1930's Redux?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Over the past few weeks I have been wondering why none of what's happening today in America seems new, or even surprising. A short time ago it became clear. We've experienced it before. We've seen this movie before. It's pre-1945 Germany -- all over again.

"The U.S. had been moving toward a total police state since about 1913; but in 2012 the final nail in the coffin of democracy and justice was hammered into place with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. NDAA allows for the U.S. military to arrest, imprison, and torture American citizen without due process of any kind!

Contemporary America has adopted the identical police state, economic-military imperialist policies and operations that Nazi Germany did--though the enactment of those policies differs to some degree. The sound of Gestapo jackboots is now heard in the land of Jefferson, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt." SOURCE: http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm

Oh, yes. I expect to get hammered for even broaching this subject. Any time a conservative points out the obvious -- especially when it has to do with Hitlerian Germany -- we are hammered by the political left.

Problem is -- there are still a few of us around who remember those days, and the war, and the years after the war when so much more was uncovered about the leftist movement in Germany that produced Nazism and nearly destroyed the world.

In his book: "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change," Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.

The sad truth is -- they are doing it again. This time America is their target and, unfortunately the average American citizen is so ignorant of politics, so ignorant of their own country's history and its founding documents they are allowing a leftist dictatorship to roll-up America as they stand idly by fiddling with their latest electronic gadget totally oblivious to their loss of freedom.

So why speak up now and risk bringing an excrement shower down on our heads? Because we have a duty to our fellow man to issue a warning.

Those of my generation remember these few words well. They are burned into our psyche:

"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't communist.

They they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionists.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Finally, they came for me, but there was no one left to speak up."

Those words were penned by Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran Pastor who was sent to the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1938. He paid the price.

We could easily insert the words "Tea Party", "The Press," "Christians," "Conservatives" into the Rev Niemoeller's words above and they would fit, exactly, where we are today in modern America.

In an oped piece for the Washington Times back in 2009, Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University, said this: "The path we're embarked upon, in the name of good, is a familiar one. The unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the '30s and '40s with the men usually associated with those names. Those horrors were simply the end result of a long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the name of "social justice." In Germany, it led to the Enabling Act of 1933: Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation. After all, who could be against a remedy to relieve distress? Decent but misguided Germans, who would have cringed at the thought of what Nazi Germany would become, succumbed to Hitler's charisma.

Today's Americans, enticed, perhaps enchanted, by charismatic speeches, are ceding so much power to Washington, and like yesteryear's Germans, are building the Trojan horse for a future tyrant." SOURCE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/13/americans-love-government/

Consider this from John Myers: "It seems the Obama-media and members of Congress have not read a word of history. They seem to have never heard of a democratically elected leader who enslaved Europe and started a war that killed 60 million people while his government, police and justice system turned a blind eye to every excess. All they have to do is a Google search for “Adolf Hitler.” Maybe they don’t do that because it would be a record of subversive inquiries." SOURCE: http://personalliberty.com/2013/06/12/warning-obamas-secret-police-know-you-are-reading-this/

I came across an article entitled: "26 Similarities Between America and Nazi Germany -- Three Forces Destroying the America We Know" By Brannon Howse recently. I'd like you to consider a few of those similarities Mr. Howse points out:

In 1935, under Hitler's rule, prayers ceased to be obligatory in schools. In 1962, The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school prayer.

Hitler eliminated Christian holidays in the schools first by calling Christmas "Yuletide." Most American public schools now call Christmas vacation a "winter break."

Hitler took Easter out of schools and instead honored that time of year as the beginning of spring. It has likewise become common for schools in America to refer to time off at Easter as "spring break."

Hitler controlled the church using intimidation and threats. A half-century ago, U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Baines Johnson, promoted a bill that included an amendment to use the Internal Revenue Service to remove the non-profit status of a church that speaks against the election of any specific political candidate. (We all KNOW what the IRS has recently publicly admitted to doing.)

Hitler enticed thousands of pastors to promote paganism in their congregations. Neopaganism is one of the fastest growing religions in America, doubling every 18 months according to a June 2008 article in The Denver Post.

Hitler was an environmentalist and vegetarian. Marriages performed by the Nazi state frequently included blessings of "Mother Earth" and "Father Sky." Today Americans increasingly accept radical environmentalism, pantheism, and the celebration of Earth Day.

Hitler was fascinated by eastern mysticism. Today an increasing number of American pastors encourage their followers to become "mystic warriors".

Hitler's holocaust killed between 8 and 11 million Jews and non-Jews. Americans have killed an estimated 50 million babies since abortion was legalized through the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

By 1938, all private schools were abolished by Hitler and all education placed under Nazi control. There is constant pressure from federal and many state education authorities to require that Christian schools use state-mandated, humanistic textbooks.

Hitler prevented dissenters from using radio to challenge his worldview. Many powerful liberals in America have made clear their intent to reintroduce the "Fairness Doctrine" that would require conservative and religious radio stations to offer equal time to anti-Christian, anti-conservative worldviews.

Pastors who spoke against Hitler's worldview and his murderous regime found themselves on trial and frequently imprisoned for "Abuse of Pulpit." In America, hate-crime legislation has the potential to criminalize Christians and pastors who speak out against the homosexual agenda.

Hitler outlawed the cross and replaced it with the swastika. Today many churches, Christian colleges, and universities have willingly removed the cross from their buildings. Numerous court cases sponsored by the ACLU have required the removal of the cross from public grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the Ten Commandments cannot be posted on public grounds for religious purposes.

Hitler exploited the economic collapse of Germany to take over as dictator and usher in his brand of socialism. America's financial crisis has given liberals in both political parties the opportunity to grow the size of government and implement freedom-robbing socialism at lightning speed.

Hitler was obsessed with globalism, and many of America's most powerful political leaders are willing to subjugate American sovereignty to contemporary globalism.

Many Germans responded to Hitler by retreating into neutrality. Today most Americans prefer to remain neutral on moral issues that they think don't affect them personally.

On trial after World War II, Hitler's henchmen used the defense that they had not broken any laws. True, they had not defied the laws of Germany since those had been re-written to fit the goals and objectives of Hitler. The Nazi leaders were nevertheless found guilty because the courts at the time recognized a "law above the law." Yet now the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the law of nature and nature's God by claiming that as society evolves, morals evolve, and so the law, too, must evolve.

Calling upon Darwinian evolution, Hitler convinced the German people that purging millions of people was acceptable because of the need to create a pure race; also referred to as eugenics. American students across the board have been educated in Darwinian evolution because the Supreme Court has ruled that creation cannot be taught in our schools-even if both creation and evolution are taught side by side.

Germans accepted socialism to avoid pain. Today's Americans are rejecting capitalism in exchange for government-sponsored "free" healthcare, education, and countless other government handouts.

America is rushing toward government-sponsored, national healthcare. (Obamacare is already the law of the land in America.) We already have a form of this in Medicare and Medicaid. Hitler, too, expanded and centralized Germany's healthcare system. As Melchior Palyi explained, "The ill-famed Dr. Ley, boss of the Nazi labor front, did not fail to see that the social insurance system could be used for Nazi politics as a means of popular demagoguery, as a bastion of bureaucratic power, [and] as an instrument of regimentation."

There is much more in this article and we recommend you read it -- whether you agree with it or not. You will find it here: http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=4881

I don't know about you, but I experienced an involuntary shudder as I read the similarities above. It's akin to reliving a terrifying nightmare.

What's even more distressing is watching my fellow Americans happily and energetically promoting and then voluntarily lining up for the FREE hot government showers.

It has been said that the only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition, and incompetence. I would add one more -- apathy.

Many conservatives are losing hope today that America can survive. Unless there is an act of God, I feel certain America will install another president in the mold of the current occupant of the Oval Office in 2016. I believe that will truly mark the end of days for America.

America rode to the rescue of the world in the 1940's. But there is no one, no country, remotely interested in riding to America's rescue today. So, if America is to be rescued, she must rescue herself.

And therein lies the deepest hurt of all.

There is virtually no homogeneity in America these days. There is precious little similarity, or comparability in kind or nature amongst Americans anymore. Diversity and multiculturalism took care of that. We have so little in common with our neighbors and fellow countrymen that we really could not care less what happens to them and -- by extension -- to our country. Thus our vulnerability.

It is not enough to ask as the ancient Psalmist did: "If the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" -- Psalm 11:3. It seems so inadequate to answer by sounding ONLY the alarm.

But America is not alarmed -- not yet! Until she is -- and until she is ready to pay the fiddler, her race to self immolation will continue.

© J. D. Longstreet

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