{"id":470,"date":"2024-04-28T10:04:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T14:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=470"},"modified":"2024-04-28T10:04:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T14:04:19","slug":"on-nazis-and-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2024\/04\/28\/on-nazis-and-voting\/","title":{"rendered":"On Nazis and Voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I begin today\u2019s missive with some words written by Timothy W. Ryback in The Los Angeles Times:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Adolf Hitler was convicted of treason on April 1, 1924, for leading an armed insurrection against Germany\u2019s democratically elected government, he discovered something remarkable: Courtrooms can make excellent soapboxes for political grandstanding. Hitler railed against Germany\u2019s democratic leaders and constitutionally anchored legal system.\u00a0 He chastened his judges.\u00a0 He threatened prosecutors. He insisted that it was not he who had committed treason against the state but the Weimer Republic\u2019s political establishment who had betrayed the German people. History does not repeat itself, as the saying goes, but historical events can rhyme.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

It’s incredible, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Eighty-three years ago the United States entered World War II to stop Hitler, and today the Republican Party wants Hitler\u2019s modern-day disciple \u2013 his student,\u00a0 his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, his mirror image — to become the president of the United States.<\/p>\n

I say incredible, but that\u2019s a weak word to describe what MAGA Republicans are doing to our country.\u00a0 Better words: unbelievable, unimaginable, preposterous, terrible \u2013 sad.<\/p>\n

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!\u00a0 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We know from Trump\u2019s first wife\u2019s sworn testimony that he used to religiously study Hitler\u2019s 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\u2019s putting those teachings into play every day, almost every detail.\u00a0 So why not take the gloves off and call him what he is?\u00a0 It might wake up some sleeping Americans.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also disappointed in the news media\u2019s calling Trump\u2019s trial in Manhattan a \u201chush money\u201d trial. More horsefeathers!\u00a0 It\u2019s not a hush-money trial.\u00a0 It is an election interference trial, pure and simple.<\/p>\n

He paid the \u201chush money\u201d so voters wouldn\u2019t learn he was trying to overturn an election he legitimately lost.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been called an alarmist because of my oft-stated views, and I happily and loudly plead guilty.\u00a0 I am an alarmist because I am alarmed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also been accused of having \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome,\u201d\u00a0 and if that means I see him for what he is, again I say yes.\u00a0 Yes, yes, yes!<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019t.\u00a0 If they do prevail, goodbye democracy.<\/p>\n

And speaking of democracy, I\u2019m often hearing folks say that democracy has failed.\u00a0 It has not!\u00a0 Democracy has not failed.\u00a0 We have failed democracy. Indeed, we are failing<\/em> democracy.<\/p>\n

We have failed\/are failing democracy because we do not vote.\u00a0 For a democracy to work, all its citizens must keep up with what\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Or run for office themselves.\u00a0 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\u2019t participate there is no democracy.\u00a0 How could it possibly work if people don\u2019t involve themselves?\u00a0 It\u2019s a contradiction of terms. Duh.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what we Americans are not doing.\u00a0 We are not participating in the numbers that we must.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Compare that with Turkey, Sweden and Belgium, where the voter turnout that year was 78 percent or higher.\u00a0 South Korea\u2019s turnout was 77 percent. Australia\u2019s was 76, The Netherlands\u2019 was 75. Germany, France, Italy, Spain\u2014all had higher turnouts than we did.\u00a0 Of the so-called developed nations, only Japan, Canada and Chile performed worse than we did at the polls.\u00a0 Great Britain tied us.<\/p>\n

And remember: Bad politicians are elected by people who don\u2019t vote.<\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t Americans vote?<\/p>\n

One reason is ennui.\u00a0 As long as I can pay my bills, why bother to vote? My one vote isn\u2019t going to make any difference anyway.\u00a0 And It\u2019s too much bother to go to the polls and have to stand in lines.<\/p>\n

But another reason, a nauseating reason, is the Republican Party\u2019s openly transparent efforts to keep people from voting.\u00a0 One major way they do that is to cling tenaciously to the Electoral College system because it prevents most Americans from having their way.\u00a0 Five times in our history has a president lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College vote.\u00a0 And \u2013 wait for it \u2013 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.\u00a0 (John Quincy Adams won that one.)<\/p>\n

The other four who won without a majority were Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and \u2013 and here\u2019s why today\u2019s Republicans love the Electoral College so dearly \u2013 George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald J. Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n

(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.\u00a0 It will become effective when states with a total of 270 Electoral College votes \u2013 the number required to elect a president \u2013 is reached.\u00a0 So far, 17 states, including Washington, D.C., have signed on, totaling 209 of the 270 votes needed.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Michigan appears to be next up.\u00a0 It could happen.)<\/p>\n

I can only hope that people who are suffering from ennui will wake up in time, and those who think their vote isn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 This is especially true for Black people and young people, who are the Republicans\u2019 main targets because they tend to vote Democratic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m optimistic because I cannot believe that most eligible Americans really want a MAGA dictatorship\u00a0 — 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.\u00a0 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 \u2013 a vote that has strongly rejected Trump twice so far.\u00a0 Further, courts all across America are seeing gerrymandering for what is and are outlawing it.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes.\u00a0 I see a blue wave a\u2019coming.<\/p>\n

But only if we vote.<\/p>\n

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