that unspeakable ascent to power, is one that we ought to put aside as too enormous, too different, too blasphemous to even mention in our own crisis. But it is possible to be of the view that we ought always to keep that spectre in front of our eyes, not because our political opponents are “like Nazis,” but exactly because we too readily forget how easily the very worst can happen, and by what quick complicity we accede to the unacceptable, more often from our exhausted longing for decent normalcy (and normal decency) than from ideological conversion.

There’s no point in studying history if we do not take some lesson from it. The best way to be sure that 2017 is not 1934 is to act as though it were. We must learn and relearn that age’s necessary lessons: that meek submission is the most short-sighted of policies; that waiting for the other, more vulnerable group to protest first will only increase the isolation of us all. We must refuse to think that if we play nice and don’t make trouble, our group won’t be harmed. Calm but consistent opposition shared by a broad front of committed and constitutionally-minded protesters—it’s easy to say, fiendishly hard to do, and necessary to accomplish if we are to save the beautiful music of American democracy.

[Jacob Boehme]

1. From our founding Father

“We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear-brought experience.”
George Washington

[colsohlibgal]

2. Absolutely!

Situation Critical for sure. We have numbers though, augmented by the growing number of republicans who cannot stomach Orange Hitler Clone.

All the signs of looming fascism are there. Then there is the Putin angle.

Resist do not accept this huckster as your president, stand with the great John Lewis and others.