Tag Archives: Weimar

Living in Weimar 8: Stark Days

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Laurie and Debbie say:

Valencia St, San Francisco 5/16/18

Since the very beginning of our Weimar series, we have stressed that Trump is not Hitler and the Republicans are not Nazis. The shameful things being done by our government have their own repulsive flavor.

And yet, the parallels are hard to escape. Right now, two pieces of news have made our blood boil.

U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions has announced a new immigration policy: if a family with children is apprehended trying to enter the U.S. “illegally,” the children will not be permitted to stay with their parents. The children may be kept on military bases.  The parents will, presumably, be placed in the current horrible immigration detention centers.

Let us be clear: There is no distinction between this policy and creating child-only concentration camps, as long as we understand that a concentration camp is not necessarily a Nazi-style genocidal death camp. Some children will die in these military camps, and virtually all of them will experience unnecessary trauma and suffering. Others will be “lost”(as more than 1500 have already been “lost” by this administration and the Obama administration) and some of them will wind up destitute on the streets, or victims of human trafficking operations, or both.

This is inexcusable cruelty. Sessions’ “justification” that it will act as a deterrent to illegal immigration is whitewash, which fails to cover his and his colleagues’ racism and complete lack of compassion.

At the same time that the U.S. government is planning on shamelessly warehousing children, the Israeli government is shamelessly slaughtering protesters at the Gaza/Israel boundary fence.  At least 60 people have died and another 2700 (no, that is not a typo) have been injured. We are completely appalled by Israel’s actions: we bring them up because the Trump administration is more or less alone in the world defending Israel’s actions.

What are they defending atrocities? First of all, the inhabitant of the White House probably thinks it’s a pretty cool reality TV show. Second, as American Jewish support for Israel decreases, evangelical Christian support for Israel holds strong, so Trump’s base is right there with him. Third, we’ve written here before about David Friedman, the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel, and how repulsive he is. And finally, you never know when you might want to open fire on protesters in your own country, so you might as well have an example that you’ve already lauded to back you up.

Thomas Jefferson famously said,

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events …

Unfortunately, we don’t even have to be theists to agree with Jefferson on this one.

 

 

 

Living in Weimar 5: On the Eve …

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Living in Weimar 1: On the Brink

Living in Weimar 2: Creative Ferment

Living in Weimar 3: How Bad Can It Get?

Living in Weimar 4: Ideal Bodies

Debbie says:

I haven’t spoken to a single soul today who isn’t in some degree of concern, anxiety, fear, or panic about tomorrow’s U.S. election results. Me, I’m calmer than most. I’d say I’m more optimistic than most, except I’m not willing to jinx anything.

And here’s what I think, very personally. (I’d rather write this with Laurie, but she’s not available; we’re in this together but right now you get just me.)

Basically, tomorrow can go two ways in the United States (and let’s face it, what happens here will affect the entire world):

If it goes one way, we’re in the same fine mess we’re in now, living in the 2016 analog of Weimar, facing an emboldened white-nationalist segment which will have to be contained and dealt with. There will be much to hope for and look forward to, much to fear. As always, the more marginalized you are, the more you have to fear. Much work will remain to be done.

If it goes the other way, it will probably be cataclysmic. The emboldened white nationalists will have the government’s blessing. The reins of power will be handed over to the alt-right, to people with indefensible political, economic, and social beliefs and plans. Everything we rely on will be undermined, destabilized, put at risk.

Even the cataclysm (may it not come to pass!) will not be the end of the world, or even the end of the United States. We can expect for some very dark times. I categorically reject the concept that “heightening the contradictions,” a high-falutin way of saying “making people more miserable” is a defensible or smart way to bring about change.

I don’t have to believe in “heightening the contradictions” to embrace the belief that it is our task to take care of one other. In cataclysm, in despair, in hell, that job becomes far more intense, far more demanding. More of us will have to take it on. No number of us will be enough to protect anywhere near everyone, but each of us can do our part. While 2016 U.S. is not 1930s Weimar, and while no current U.S. presidential candidate is Adolf Hitler, nonetheless the American people may well be called upon to show ourselves on the historical stage, as the German people were in the mid-20th century. Another thing I don’t believe is that the outcome of that test was inevitable.

Although the two paths are so vastly divergent, so starkly in contrast, the task on November 9, when the votes are counted, is the same. We will each have to find our part, do our part, take care of one another, and be gentle with those who need care and unrelenting with those who need to be stopped.

Eve of destruction? Or not? Here’s what to do. Vote. Volunteer. Do something in your community today; it will make you feel better. And breathe.

Me, I’m on my way to staff the Election Protection hotlines (1-866-OURVOTE).

Good luck!