We’ve heard it a couple of
years, like an innuendo floating around on social media. America is headed the same
direction as Germany in the mid-1930s.
This dire prediction comes from all sides and ends of the political spectrum—conservatives
blame President Obama; liberals blame the House of Representatives. I sort of
ignored the whole thing, thinking “That would never happen in America.”
But a couple of recent
incidents have changed my head-in-the-sand denial stance. One was the
Congressman who suggested we stone to death all gays. Barbaric beyond words.
And wasn’t there a suggestion of the death penalty for women who have abortions
(in Texas, I believe—of course). The logic of that defies understanding. Has
America sunk that low?
But then the stunning defeat
of Eric Cantor caught me up short. I hold no brief for Cantor. He always seemed
cold, calculating, and heartless. His defeat was a negative in some ways
because, as someone suggested, “The devil we know vs. the one we don’t know.”
That would be Mr. Brat I suppose. I have no idea who the Democratic candidate
is.
But the really scary thing
about Cantor’s defeat is how few votes were actually cast in the election. What
that means to me is that if voters don’t wake up, the far right, Tea Partiers,
wing nuts, whatever you want to call them, will take over this country. And
then we will be headed toward the kind of regime Hitler instituted. They may
not hate Jews (so much) but they hate gays, abortion, liberals, etc. It scares
me even to think about it.
The key to me is that people
have to get out and vote—I don’t care how you vote, just do it. The right-wing
fringe is just that—a fringe. But they’re the ones voting. The rest of us seem
apathetic—and that indeed is how the German citizenry were!
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