Things that Scare Me

Things that Scare Me My parents lived much of their lives under a Soviet regime and seven years toward the end of the war as refugees in Germany. I was quite young during this era but do have some direct memories though most of my observations are second hand through my parents. Also having this past in my history, I am more attentive to news and stories regarding the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The recent move further right in our country and some of the accompanying rhetoric scares me because I see some similarities with this past. HOMELAND: After 9/11 one started hearing more and more about the “Homeland” from politicians of all stripes. This reminds me of the Nazi oft invoked term “fatherland”. “AMERICA FIRST” Donald Trump’s “America first” slogan has a bit of a ring of “Deutschland, Deutschland uber ales” (spelling?) the Nazi motto, meaning Germany above all else. The Germans executed this creed to the letter. Laws, both international and domestic, morals and society as a whole would not stand in the way of the Fatherland. Israel’s right has somewhat of the same philosophy when it comes to what they believe is their God given land. FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN THEOCRACY: During the German occupation the French motto; Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, was changed to “work, family, homeland”. This could have been adopted by the right in our country without the blink of an eye. Work a cornerstone of the “Protestant Ethic” is now a central theme: “Bring jobs back”, “paychecks instead of handouts”, “get young Blacks jobs to solve all social ills”. The policies implemented under the guise of “religious freedom” really are moves to insert “Christian values” into our policies much as the move in the early fifties added “in God We Trust” to our currency and “Under God” to our pledge of allegiance. I have seen a slow Republican shift in this direction starting with the politization of the Christian Fundamentalists some decades ago. When asked about the three words that bet describe him, the vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said “Christian, Family Man and Republican”. What happened to American? REPORTING YOUR NEIGHBOR: With the threat of heinous criminal acts by a group of “Radical Islamist Terrorists” (though in his acceptance speech, Donald Trump dropped the “radical” piece of that statement and just called it Islamist terrorism) the government at all levels is now advocating “if you see something report it”. This is reminiscent of the Soviet dogma. As a good citizen, it was your duty to report any anti-communist activities or comments. In fact, to not report it was a crime. As a result, brothers were reporting brothers, sons their mothers and workers their coworkers. The Siberian Gulags were full of people falsely accused because someone didn’t like them or wanted to gain some sort of advantage. DOCUMENTATION: Europe allows citizens from its member countries to travel across their borders without documentation. We, on the other hand, need more and more documents, IDs to vote and passports to travel to countries we never needed them to visit before. Under Stalin’s rule one even had to get documented government authorization to travel within the country, never mind outside. ISLAMAPHOBIA: The Nazis, to rally support invented a common foe, Jews. The Republicans are doing the same today in this country with Muslims. XENOPHOBIA: Patriotism is a very healthy and beautiful thing. Excessive, blind and misguided patriotism is dangerous. Today the right has stolen patriotism, waving flags and reciting slogans. Flag waving was vigorous during Nazi rule in Germany. A friend wrote me the other day saying that it is difficult to have meaningful discussions with Democrats because if you disagree with them they accuse you of racism. The same can be said of the difficulty having meaningful discussions with the right. If one disagrees, they are accused of being unpatriotic. Some time ago I was watching Morning Joe where there was started a discussion on the lowering of qualifications for entry into our military. Joe Scarborough, a Republican and host, said we had a military made up of “the best and brightest”. When a guest asked by what standard? Joe got very angry and started chanting “USA, USA, USA………” thus ending the discussion. Having said all this, I am still optimistic about our great country. One of our main strengths is our ability to correct. As long as we allow the pendulum to swing, we will go a bit too far left and a bit too far right but always turns around and we spend most of the time near the middle. The things we need to be careful of are the policies we put in place which inhibit our ability to adjust or slow us down so much that we lose the ability to properly respond to the rapid changes occurring in the world.