History Lessons Learned and Not Learned

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook may read the historical summary I post every morning. As a history buff, it always fascinates me to think about what famous figures were born and what significant things happened each day, and I share those with my readers in a short post in the hopes they find them equally interesting ... or, at least, entertaining.

This past Saturday, April 26th, was the date in 1933 on which the multi-hatted Nazi figure Hermann Göring established the Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo. Translated from the German, it was called the Secret State Police, and is remembered for the fearsome brutality that has made it the historic standard for violent and unchecked government power ... and a warning of its dangers that must always be remembered.

Unfortunately, this lesson has been unlearned or ignored by the current administration, which has established quite a track record for bringing down the weight of the federal legal system on the heads not only of those who have displeased Der Furor, but of ordinary Americans as well. Consider these things that have happened just in the first hundred days of the Orange Airhorn's presidency:

At least five law firms have been targeted via royal decree executive order for their work on behalf of clients who have incurred Der Furor's anger. 

At least two individual citizens - Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor - have been specifically targeted via royal decree executive order for displeasing Der Furor. 

A noncitizen US resident married to an American citizen was arrested and deported (erroneously, by the administration's own admission) to a notorious prison in El Salvador ... from which the government refuses to free him and return him to the United States.  

Rumeysa Oztürk, a Turkish student attending Tufts University, was arrested by US immigration officials in civilian clothes on a city street near Boston and was shipped to a detention facility in Louisiana. According to the Department of Homeland Security, she is guilty of "engag(ing) in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans." She has been accused of anti-semitic activities, which appears to be the latest all-purpose excuse for the administration to arrest and deport foreign students.

A two-year-old girl, an American citizen according to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, was deported to Honduras with her non-citizen mother, despite the pleas of her father, who is an American citizen. In another incident, ICE agents arrested and deported to Mexico an undocumented family - including a 10-year-old girl suffering from brain cancer - while they were on their way to an emergency medical appointment.

The FBI arrested a Milwaukee judge they accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities by escorting him and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door; the man was later arrested anyhow. The Attorney General of the United States crowed that, “What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me ... They’re deranged. I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not. We are sending a very strong message today," and the Director of the FBI tweeted a photo of the arrest, loftily proclaiming that "no one is above the law*" ...

  

Der Furor has ordered the Justice Department to investigate "Act Blue," the primary fundraising organ of the Democratic Party, in an obvious effort to cripple his political opponents. 

And here we are.

Godwin's Law states that, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison  involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one," and is similar to the logical fallacy known as Reductio ad Hitlerum, which describes comparing the position of one's opponent, with Hitler or the Nazi party, usually for lack of a valid counterargument. Nevertheless, it is not hard to identify at least basic similarities between the current administration's weaponization of the law and the actions of the Third Reich, both in terms of its interpretation and manipulation of the law and its eager employment of the tools of coercion.

Listen to any news conference or public statement by the Attorney General, the Director of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI, or the President's Press Secretary, compare them to similar statements from nearly a century ago, and wonder at the parallels.

And if, nevertheless, you find yourself thinking that this is all fine and those targeted deserve what they get, remember the admonition of history podcaster Dan Carlin:

Imagine all that power in the hands of someone you loathe.

As I've said here before, when the President of the United States gets around to turning his sights on you, your America won't seem quite so great.

Have a good day, and remember that it most certainly can happen here. And it is.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Unless, of course, they are Der Furor, a member of his family, or are extremely wealthy.