I'm reading more historical novels nowadays. It's a good way to brush up on some of the stuff I taught in a way that keeps you from feeling that you're plowing through something.
Sometimes, though, you run into things that serve as an omen. Such is how I'm approaching Winter of the World by Ken Follett.
Not only is Follett a good story teller, he does his homework. He has a way of drilling down into details that pure historians might find unnecessary to convey the story. Follett understands that history happens to real people and affects them in real ways. That's how you not only perceive what happened, you feel it.
He makes the reader feel, for instance, what happened inside of Nazi-controlled Germany in the years leading up to World War II. It was a slow, gradual strangulation of civil liberties with a ratcheted-up program of domestic terror. Follett helps you understand how that could happen anywhere.
Like here, very soon, if the wrong person gets to be president again. The ingredients are out there and in perfectly noticeable operation right now. All it will take is the will to manipulate them together, and you will have a police state. We are creeping closer to it right how, in fact, but certain safeguards remain in place. They will disappear starting on January 21, 2025, if the country continues to lull itself into somnolence.
Certain concepts must be reinforced:
- Certain designated peoples really are superior to others and deserve to be treated that way.
- Power is seized, not earned. Its possession defines its own justifiability.
- Force is the only thing that makes people controllable.
- Law does not matter. The leader's whims only do.
- The truth is only relative to what the leader wants to be true. It need not be challenged.
Such is the way Nazi Germany was run. Such is the way the United States of America will be run if the election goes the wrong way.
To fulfill the above corrupt values, the leader needed mindless minions to carry out his wishes. He found them in the Sturm Abltielemung, or the S.A., the Storm Troopers, who intimidated and injured (and worse) thousands of those people of conscience in the early days, when the Nazis struggled slowly to gain power. They conjure uniforms to confirm their paramilitary dominion, dared anyone to challenge it, and gained the loyalty, passive or otherwise, of local police.
That's not here already? Au contraire. It's here and ready to "stand by," as ex- told them in one of the 2020 presidential debates. May I remind you of the:
- Proud Boys
- Oath Keepers
- Three-Percenters
- Those sad specimens who follow Q-ANON
- And other fringe groups
all waiting for the signal that it's time to enforce whatever their leader wants. They will join together and, after some kind of internal squabble about who will run it--with murders likely--they will vow their loyalty not to the Constitution (though they may say so in a feeble attempt to detract from their true goals), but to ex- personally. You will see them carrying out acts of terror, very noticeably, so that others get the message. You will see also them at the offices of MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others who really do believe in the freedom of speech and the press, carrying out warrants for arrest from a corrupted Justice Department.
Expect people like Rachel Maddox, Jake Tapper, Bill Maher (yes, you too, Bill) and Lawrence O'Donnell to be arrested, as well as genuine political rivals like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden. Charges? Well, there will be some, but their substances will not matter. Quickly, almost imperceptibly, protests will disappear, too.
Are you watching what is happening in Russia? What Putin is ruthlessly doing to those to stand up to him? Count on it. Even more thoroughly, because there will be more resources at hand.
This is not to mention how we might fare economically, with crushing tariffs. Think inflation will somehow end? It will explode.
Or how we will sour on religion, which will be a cat's paw to drive compliance amongst enough of the populace to reinforce obedience. This betrayal of an otherwise good thing to download the bad is likely to make people ill. If the congregation's devotion is to the Almighty first, though, its tax-free status will be attacked and possibly eliminated.
Climate change? Fossil fuel control? Forget it. Ex- has already promised oil magnates much less (read: none) production safeguards if they provide him with $1B worth of support. That's one of his tens of thousands of lies, of course, but he'll do everything he can do toward that end.
Social Security? Medicare? Count on, at the very least, less service than you've ever had. Administrative functionality will come to a near halt. If the programs aren't actually trashed--if the Republicans take control of Congress, it will take them oh, ten days or so to bring that about--the programs will be rendered helpless by massive neglect.
The IRS, too. I received, finally, my 2020 income boost a month ago--spring of 2024. And that's with an administration that means us well, cleaning up more neglect of the previous one.
If this scares you, sorry not sorry. The Atlantic and The New Republic have also run whole issues specifically speculating what would happen if ex- takes over again. The feature articles are written by people much smarter than me. Yet, it is not what he has in mind: It's the ability to carry it out, the efficiency with which his fascist tendencies can be unleashed. The above mentioned groups will be only too happy to do that for him, establishing a paramilitary bulwark from which to suppress any and all who would merely be declaring these acts to be unfair, unconstitutional and unconscionable.
People are not exactly up on Joe Biden. But they must be persuaded that the alternative would be worse than any president we would ever have had, worse by miles and miles. Get them to vote, while you can still do so.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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