A Historic and Circumstantial Rise to Power

Ever since I lived in Austria, I have been fascinated with the Nazi's rise to power and the circumstances that led to the third reich having so much power. I have recently been reading Hitler's orations and trying to find similarities in our current political landscape. If you read Hilter's words in German they carry a much more convincing tone than the translations.

At the end of the First World War, the Allies badly bobbled the responsibility to resolve the underlying causes of the war and put the German Republic in a position where it could not escape the responsibility for having accepted the armistice and the Peace Treaty of Versailles. There was a lot of animosity in the parliamentary democracy of Germany at the time and it just so happened that during this time of political dissatisfaction, world economic events thrust German industry and economy into complete oblivion. In Oct of 1929 the stock market crashed, and American investors started calling their money back from overseas. This resulted in a European credit crunch that saw significant bank failures in Germany and England. This is the time when Britain left the Gold Standard. Mass poverty, unemployment and distrust reined throughout Europe. Through this economic collapse, many people naturally blamed capitalism for their down-troddeness and blamed the corporations and big businesses. In fact, the problem was non-regulation, greed and investor naivety. This set the stage for an orator the likes Germany had never seen. Someone who clashed against all that was wrong in the world, invoked class-warfare and championed the ideal of government for the middle class. These ideals rang true for many Germans. And he had broad-based support.

I find it ironic that Hitler's rise to such absolute power was mostly due to world events outside his control or ability to manage. His luck came as he smartly put himself in a position to rise to power on the anger of the people for their failed government-not for his own policies. Hate became a powerful motivator for him.

Hilter said in 1922, referring to England, "...Already in those early days they saw to it shrewdly that here were always two or three groups apparently hostile to each other, but in fact all hanging on a gold thread, the whole designed to take account of a human characteristic - that the longer a man possesses an object, the more readily he grows tired of it. He craves something new: therefore one needs two parties. The one is in office, the other in opposition. When the one has played itself out, then the opposition party comes into power, and the party which has had its day is now in its turn the opposition. After twenty years the new party itself has once more played itself out and the game begins afresh. In truth this is a highly ingenious mill in which the interests of a nation are ground very small. As everyone knows, this system is given some such name as 'Self-Government of a People.'

Call me nuts but it sounds to me like he hit the nail on the head. This was no idiot folks..crazy..but no idiot. He came right out and said what he was going to do-create a national Socialistic government that would be completely different than what they had. He told the people that the evil Americans/English had a broken party political system that saw a transfer of power when the masses became dissatisfied. He in fact used the same dissatisfaction to rise to power. He told them exactly what he was going to do years before he did it. And no one saw it coming. If you read this and substitute Obama's (and others) circumstantial rise to power with that of Hilter's you wouldn't have to do anything but change the dates.

Obama blamed everything on Bush and his administration and Hilter blamed everything bad in the world on the "war-profiteering" Jews. There is always a scapegoat, someone or something evil and wrong with the world- a blame sponge to soak up the evils. "Once they are out of the picture, we will govern the way we want." This is what incited such hatred for the Jews. They weren't evil, they just got blamed for every bad thing that happened to Germany-especially the wars. Hilter become drunk on power that obviously led him to do horrendous things but I can't say with certainty that he was evil from the beginning. But I do think he was racist and an egomaniac to begin with. It is almost impossible for a man with complete dictatorial control to remain level-headed and govern rationally. I see the majority of our country's citizens desiring a move more and more to that of a dictatorship. They want one man to be able to change the whole government, change their lives, change every aspect of what they see wrong with the world. You must be careful what you wish for.

Could this same story be true with a Republican ousting a Democrat? Perhaps it could. Hilter was the right wing in his political day ousting the existing "progressive" party.

I've shared these ideas with friends and have decided to blog them. By posting this, I know I put myself out there as being labeled a racist radical because I don't like Obama and anyone who's read my blog can clearly see that. Many people hear the name Hilter and throw up the race/hate blockade and stop listening. To call me racist is false and childish. If it offends you, I'm sorry. I don't care. I am not comparing Obama and Hilter's policies nor am I comparing them as individuals. I am comparing their circumstantial and historic rise to power. There are many similarities. Dissatisfaction with current government, wars and leadership, economic uncertainty, credit crisis, bank failure, unemployment, inflation and ultimately overthrow. My objective in writing this post is to make people aware that leadership is obtained by those lucky enough to be the benefactor of circumstance.

Not taking anything away from the historic night that Nov. 4 was, I can still expose the tactics used by every politician-that of blaming the masses sad misfortune on someone else to leverage "hope" and "change"-true motivating human principles. I am no fan of the current political system...the way it's run....the way we transfer accountability to the government in the name of the common good when in reality we stop thinking and doing for ourselves and place the vast power of our country in the hands of men and women we trust to do the right thing with our country.

Obama has never once told a stadium full of supporters that if they are behind on their mortgage or credit cards to go out and get a second job, earn some extra money, scrape together all your resources and pull yourself out of it. He's never told college hopefuls to get a job and save and invest for their own college. His answer to everything is.."Elect me and we will Change our Country for the better." This is not motivation..it is holding that person's head underwater and watching him drown.

I welcome comment and opposing viewpoints-obviously I am the minority now that Obama has secured the election. But if you take offense because I invoked the name of Hilter in an effort to understand and convey history and our current Obamian political landscape please go to the library and check out some history books before arguing with me.