The NAZIS Are Coming - NOT

Tyranny comes in many forms. Unfortunately, National Socialism was so terrible and is still close enough to our time that when we refer to anything approaching a centralized power grab the model that pops to many minds is NAZI Germany. Even sixty years after the crushing defeat inflicted upon the Axis, the first example that comes to mind in almost everyone who senses a diminution of personal liberty in the United States is a comparison with the German experience of the last century.

In all democracies, there is a constant swing in the power relationships between the executive and the legislative branches. As the pendulum swings away from it, the weakened branch cries foul. Again given the nearness in time and the horrendous nature of the Hitler government, those afraid of the executive in Western countries see the specter of storm troopers in the streets. This is particularly sad since it is very possible that the president or prime minister is indeed seeking more power than many citizens and politicians find comfortable and we should be alarmed. We should be calling them to task but many overreact and call their efforts Gestapo like and a legitimate argument is blown apart.

In this country there is a constant struggle among the branches of government, especially between the executive and legislative. When the power of the president wanes, his party and citizens seeking executive support openly lament the obvious weakness and he or his successors begin the long road back to a stronger chief.

Clearly, Richard Nixon was a very aggressive president and, I might add, a very talented chief executive. His efforts at reorganization of the executive departments and his efforts to control the behavior of his agency heads and their regional office heads were very creative attempts to both manage the government and strengthen his hold on the government.

As we recall, his efforts to cover up criminal behavior that he did not authorize proved to be his undoing. But, for all his faults, Richard Nixon was neither a crook nor a NAZI. In the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, Nixon’s Waterloo, the Congress assumed more power than usual and ever since presidents have felt weak in the knees.

George W. Bush came to the office with a view of the presidency that may have been distorted by the familial experience of his father’s term and with baggage brought along by key advisors who were themselves caught up in both the Vietnam and Watergate traumas. For example, both Vice President Cheney and DOD Secretary Rumsfeld were key players during and after Nixon’s fall and their later exile from Washington gave them time to lament the state of the executive.

When they, people like them, and those influenced by them were returned to office it is hardly surprising that they were intent on restoring the presidency to something akin to that they knew in the early seventies. I’m not keen on these political operatives, and I don’t like what they’ve done in Iraq, the NSA, and Homeland Security in general, but I have no doubt that they are acting within the historical processes that have become normal through the last two hundred plus years. Unfortunately, the powers granted under the Patriot Act which they have virtually demanded be renewed and in the illegal wire taps performed by NSA on Americans has raised the old fears once again.

My personal view is that they’ve done a terrible job in office and their reaction to 9/11 of going to war in Iraq was a huge mistake that we’ll pay for a generation or longer. To me, we are worse off for having attacked Iraq and that we are in the beginning of an isolationist trend because of it. But the president and his administration have attempted to turn their mistakes into a plus by saying that engaging the enemy in Iraq is the way to protect us all from terrorists here at home. The argument goes that the first task of the president is to defend the people. This less than subtle distortion has led to a vigorous defense of the illegal wire taps and has bought the charge of fascism back to the fore.

In the arts and humanities over the past five years we see that artists, performers, writers and their audiences have gone over the top and accused the federal government of acting like NAZIS. This does the officials no good but it is far more damaging to the accusers. Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America: A Novel explores an alternate history in which NAZIS took over the country in the late 1930s. Roth has repeatedly denied that this was an exploration of the tendencies of the present administration but thousands of his readers saw it otherwise. In the last several days Harry Belafonte made outrageous statements in the same damaging vein. This does not make those who make such charges look good, and, in any event, I think they’re completely off base. Meanwhile, the administration circles the wagons and cries, “Slander!” and moves to gather more authority than the citizenry wishes for them.

I think Mr. Bush is grabbing for far too much power for his office, but I believe that his efforts are within historic patterns. I do my little best each day to undermine the grab, but I never go to bed in fear that the leaders of the nation are trying to organize a corps of brown shirts to lead the way to a fascist state. Those paranoid souls who do not have enough faith in the checks and balances in our system – that admittedly are constantly being tested - damage themselves when they compare our time to the darkest days of Western Civilization.

Every day, I work to help divide power in Washington by defeating the Republican Party in the upcoming off year Congressional election. But I sure do feel comfortable enough with the controlling incumbents to not worry about being sent off to reeducation camp for my awful behavior.

Work to defeat these people at the polls. Be cool.

Blog on!

Wild Bill