April 26, 2006
by Steve Osborn

Someone in the administration must have read Walter Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, except they forgot to read the ending. The Bush regime's economic policies are almost in lock step with what went on in Germany.

Germany had a wealthy and powerful class, the Junkers, who owned or controlled over ninety percent of Germany's agriculture and industry. They were basically free of taxes and wanted to stay that way. Hitler promised them that they would not be taxed, so they supported him and gave huge sums of money to his campaign. The German army had been all but disbanded after WW-1and they wanted to rebuild. Hitler promised the Officer Corps that he would rebuild the army into the finest in the world and would give them free rein. They supported him wholeheartedly.

The Weimar Republic had developed a constitution that guaranteed individual rights. Workers had unions that got them decent wages. There were mandated retirement plans and medical plans. The Junkers hated these plans with a passion. They wanted it all and they didn't want to waste any of it on the workers. Germany had a fairly prosperous middle class, small businessmen and tradesmen. Like everyone else, they took a hit during the depression years, but for the most part they survived, until the Third Reich.

When Hitler came into power, the unions were abolished, pensions revoked and the money was returned to the Junkers and the government to use as they saw fit. Hitler promised freedom to every worker and guaranteed him work for life. That sounded good, except that first, the millions out of work after the unions were disbanded had to take whatever wage was offered to them by the businesses, and work whatever hours were required. The working class became virtual serfs, as did the farmers. What land was available was given to the farmers that had worked it, but the law tied them to the land in perpetuity.

Eventually, Hitler introduced wage and price controls. The jobs were there, rebuilding the war machine, but the wages were near starvation wages and you had to work at what you were assigned. Complain and you went to a concentration camp. There were little or no taxes, but that was more than made up for by "voluntary" donations to various government causes. If you didn't donate enough, you got to think it over in a concentration camp. In the end, everyone worked or went in the military. This is a greatly simplified version. The documents are staggering.

Bush wants us to put our retirement (Social Security) into the stock market, has introduced legislation that will lower wages, cut overtime pay and allow businesses to make workers work whatever hours they want them to. Workplace safety regulations are going down the tubes as fast as they can be legislated out of existence. Medical insurance is going the way of the dodo for the middle class and poor, cost of living is climbing much faster than wages. The wealthiest two percent own over ninety percent of the wealth in this country. The other ninety-eight percent of us struggle to hold on to the less than ten percent that is left. Like Germany, we have endless "enemies" to worry about, so we must make sacrifices to build a strong military to smite them down. People that don't feel this is the American way are branded traitors or terrorist sympathizers. People can now be disappeared at the government's will per the PATRIOT ACT.

After the SS secretly burned the Reichstag building and the Communists were blamed, a decree "for the Protection of the People and the State" was issued which basically cancelled the people's civil rights. It nullified the articles of their constitution that guaranteed those rights, much like the PATRIOT ACT, issued after 9/11, nullified much of our Bill of Rights. That decree stood until the fall of the Third Reich and Hitler's death. BushCo wants the PATRIOT ACT to be enhanced and left in place forever.

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Make conditions miserable and uncertain for the populace, bombard them with endless "fair and balanced" propaganda, then promise to take care of them and protect them from the boogyman at home and abroad. The people fall right in line and you can do with them what you like. It worked in Germany; so well that it took almost the entire civilized world to bring them to heel. If it works here, how much blood is it going to take to stop us from overrunning the world? We are already more militarily powerful than the next four or five most powerful nations in the world combined. We have more WMD's than the rest of the world combined, with accurate delivery systems, and we are building still more.

One final parallel. Bush and his henchmen often claim that Bush was put in his position by God and is doing God's will. Hitler, in an address given at his natal home of Linz, just before the plebiscite that would make Austria a part of Germany said in part:

"When years ago I went forth from this town I bore within me precisely the same profession of faith which today fills my heart. Judge the depth of my emotion when after so many years I have been able to bring that profession of faith to its fulfillment. If Providence once called me forth from this town to be the leader of the Reich, it must in so doing have charged me with a mission, and that mission could only be to restore my dear homeland to the German Reich. I have believed in this mission, I have lived and fought for it, and I believe I have now fulfilled it."

It would seem that all of these would-be dictators think they are led and blessed by God, and that their depredations are manifestations of God's will..

The last chance to stop these people is at the polls, and they are doing their best to suborn the electoral process. Last time around, they got the President appointed by the Supreme Court. As someone pointed out to me today, at least Hitler was elected. If the Bush gang actually gets elected, I fear we can kiss our Constitution and Bill of Rights and our democracy good-bye. The Republican controlled Congress is just a rubber stamp for Bush's programs, as the Reichstag became for Hitler.

We are standing at a fork in the road. To the right lies fascism, to the left lies democracy and a reinstatement of our constitutional values. By our ballots (hopefully with a verifiable paper trail) we shall make that decision. The choice is ours. Let's make it a good one.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.