Would you know a dictator if you saw one?

N

Northern Sod Breaker

New member
Just a short thought or two:

Okay I great while back I said that some people would vote for Adolph Hitler if he ran on the DFL ticket. Okay here's my question if you were voting in the 1930s election would you have voted for Hitler knowing ONLY WHAT WAS SAID AT THAT TIME. It would be difficult for anyone to have known that Hitler would turn out they way he did. The same is true today. When we go to vote next month how can we be 100% sure we are not voting for another Hitler? Yes I know that no nationally important seats are at stake but still. How do we know. In hind sight we had Kerry running for office. A presidential candiate who (regardless of the implications) ordered a movie not be made public. One can only wonder what would have happened had he become president. He would have used his power to silence his enemies. And this is in no way to imply the current president has not done things of questionable legalities. Adolph Hitler was elected on the promise to "restore" Germany to it's former glory. It is arrogance to think a similar situtation could not happen here. There are a limited few who say it already has. This group points to the Civil War where the US govt. used the military force against civilians. All it would take is one bad apple and we are screwwed royaly. And the voting for the man arguement works only on paper. In reality those who do not tote the party line will not go very far in politics. If they refuse to tote the party line they will be denied the oppertunity to move up. They will be an outsider within the party. And as such they wuill accomplish very little. Therefore YOU MUST vote for the platform you best aggree with. Because ultimately that is what you are voting for.
While I am not going to tell you which party to vote for I am going to tell you to vote carefully.

Shotgun,
 
Pretty sure it was well known that Hitler had a hatred for the Jews. Mein Kampf was written in what 1923/24? And I really don't think he was actually elected, he was reluctantly appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg, who he had lost to in the real elections. Eventually he was given the presidental powers and appointed Furher by his own cabinet after Hindenburg's death, making great use of propagande, intimidation, murder, etc. etc. THEN he worked on gaining the people's support with his nationalistic appeal.

Anyway, if people didn't know what they were getting, they sure had enough clues.
 
"Mein Kampf" was certainly available. People read it, but they didn't believe anybody would actually expouse such wild ideas. Sort of an, "Oh, he doesn't really mean it!" idea.

I read as much of it as I could endure. Nutzoidal.

Art
 
He got the support of the masses by professing to be a socialist...and promising to get rid of the source of their problems... :rolleyes:

Remember it was the height of the Great Depression and the masses were more desparate than they would normally be... And more vulnerable...

The Nationalist Socialist Party empowered him to eventually call himself Der Furhrer.

The liberals, and their close following, the down-trodden, will always vote for a liar making promises... :rolleyes:

Hell... they voted for Clinton twice and I think he would have become a dictator, given half a chance. :(
 
Would you know a dictator if you saw one?
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Besides the big ear bastard in the White House? You know, the one tapping our phone lines, who doesn't need congressional approval to begin a MASSIVE military operation? That one guy who suspended the need to charge someone with a crime after they're been arrested? The one who...



:D
 
You know, the one tapping our phone lines, who doesn't need congressional approval to begin a MASSIVE military operation?
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The fact that you are not aware of the fact that congress approved that MASSIVE military campaign pretty much destroys all credibilty of your comment
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+1 Joab

And the fact that he doesn't know that Harry Truman is who started the wire tapping and every president since him has done it, doesn't help his credibility any either.
 
I was actually hoping I had destroyed my own credibility of my own comment with the trailing sentence and the big toothy grin at the bottom that signified my lack of seriousness. It's great that congress passed those authorizations, but they did pass a law allowing Bush MUCH more freedom in deploying our troops as he saw fit. The fact is that he has much more control over the military than most presidents before him.


At any rate:
The comment was ment as a satirical(remember the smiley face?) summarization of the liberal viewpoints regarding the Hitler=Bush policy. It was intended for your viewing pleasure, and I stand by my comment with the power vested in me by my 1st Amendment rights.
 
The comment was ment as a satirical(remember the smiley face?) summarization of the liberal viewpoints regarding the Hitler=Bush policy.
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Oh:o

I stand by my comment with the power vested in me by my 1st Amendment rights.
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Ha, got ya
You have no first amendment rights here:p

Please note my rare use of smilies :D
 
History

The Nazi party gained power through peoples fear. Fear of the Communists, fear of unemployment (and even starvation) and a desire for revenge/a return to the "good old days". And Hitler was perhaps the greatest mass psycologist of all time. He had a gift for saying what the people wanted to hear. Not all the people, just enough to get his party elected.

Then there was a crisis. The Reichstag fire. Terrorists burned the capitol building. A bomb went off in a gasthaus, just after Hitler had finished speaking there. The Nazis were ready with legislation, and got it passed, giving them more power. After Hitler became Fuerher they passed more laws.

Laws which made it an actual crime to oppose Nazi rule. Even for otherwise "good" German citizens. Then the Nazi's hatred for Jews and others became state policy. And a lot of us know where that led.

Germany did become strong again, their economy boomed. Hitler kept those promises. He kept out the Communists. For a few short years, life in Germany was better than it had been for a decade, for those of acceptable "stock". Then they went to war. And won. And won, and won.

Until they lost.

Would we recognise a dictator today? People always do. Sadly often too few, and too late so they wind up in camps, or in jail, or up against the wall. Where do you draw the line? Many people won't draw the line, until their personal favorite ox get gored. Others start screaming at the first whiff of dung.

A delicate situation, if you are really dealing with a dictator. Act too soon, and you are lost. Don't act, and you are lost. On the other hand, if you are dealing with the ordinary power hungry politician, calling them a dictator every time they do something becomes alot like the boy who cried "Wolf".

Some dictators have gotten into power at the head of their military, but some very bad ones have gotten power by being elected, as the head of their political party.
 
The War Powers Act of 1973 was written to curtail the presidents power.The presidency now is not nearly as powerful as in some periods of our history.If you are not satisfied with the leadership of this country,get out and invest the time and make the sacrifices necessary to be elected to any public office.Or work to help get your man elected.I know some poiticians are idiots, but after following a good friend through a long but sucessful campaign I know I don't want any part of it.Hell,half the people who complain the most don't even vote.
 
when i was in the Air Force i heard a little old lady speak at the Chapel. i dont remember her name but she had written a book (still packed in a box in my basement)...

she told of her time as a young girl of about 8 or 9 years old. the little town/village she lived in had many unemployed residents. none of the children went to school or had any sort of structured activities. all of the were really dirt poor with very little in the way of luxuries or plentiful foodstuffs...

well one day a well groomed man came around in a big fancy automobile. a contraption very few of the townsfolk had ever seen let alone owned. this man greeted all of the children and their parents. he told them of great things he was working on for all citizens of the fatherland. he told the children of 'gymnasium' where there was all sorts of great sports events held and that they would be able to learn them and participate. he told them of the schools he was having set up in place just like this little town where the children could go and LEARN wonderful things about their country, the world, books that they could learn to read and so on and so on. she was absolutely overcome with anticipation at the notion that SHE a poor farm girl could have a chance to go to SCHOOL or the gymnasium. it was something beyond her or her parents wildest dreams! they so loved this man with the narrow moustache...

this lady went on to tell of how she joined the Hitler Youth. it was portrayed in the same manner that we would the Boy or the Girl Scouts. no one believe it was a paramilitary organization. it was simply a group of like minded adolescences who reveled in the structure and the opportunity it provided to become mentally and physically fit...

so to answer the question, i think that sometimes you can NOT tell a dictator...

david
 
Hitler never tried to hide his admiration for Mussolini and so much of his
movement was patterned on Italian originals, and Mussolini was firmly entrenched by 1930 when the Nazis made their big electoral breakthough. Also
remember Germany in 1930 had no democratic tradition. Bismarck's constitution for the German Empire has been decribed as "the fig leaf of
absolutism", while the Weimar Constitution was a good example of a constitution written by theoreticians rather than practical men. The concept
of a benevolent tyrant or an enlightened despot was established in Europe, what Fascism and National Socialism did was establish the concept that the
"Leader" should not come from the royalty or the aristocracy but be put into
power by the people themselves and a dictatorship could have a popular base and popular support.
 
When we go to vote next month how can we be 100% sure we are not voting for another Hitler?
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It's an excellent question.

First, you cannot be 100% sure.

What you CAN be sure of is that voting for a politician that supports an administration which IGNORES & BREAKS the law knowingly (Fisa, padilla, on and on), and attempts to aggrandize its presidential power at EVERY opportunity, at the expense of Congress and the courts, upsetting the checks and balances system our Constitution is founded upon, more than ANY other prez admin. in history, with the possible exception of FDR's is going to be *more likely* to result in a government which will bring us (more) Hitler-like illegal-power-grabbing future actions, than if one were to vote for candidates which criticise this admin's power grabs - there's a few within shrub's party that do, but not many.
 
What you CAN be sure of is that voting for a politician that supports an administration which IGNORES & BREAKS the law knowingly (Fisa, padilla, on and on), and attempts to aggrandize its presidential power at EVERY opportunity, at the expense of Congress and the courts, upsetting the checks and balances system our Constitution is founded upon, more than ANY other prez admin. in history,
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Tell that to Ron Brown.
 
When we go to vote next month how can we be 100% sure we are not voting for another Hitler?
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Always vote as if they are all potentially "Hitlers"...

And watch out for your Bill of Rights...:(

The Founding Fathers recognized this potential and set up "checks and balances" to prevent it...

The Liberals have been chipping away at the "checks and balances" and your Bill of Rights and the Constitution ever since... :mad:
 
Federal law precludes taking a gun to the voting booth but I think that is exactly what should be required to exercise the franchise. Only a man prepared to defend his rights should be allowed to vote as such men are the best security against the machinations of tyrants.

Respectfully,
Richard
 
Just look at a picture of Hillary Klinton...or any other Democrat running for the office of President...

First right to go, is the right of free speach...via the, "Fairness Act" the Democrats want. If it isn't PC, ya can't say it!

Second right to go, will be the right to bear arms...through registration, then confiscation!

Third right to go, will be as a result of the first two rights we lose...the right to be a citizen...now a subject of the ruling elite.

Do I really believe this...you bet OUR freedom, I do!
 
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