Wolf

I'm reading "The End of America" by Naomi Wolf. I decided to order it after seeing her on Colbert. She compares recent events in America with other politically interesting times - pre-WWII Germany, 1920's Italy, etc. There really isn't a direct comparison, which she is careful to repeat throughout the book, but still, it looks like America today is most similar to about 1930 in Germany before Hitler had any real power.

Turns out Germany was a Democracy with free elections, courts, human rights attorneys, all that good stuff. The population had been viciously polarized since the end of the first world war - basically Communists on one end National Socialists on the other. (Although it was sort of a mad house of differing opinions). Many lawmakers were horrified with the Nazi's, but their group was fervent well organized - more so than the other parties.

So, basically people wanted order and security more than anything, and Hitler provided that with an appeal to nationalism calling Nazi Germany "a state of order, freedom, and law." Fascism, it turns out, can be very popular with the average citizen - the great bulk of the people not being hauled to work camps anyway. (I doubt Giuliani knows the historical significance of his platform, but he could be playing dumb.) Check this out...

"We will overthrow parliament in a legal way through legal means. Democracy will be overthrown with the tools of Democracy." -Hitler

Fortunately we live in a world where we can look back and learn from these mistakes rather than repeating them. Alright, off to the Vikes game where I can safely bury my head in the sand for another couple hours.