January 6th Is to Trump What November 8th Was to Hitler
Germany wasn't paying attention, and it seems too many of us also aren't
It almost sounds like a fun affair. A “Beer Hall Putsch, wow! I like beer. What next?” I could see Will Farrel from the movie Elf expressing glee over such a name. Except for the location — I am a big Bavarian beer fan! — there was little that was fun about Hitler’s attempted fascist overthrow of the German government.
Storming into the beer hall after 8 p.m., at the very moment the thousand-plus guests were listening to the keynote and tucking into heaving steins of ice-cold, fresh Munich-style lager, a gunshot was fired into the air, and Hitler took the stage. He announced that a coup was underway. Over the next few hours, he persuaded some of the most influential retired army figures and local politicians to support him. Then, he let them leave to gather more forces — most didn’t but instead contacted the authorities. By mid-afternoon on November 9th, after skirmishes between Hitler’s SA and the Bavarian army, a dozen were dead, and Hitler was racing to the mountains to hide.
The coup failed. Hitler was arrested, but then he made a show out of his trial and gained millions more followers thanks to radio coverage of the event. He spoke in his own defense for days, airing out all the grievances he and many Germans had.
Then, he wrote his plan in Mein Kampf for taking over Europe and persecuting the Jews of the world. The rest is the tragic history of World War II. Until the war began, and after Hitler became Germany’s democratically-elected leader, his first act was to disband the equivalent of Germany’s Congress, the Reichstag (only after he burned it down first), giving himself dictatorial powers. He claimed the fire was proof that nefarious forces were out to turn Germany into a communist state like Russia. He needed to fight for Germany’s right to exist by assuming total power (codified into law by The Enabling Act of 1933). The Enabling Act permitted Hitler to issue decrees that became law without conferring with the Reichstag. The Enabling Act turned the persecution of Germany’s Jews into a legal obligation of the nation.
Hitler, in a sense, was a dictator for “one day,” just like Trump proposes. On that one day, February 27th, 1933, when he had the Reichstag burned down, he made the political context of Germany completely irrelevant. What came next was his Germany. Over the years, after seizing power, Hitler would return to the beer hall where he and his followers in 1923 first tried to take over Germany. That day was immortalized. The fallen defenders had eternal fires lit to commemorate their sacrifices.
When passing this bronze plaque, all Munich residents were required by law to raise their arms in salutes to Hitler. If a person failed to do so, they would be stopped by the police and questioned. Non-supporters of Hitler would walk behind the large building to avoid passing it. After the war, alleyway gold stones were placed to recognize that sign of passive resistance.
November 8th and 9th are still days that live on in the memories of all Germans. Regrettably, ever more Germans, especially those from the eastern part of Germany, regard them as “good times.” Germany’s lesson, however, is one from which we all must learn — but it seems we aren’t. When Hitler took power, remarkably, even some Jewish Germans voted for him as few believed that the most extreme views Hitler was pushing could ever be realized. Many supporters just wanted an end to the chaos and the street fighting taking place daily among Hitler’s followers and the supporters of other parties.
Trump is not concealing his plans for America, just like Hitler didn’t. He is telling us in plain language that he will end our democracy. He will surround himself with people who think the evil of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller is too liberal. Miller is Trump’s Himmler and Bannon his Goebbels, and many democrats are still focusing on things like whether transgender women can participate in cis women’s sports. Forgive me for a second. These problems about gender and gender reassignment are irrelevant right now — they are luxuries to be discussed in a country where all is safe and secure. But there is little about our country today that is safe and secure.
Some Democrats are flirting with voting for Trump to send signals to the Democratic Party. Others propose to waste their votes on Jill Stein and other third-party candidates. It takes a clueless and even selfish person to waste their votes on a presidential candidate with no chance of winning at this time in our history. Punishing the Democrats because they didn’t offer someone younger than Biden is historical ignorance. We aren’t at that place in our history where such a protest vote will help; instead, it will tear us down and end our democracy should Trump win.
The complacency many feel — “Trump won’t get elected,” or “He won’t even get nominated” — demonstrates a failure to comprehend just how quickly fascism snowballs. One moment, it’s a failed Trump presidency, which tried to hold on using an insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Next, it’s a second term in the White House because too many of us were being too smart for our good. Forget the past America, which we still think is out there somewhere. It’s gone. It’s not there.
Trump and his kind, the MAGidiots, are a cancer that is close to spreading into the lymph nodes. There is still a chance to prevent this, but we all need to take this moment seriously, vote for Biden — and only Biden — and then we can change the Democratic Party. If Trump wins, the Democratic Party will indeed change — it will be outlawed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene recently had an event in Florida canceled. It had been organized to celebrate January 6th and supposedly for her to hand out signed copies of her book!