Tick, Tock, Gentlemen, said the Harlequin

January 1933…or later?

In January of 1933, Hitler was given the keys to the kingdom when Franz von Papen, aided and abetted by the likes of Kurt von Schleicher and the lesser dead-enders of Weimar, sat by while President Otto von Hindenburg appointed the Nazi “fuhrer” to the chancellorship (NB Hitler, a scant 4-8 months before, might have been eliminated as a political entity when a series of elections, local and national, seemed to doom the Nazi party). Within 100 days of his appointment, Hitler had seized then disbanded the legislative body; had reduced the judiciary to so-called “People’s” courts — really Hitler’s courts — assuming the effective judicial role as directives (today, they would be called in America “Executive Orders”) furiously issued to replace the deliberative process of the old judiciary; and had taken on as well the powers of head of state — he had become, in the truest sense of the word, a dictator.

There were some protesters of course, but the fate of the country and the continent and the world was sealed by those who did nothing or little, before, during or after the take over (see Peter Fritzsche’s HITLER’S FIRST HUNDRED DAYS, and TAKEOVER, HITLER’S FINAL RISE TO POWER by Timothy Ryback). One might argue there was little that the German people could do, but that argument looks as sturdy as a balsa wood house in a hurricane, given the historical ramifications of the the almost complete capitulation of that cohort.

And make no mistake: Trump has used the Hitler playbook — or his advisors have; it is unlikely that Trump has read any book in his life thoroughly enough to absorb and employ the contents therein — and may not find it necessary to directly usurp the power of the judiciary, but will simply wait until the SCOTUS gets the cases winding their way up from the District Courts, that seek to curb his executive orders and patently unconstitutional actions. But, beware that Court, as you would a man with a knife, prepared as it is to permit this cheap imitation of Hitler to pursue his goals: this is after all the same SCOTUS which anointed the Orange Fraudster as a king in Trump v. US.

The time to have stopped Hitler was in Oct or Nov or December of 1922, or even Jan 1933. But by the time 100 days had passed, it was too late.

Is it too late, now, for our republic? Not if good people are prepared to act now.

So, act!

Now!