The current Presidential campaign is being called unprecedented. That is as apt a description as any.
I was fortunate to be able to do quite a bit of reading in major newspapers, plus The Atlantic magazine over the last several days. It is indeed a volatile situation, if not completely unprecedented; it is certainly highly unusual.
There are a number of insights I will be sharing in coming days. The first is an observation that we should not be trying to joke our way through the situation as Germans tried to do in the days leading up to Hitler's ascension to power. At the time, Germany was a highly developed society, with a flourishing arts community, and a healthy diversity of views in a vigorous political environment. Sadly, the political environment became unstable after serious economic problems began just after World War I. The reasons for the instability can be talked about.
But my point now is that Germans mocked, derided, and snickered at Hitler, but not much more. They certainly didn't respond to him with the kind of firm force which was needed, releasing him from prison after it was clear he was able to use his predicament to his advantage.
Does this situation sound familiar? While most of the Republican candidates have played the victimization card (if one may call it that), Donald Trump has virtually made it into a new art form, something one might call political melodrama. Melodrama can be considered humorous in the sense that the drama is over-wrought, sometimes indeed comical.
But what we have now simply isn't funny anymore, if it ever was. Republican leaders are in a near state of panic finally trying to stop a candidate who is far to the left of other Republican candidates on many issues (Social Security, for example), while still managing to be draconian on others (the border wall, and press suppression, for example).
Trump ends up being a danger to both the Republican Party and the country. As one pundit wrote over the week-end, it is probably too late to save the Republican Party. It is not too late to save the country.
Image Source: beastrabban.files.wordpress.com
I was fortunate to be able to do quite a bit of reading in major newspapers, plus The Atlantic magazine over the last several days. It is indeed a volatile situation, if not completely unprecedented; it is certainly highly unusual.
There are a number of insights I will be sharing in coming days. The first is an observation that we should not be trying to joke our way through the situation as Germans tried to do in the days leading up to Hitler's ascension to power. At the time, Germany was a highly developed society, with a flourishing arts community, and a healthy diversity of views in a vigorous political environment. Sadly, the political environment became unstable after serious economic problems began just after World War I. The reasons for the instability can be talked about.
But my point now is that Germans mocked, derided, and snickered at Hitler, but not much more. They certainly didn't respond to him with the kind of firm force which was needed, releasing him from prison after it was clear he was able to use his predicament to his advantage.
Does this situation sound familiar? While most of the Republican candidates have played the victimization card (if one may call it that), Donald Trump has virtually made it into a new art form, something one might call political melodrama. Melodrama can be considered humorous in the sense that the drama is over-wrought, sometimes indeed comical.
Trump ends up being a danger to both the Republican Party and the country. As one pundit wrote over the week-end, it is probably too late to save the Republican Party. It is not too late to save the country.
Image Source: beastrabban.files.wordpress.com
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