On Nazis and Voting

I begin today’s missive with some words written by Timothy W. Ryback in The Los Angeles Times:

“When Adolf Hitler was convicted of treason on April 1, 1924, for leading an armed insurrection against Germany’s democratically elected government, he discovered something remarkable: Courtrooms can make excellent soapboxes for political grandstanding. Hitler railed against Germany’s democratic leaders and constitutionally anchored legal system.  He chastened his judges.  He threatened prosecutors. He insisted that it was not he who had committed treason against the state but the Weimer Republic’s political establishment who had betrayed the German people. History does not repeat itself, as the saying goes, but historical events can rhyme.”

It’s incredible, isn’t it?  Eighty-three years ago the United States entered World War II to stop Hitler, and today the Republican Party wants Hitler’s modern-day disciple – his student,  his protégé, his mirror image — to become the president of the United States.

I say incredible, but that’s a weak word to describe what MAGA Republicans are doing to our country.  Better words: unbelievable, unimaginable, preposterous, terrible – sad.

And speaking of weak words to describe what is happening today, the news media, even the liberal-leaning news media, keep calling Donald Trump an authoritarian. Horsefeathers!  Why not call him what he plainly is: a would-be neo-Nazi fascist dictator. And you can add to that: criminally mentally ill megalomaniac, as demonstrated by 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts in their best-selling book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

We know from Trump’s first wife’s sworn testimony that he used to religiously study Hitler’s playbook for would-be dictators, even kept the book under lock and key in his bedroom. And we know from his everyday words and actions that he’s putting those teachings into play every day, almost every detail.  So why not take the gloves off and call him what he is?  It might wake up some sleeping Americans.

I’m also disappointed in the news media’s calling Trump’s trial in Manhattan a “hush money” trial. More horsefeathers!  It’s not a hush-money trial.  It is an election interference trial, pure and simple.

He paid the “hush money” so voters wouldn’t learn he was trying to overturn an election he legitimately lost.

I’ve been called an alarmist because of my oft-stated views, and I happily and loudly plead guilty.  I am an alarmist because I am alarmed.

I’ve also been accused of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,”  and if that means I see him for what he is, again I say yes.  Yes, yes, yes!

It’s been said that calmer heads than people like me, and those who agree with me, should prevail. I pray to whatever gods may be that they don’t.  If they do prevail, goodbye democracy.

And speaking of democracy, I’m often hearing folks say that democracy has failed.  It has not!  Democracy has not failed.  We have failed democracy. Indeed, we are failing democracy.

We have failed/are failing democracy because we do not vote.  For a democracy to work, all its citizens must keep up with what’s going on in the world, decide what they want our government to do, and vote for the best candidate they can find that mirrors their opinions.  Or run for office themselves.  After all, a democratic government, by definition, is one that is of the people, by the people and for the people, which means that if the people don’t participate there is no democracy.  How could it possibly work if people don’t involve themselves?  It’s a contradiction of terms. Duh.

And that’s what we Americans are not doing.  We are not participating in the numbers that we must.  The voting turnout in the United States is pathetic when compared with other free nations. In 2020, the year of our last presidential election, which was certainly one of the most important elections ever, only 62 percent of eligible Americans voted.

Compare that with Turkey, Sweden and Belgium, where the voter turnout that year was 78 percent or higher.  South Korea’s turnout was 77 percent. Australia’s was 76, The Netherlands’ was 75. Germany, France, Italy, Spain—all had higher turnouts than we did.  Of the so-called developed nations, only Japan, Canada and Chile performed worse than we did at the polls.  Great Britain tied us.

And remember: Bad politicians are elected by people who don’t vote.

Why don’t Americans vote?

One reason is ennui.  As long as I can pay my bills, why bother to vote? My one vote isn’t going to make any difference anyway.  And It’s too much bother to go to the polls and have to stand in lines.

But another reason, a nauseating reason, is the Republican Party’s openly transparent efforts to keep people from voting.  One major way they do that is to cling tenaciously to the Electoral College system because it prevents most Americans from having their way.  Five times in our history has a president lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College vote.  And – wait for it – four of those five were Republicans. The only time a Republican did not win without a national majority vote was 1824 when the only candidates were from the same Democratic-Republican Party.  (John Quincy Adams won that one.)

The other four who won without a majority were Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and – and here’s why today’s Republicans love the Electoral College so dearly – George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald J. Trump in 2016.

(Interjection: The good news here is that there is a good chance that, come November, the Electoral College will be defanged and the popular vote will decide the winner. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement that requires participating states to give all their Electoral College votes to whomever wins the national popular vote.  It will become effective when states with a total of 270 Electoral College votes – the number required to elect a president – is reached.  So far, 17 states, including Washington, D.C., have signed on, totaling 209 of the 270 votes needed.  States that have signed on so far are Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and, just last May, Maine.  Michigan appears to be next up.  It could happen.)

I can only hope that people who are suffering from ennui will wake up in time, and those who think their vote isn’t important will realize in time how wrong they must be if the Republican Party is doing everything in its power to prevent them from voting.  This is especially true for Black people and young people, who are the Republicans’ main targets because they tend to vote Democratic.

I’m optimistic because I cannot believe that most eligible Americans really want a MAGA dictatorship  — a neo-Nazi fascist dictatorship run by a criminally mentally ill megalomaniac — or any candidate for a House or Senate seat who supports such a candidate.  Also, the NPVIC has an excellent chance of crossing the finish line in time, and if so the Electoral College will be toothless come November and the popular vote will prevail – a vote that has strongly rejected Trump twice so far.  Further, courts all across America are seeing gerrymandering for what is and are outlawing it.

Oh, yes.  I see a blue wave a’coming.

But only if we vote.