Hitler? That would be Cruz, not Trump
March 6, 2016
by William P. Meyers

Site Search

Popular pages:

Ted Cruz is the real danger to Democracy

Perhaps because I am a leftist I am also a bit of a Adolf Hitler expert. The Nazis were the monsters of my childhood (well, them and Japs and Space Aliens). When I was born it was only ten years after the Nazis were defeated. I was proud my father was a former Marine who had fought the Japs. I was somewhat dismayed one day when I used the word "Kraut" (they were always killing Krauts in my favorite TV show, Combat) and Captain Meyers, otherwise known as Sir, pointed out that our name was German, and I had German grandparents, and should not lump all people from any ethnic group as being evil.

In high school I learned that some kids thought National Socialists were basically communists. Others thought they were right-wing nationalists, and that they were just one wing of a political movement from their era known as Fascism.

In college I majored in Political Science. I learned that left-wing professors thought the Nazis were right-wing, and right-wing professors thought they were left wing. Of course to fill both rolls, the actual Nazis had to be complicated. And I gradually learned that despite their totalitarian image, Nazis often disagreed with each other. I found that Adolf Hitler, their Leader, said all sorts of things, often contradicting himself.

Most people who compare Donald Trump to Hitler and Trump's followers to Nazis don't know much about Hitler and National Socialism. Or just as likely they don't care: they just want to call Donald names, which is fair enough. Donald is a name-caller himself and pretty ignorant about politics, although he appears to be studying up lately.

Here's a key fact about Hitler: he was very political, and he spent most of his life building up the Nazi party.

Is Trump very political? Has he spent most of his life in politics, building up a party of thugs? No.

But Ted Cruz is very political. He has spent most of his life in politics, and he has built up an organization of, well, I would not go so far as calling them thugs, but certainly people driven by anger and Christian right-wing ideology.

Adolf Hitler was raised Roman Catholic, and though he criticized the religion at times, and fought with the Pope at times, he remained nominally Catholic until his death. But he understood that most (about two-thirds) of the religious people in Germany were Lutheran, and he was happy to tell them what they wanted to hear: Lutherans good, Jews and atheists bad.

While many Protestant sects are overall anti-authoritarian, both the main religions in Germany were very authoritarian. The main difference was who should be the ultimate authority, the Vatican or the (usually Lutheran) head of the German state.

Like the Jesuits and Nazis, Ted Cruz is a poisonous combination of local logic and global authoritarian religious insanity. He was born (in 1970) into the Roman Catholic Church, but in 1975 his father lost his mind and became a born-again Christian. Cruz claims to be Southern Baptist, but his real loves are Money and Power. Those are the things he has sought all his life.

If you study the issue honestly, you will find that, for the most part, the word socialist, when used as part of National Socialist, does not mean the same thing as when it is used alone, or in a Marxist socialist or democratic socialist context. Originally, before Hitler arrived, yes, it meant opposition to capitalism. But in fascism, as developed by Pius XI and Pius XII, Mussolini, and General Franco, it meant having a society in which workers were happy to work for capitalists, went to church, tithed, let their children satisfy pederast priests, while in turn the capitalists paid slightly better wages and gave the workers Sunday off. Instead of grouping society into Capitalists and workers, Hitler divided it into Good Germans, versus Jews and atheists.

Ted Cruz is not fond of atheists. He is not fond of scientists either, with their theories of evolution and global warming. He is very fond of capitalists. He married one.

But would Ted Cruz make himself dictator? He says he won't, but that depends a lot on Congress. If Congress supports his program of reversing reproductive rights, lowering taxes on the rich, building a military the economy can't support, and requiring atheists and agnostics to report to a Christian Church of their choice, then he does not need to declare himself dictator.

In conclusion, though, I have to say that I don't think Ted Cruz is a new Hitler or a Nazi. He is a mixture of old conservative ideology and new fanaticism that refuses to see the facts of the modern world. I suspect that if he is elected President the power will go to his head. But I think the American people of 2015 are at least somewhat different than the German people of 1933. The people who love Donald Trump have only a slight resemblance to the people who loved Hitler. The people who love Cruz are closer to Nazis, but there really are not that many of them. And the rest of us are not just going to roll over like the Germans did when Hitler took over, or like the Russians did when Lenin took over.

In 1933 the Reichstag (German congress) rolled over and died the moment Hitler barked at it. I don't see that happening in the U.S. I think Cruz's extremism would be moderated by Congress. I think if he tried to establish a Christian dictatorship that our scientists would wipe out his scientists.

Agree? Disagree? You can comment on this post at Natural Liberation Blog at blogspot.com