Frightening Historical Parallels

While Donald Trump is no Adolf Hitler and no Benito Mussolini that doesn’t mean he’s not a fascist. Merriam Webster dictionary defines fascism as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition."

Trump most certainly exalts “white” people over all other races even though race is really just a social construct. His rhetoric and actions, such as not naming permanent leaders of numerous departments and agencies which would require Senate confirmation thus allowing him to name people as acting leaders so he can put anyone he wants in those leadership roles, show his autocratic philosophy. Under Trump the middle class has shrunk and the rich have gotten richer, especially the very richest. Trump showed his desire to forcibly suppress opposition when told Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, that they should “get rid” of journalists as they met in public at the G-20 conference of world leaders in Osaka, Japan.

Similar to Hitler who vilified Jews and other minority groups, Trump has vilified immigrants from non-northern European countries. His policy of separating children from their parents when migrants seek asylum at the border is horrendous. Keeping both parents and children in unsanitary conditions without access to showers or toothbrushes would violate the Geneva Conventions if they were prisoners of war. Japanese-Americans and Jewish-Americans, many of whom have family members who suffered in concentration camps during World War II, have protested at Trump’s camps complaining that the conditions are reminiscent of those concentration camps.

Prior to World War II the German ocean liner St. Louis sailed out of Hamburg with nearly 900 Jewish refugees seeking visas to enter the United States. They were not admitted on the grounds that they needed to wait their turn as the roughly 27,000 slots available to Germans and Austrians had already been filled and so were the slots for the next several years. By 1945, just six years later, 254 of those roughly 900 passengers had been murdered by Nazis in the Holocaust.

The Trump administration is using the same rhetoric all over again to deny entry to migrants from countries south of our border. I’m all for waiting your turn in line but when the line stretches 20 or more years as is sometimes the case I think it’s time to revisit the rules that make the line. Several former asylum seekers have already been reported as murdered after being sent back to their home countries.  We’ll probably never know just how many of the deported asylum seekers are killed by the very drug lords and criminals they were fleeing the first place.

The examples above are just some of the frightening parallels between the leadership of present day United States and Germany of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. I don’t know about you but I don’t want another stain on our nation like that of the ill-fated voyage of the St. Louis or the Japanese internment camps.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 19, 2019

Political or Violent Revolution

A week ago yesterday we celebrated Independence Day, the American Revolution, led by wealthy, educated elites in order to wrest control of government away from a distant despot and take it into their own hands.

This Sunday France will celebrate Bastille Day, their own revolution against the rich and powerful despots of the late eighteenth century. Workers in the cities and small farmers in the countryside resented the privilege and wealth bestowed by the accident of being born in to certain families. The triggers were the rising prices of bread and other staples exacerbated by crop failures and government on the brink of bankruptcy driven by the country’s participation in a war of choice, the American Revolution.

The seeds of revolution in our country have been planted once again and are growing even now. One famous rallying cry of the American Revolution was “No taxation without representation”, unfortunately many Americans, including Texans, once again suffer from it due to partisan gerrymandering. In some states 60 percent of voters can turn out for the party that ends up with just 40 percent of legislative seats because the other party had the opportunity to draw legislative and congressional maps that provide a near permanent advantage to that party regardless of the will of voters.

In the United States today three white men, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, own more wealth than the poorest 50% of the population combined. The Walton Family and the Koch brothers combined own about the same amount, while Bezos, Buffett, and Gates started with little and made billions, the Walton’s and Koch brothers inherited their wealth and use it to exert political control, gain privilege, and protect and increase their wealth.

Grocery prices have risen noticeably over the last year or two, other living expenses have as well yet most workers have seen little if any increase in their wages. Trump’s tax cut put little more in the pockets of you and me while lining the pockets of the already fabulously wealthy. At the same time it further exacerbated the national deficit even as the nation still bears the expense of the unnecessary war of choice in Iraq. Climate change is bearing down on us like a freight train, last week Anchorage Alaska had a record high temperature of 90 degrees – that’s 5 degrees above the previous record, there was massive flooding in the Great Plains last month wrecking crops and killing livestock, and the Arctic ice cap is showing signs of record shrinkage. As climate change worsens crop failure and livestock losses will cause further shortages and price increases. With the vast majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck there’s not much room in the budget for increased costs.

There is mounting pressure for change, in the past the United States has managed that through the electoral process choosing Teddy Roosevelt, his nephew Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson to manage the necessary adjustments. Will this nation choose another visionary leader to guide us through the critical transition or will it take the kind of upheaval seen in the latter part of the eighteenth century?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 12, 2019

New Gilded Age or New Era

The period from the end of the Civil War in 1865 until just after the turn of the century is known as the Gilded Age, it is the time of big railroads, big banks, and big steel. Men like J.P. Morgan and Andrew Mellon made themselves wealthy by monopolizing trade and corrupting government then built grandiose homes and earned the appellation robber baron. Economic inequality reached historic levels and children starved while Morgan and Mellon decided where to build their next 75 room mansions. Teddy Roosevelt earned a reputation as a trust buster through his efforts to curb the most egregious excesses of such men. Roosevelt didn’t attack all trusts or monopolies, only those he felt took excess profits and failed to provide good, efficient services or high quality products. While his public face was that of a protector of the common man he was very much a supporter of capitalism who believed that strong government provided necessary balance. Economic inequality continued to increase through the Roaring 20’s proving that Teddy Roosevelt didn’t go far enough.

Just two decades after Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency the national economy took a nose dive into what became known as the Great Depression. It took reformers like Teddy’s nephew Franklin Delano-Roosevelt and his vice-president, Texan John Nance Garner, to push back against the avarice of the robber barons’ successors and set the stage for the rapid growth in the middle class after the end of World War II. Roosevelt and Garner were forced to compromise with southern Democrats and withhold some of the protections and benefits from domestic help and farm workers, who were often minorities, in order to pass their legislation. Those left out were unable to fully enjoy the benefits of the vibrant economy.

Two decades later another reformer was needed and Texan Lyndon Johnson took up the banner to expand those benefits to the grandsons and grand-daughters of slaves and other minorities. Like all reformers before him he also had to be pushed by those who suffered under the existing system and he had to accept compromises in order to move forward.

While each of these great reformers efforts were necessary they have never been enough and soon after LBJ left office the legislation and regulations that protected the middle class were weakened or reversed. It has been 50 years since LBJ and once again economic inequality has reached record levels with just three men holding as much wealth as the bottom 50% of Americans combined.

In 2020 we have an opportunity to elect a reformer who will turn back the tide of avarice that threatens the fabric of our society and prevent another Gilded Age or Great Depression. I hope you watched the two nights of Democratic presidential candidate debates and recognized that some of them will move us forward while others just offer the status quo. Sanders, Warren, Harris and a few others offer a chance to restore balance to our economy. Biden, Hickenlooper and the rest would happily settle for scraps off the table of the new robber barons of Facebook, Amazon, and Apple.