Peter’s Politics

As the most cursory examination of my Facebook timeline indicates, my political views lean to the left. In short, I am a Liberal/liberal. In the States I would be considered a Democrat. a) I feel very strongly that universal health care, well funded public education, universal human rights, affordable housing and decent wages would not spell the end of Civilization as we know it. In fact, if we devoted our energy, resources and attention to meeting these conditions, it would go a long way toward resolving many of the problems that we try to grapple with on a daily basis in society, in my opinion.

Thus I write about the need to confront and conquer homophobia, I post memes about how far women are from true equality, even in North America in 2020. I do my best to remind those who read my timeline that we still have a lot to do as a people to build a truly diverse and inclusive community.

One of my major “targets ” is the current occupant of the Oval Office. Frankly, he has scared me since he began his campaign to be elected. His presidency has been a tragedy for all of us who believe in a world which is better and inclusive and full of opportunity for everyone, not just “the” lucky few.

He has embraced dictators, shunned and offended longtime allies, surrounded himself with fools, flunkies and toadies. Completely unqualified people are making long lasting decisions, often about topics which they not only know little about, but are in fact topics which they have devoted their professional lives to opposing. Top level security clearances have been given to people who have no greater qualifications than the fact that they are in laws. As I have said before, he has exercised the nepotism of a fictional medieval king.

As he lurches from catastrophe to catastrophe, he disregards the Constitution, incessantly lies, foments discontent and discord in American society by his words and actions and generally encourages those who hold racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and other forms of hatred in their souls. Video evidence of this is sadly available all over the Internet.

 

And it’s not just the “very fine people ” who make up the white supremacist and neo nazi groups which support him who feel free to overtly express their wretched views. His support among “christians” is very strong, while frankly incomprehensible to me. How can they support a serial adulterer, a misgonyist, a xenophobe? Yet the influence which they have on U.S. policy, especially on the national level, is all too easy to see.

The righteous anger of so many people which was triggered by the murder of George Floyd has become the catalyst for a cry for social change, for revisiting exactly how “we do business ” in modern times. People in the United States have been exercising their right to assemble for peaceful protest. I am pleased to see that the protesters are growing not only in number, but in scope. These crowds encompass the entire spectrum of the community, including veterans, mothers and children.

As a consequence of these protests, there has been some property damage. In a move eerily paralleling the mercantilistic timbre of this administration, i.e., that things matter more than (most) people, “forces” have been dispatched to several cities to “protect ” these assets, these buildings, these statues.

Wearing identification which is indecipherable to anyone not “in” on their organization, these anonymous mercenaries are flaunting the Constitution with their flagrant disregard for the rights which have been the very bedrock of America since the beginning. People are grabbed off the street, thrown into unmarked vans and interrogated b).

They have also been firing rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowds. And it’s not just protesters who are targets, innocent passersby are also being wounded and mistreated by this private army. 45 is using the ultimate “strawman ” argument, naming ANTIFA c) a terrorist organization. He is using this “conclusion ” to direct more federal ” assets ” to various other American cities, cities, coincidentally, which have Democratic mayors.

Such a blatant attempted grab to stay in power, to subvert the rule of law, abetted by his G.O.P. enablers and his acting secretaries, people appointed by him without the normal oversight, flying in the face of the checks and balances which are absolutely vital for good government to function properly. I should add, people appointed by him who “owe” him, who owe him bigtime.

I have made posts comparing him to Hitler. While I have received a lot of support from friends about these posts, I have had a few people who most profanely said that I was showing disrespect to all the people whom Hitler had had murdered, especially the Jews.

I have studied military history for a very long time. I have no degree in history, but I have a good level of understanding and can draw my own conclusions based on the available information. Interested in how World War II began, I started to study the root causes. (As an aside, fascism began in Italy. Also, Hitler was working for the German government postwar when he was detailed to attend the meetings of a small party to spy on them. The rest, as they say, is history.)

Hitler began to build his power base in the early 1920s. His party attempted a coup in Munich in 1924. The “putsch” was crushed. Hermann Goering was wounded and became a morpine addict, which would impact on many of his decisions in W.W. II. Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg Prison and dictated “Mein Kampf” during his confinement d). I have read “Mein Kampf”, by the way, not to embrace its “teachings”, but to try to understand how this horror story came to fruition.

What we need to remember is that Hitler might have come to power in 1933, but he had started his grab for absolute power years earlier. He used rallies and lies and stormtroopers and created scapegoats which his followers could focus their attention on, like Jews and Slavs and gypsies. He established camps in which these “undesirables ” could be contained and controlled. He enabled the base elements of his population to feel important and powerful through the paramilitary wings of the NAZI party.

I am genuinely concerned about the next while. We have to take this threat to democracy seriously. I do not hesitate at all to compare Trump with Hitler. It’s early days, but I will not become blase. I will continue to post not only about him, but about the enablers and “copycats” who take strength from his bad example. This is a tough struggle we face and it will be ongoing.  If we act in unison, we will prevail. We must prevail.

See you soon.

1. a) Translated by stupid people as “libtard”, “lieberal” or “snowflake”.
2. b) There is a precedent for this behaviour. Remember the young man in the crowd at his rally last summer who got grabbed, confined and interrogated by federal agents because he had not been reacted with sufficient enthusiasm while 45 was speaking? To my horror, a friend of mine commented that the young man had reported later that the agents had been “nice ” to him, so it was “okay”. I replied that THAT wasn’t the point!
3. c) Short for Anti Fascist. Unlike the Klan and white power groups, this is a group that has no national leader, no rigid structure and no local chapters. While actually being the default position of any thinking person, which is, being against fascism, 45 has declared this organization a terrorist organization. Imagine that.
4. d) He dictated his work to Rudolph Hess, and Google is your friend if you want to learn more about him.

=PJM=

A confirmed Cat person, Peter dabbled with being a water boy, a paper boy and an altar boy before finally settling on a career with the Canadian federal government.  Once, in his youth, he ate a Dutch  oven full of mashed potatoes to win a 5 cent bet with his beloved sister Mary’s boyfriend. (Of course he was much younger and a nickel went a lot farther!) He has retired to palatial “Chez Montreuil”, which he shares with his little buddy CoCo the Fashionable. He is blessed to have the beautiful Betty in his life. He is not only a plastic aircraft modeller, but a proud “rivet counter”. Military aviation and live music are among other interests of his, and he tries to get out to as many shows as he can. He will be here for your enlightenment whenever the stars align. Profile photo courtesy of Pat Blythe, caricature courtesy of Peter Mossman.