Trump, Hitler, and the Reichstag Fire

 

Part I.

In the summer of 2020, Joe Biden enjoyed a double-digit lead over incumbent Donald Trump in many polls.  This has caused many Americans to feel optimistic.  They anticipate that come the November election Trump will lose to Biden and that we will soon see a new president sworn in come January 2021.  However, it may be that great danger lies just ahead for the American nation.

Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by a willful and shameless breaking of so many laws and social conventions of democracy.  Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump is a threat to America’s democracy.  In a 19 July 2020 interview [37:16-38:28] with Chris Wallace, Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the November election.  On 30 July 2020, Trump tweeted that the 2020 elections should be delayed.  In August, Trump openly said that he opposed voting by mail and that he was willing to let the US Postal Services be hindered in the prompt delivery of mail, especially mail-in ballots.  

While many political commentators have criticized Trump for his authoritarian tendencies, they are seriously underestimating the danger Trump poses to American democracy.  Trump can be likened to an abusive husband, who on the verge of his wife divorcing him, will sooner murders his wife and children than suffer them escaping his abusive tyranny.  If this analogy holds true then the greatest danger to America’s democracy may be in the few weeks leading up to the November election.  For Trump, the months of August, September, and October provide him with a time frame within which he can turn things around.  However, if the situation does not improve by mid-October then the situation will become a desperate one provoking him to lash out violently like a deranged spouse looking for a weapon to kill his wife.  

Attention has been drawn to the similarities between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.  However, these comparisons are of limited value unless we place Trump’s rise to power against Hitler’s rise to power.  So much of our understanding of Adolf Hitler has been confined to World War 2 and concentration camps.  However, these represent the end point of a historical trajectory that took place over a decade.  Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was gradual and contested.  Initially, many political and cultural leaders considered him to be a clown, not a serious leader.  They did not see him as a serious threat to German democracy and by underestimating Hitler’s mendacity and ruthlessness they were ineffective in obstructing Hitler’s ascendancy to tyranny.  

 

The Reichstag Moment

In the early 1930s, Germany was still a democracy but it was a troubled democracy.  Germany was enmired in an economic depression and the German people were divided between those sympathetic to the Communists and those violently opposed.  The government was in an unstable state and President Paul von Hindenberg had to replace several chancellors in a short period of time.  In January 1933, in hopes of forging an alliance between the Nazis against the more left-wing opponents, Hindenberg reluctantly asked Hitler to serve as chancellor.  With the elections scheduled for early March, Hitler and his Nazi supporters set about suppressing the political opposition.  

The turning point in Germany’s turn towards Nazi Germany was the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 just before the early March election.  The Reichstag Fire was a dramatic arson attack on the building that housed the Reichstag (German parliament).  Claiming that the fire was part of a Communist attempt to overthrow the government, the newly named Reich Chancellor used the event as grounds for claiming absolute power.  

Within hours of the Reichstag fire, Hitler persuaded President Hindenberg to invoke Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution which gave the president dictatorial powers and allowed him to make laws for all of Germany’s territorial states.  Then a more permanent and sweeping legislation—the Reichstag Fire Decree—was passed which suspended the right to assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and other constitutional protections for the German people.  The decree also removed all restraints on police investigations.  That same night the decree was passed the storm troopers of the Sturmabteilung (SA) arrested some 4,000 people, many of whom were tortured as well as imprisoned.  

Then on 23 March, the German parliament meeting at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin passed the Enabling Act giving full powers to Hitler.  By the end of 1933, all non-Nazi political parties, labor unions and other organizations ceased to exist.  The following year, Hindenberg died and the German Army sanctioned Hitler’s decision to combine the posts of the president and chancellor, giving him absolute power over Germany.  

The year 1933 would mark a turning point in Germany’s descent into darkness.  Following Hitler’s seizure of absolute power over Germany came the establishment for the Dachau concentration camp intended for the Nazi’s political opponents, a national boycott against Jewish-owned businesses, the exclusion of Jews and political opponents from government civil service positions, the public burning of “un-German” books, the mandatory sterilization of those with physical and mental disabilities, the indefinite imprisonment of “habitual prisoners,” etc.  It is horrifying to consider that all these actions were taken within months of the Reichstag Fire event and Hitler’s acquisition of absolute power—in the same year!

 

State Terror

Costas Gravas’ movie Missing depicts the 1973 military coup that toppled Chile’s democracy.  It showed military vehicles racing down the streets shooting freely at people.  It also showed the secret police arresting people and imprisoning them in sports arena.  State terror is an important element in the transition from democracy to dictatorship.  Mass detention of the opposition is one component of seizing control.  Just as important is the violent suppression of the opposition through open shooting of civilians in the streets as well as public mutilation of suspected enemies of the state.  These shock and awe tactics instill fear among the general population making it easier for a newly minted dictator to rule with impunity.

A dictator prefers a quiescent public that does not openly challenge the state even if the policies are unpopular.  Therefore, it is a people interconnected with others, who are able to clearly articulate democratic values, and capable of organized actions that a dictator will fear the most.  

 

The Reichstag Fire as a Paradigmatic Event

In order for the events of 1933 to be useful for our understanding of political events in 2020, we first need to render the events into abstract constructs.

1. The rise of a leader with authoritarian traits and a pathological personality.  A leader with a narcissistic self-centered personality, who acts with wanton disregard for social conventions and legal norms, will not be constrained by public shaming or a guilty conscience.  He will lack inner restraints when it comes to wielding power with barbaric viciousness.

2. A cataclysmic event that serves as a pretext for the suspension of normal law and prepares the way for the transition to long term, unrestrained authoritarian rule.

3. A terror campaign aimed at suppressing any and all opposition in the public sphere by lethal force, outrageous violence aimed at cowing the opposition.  This is combined with surgical strikes at organized groups capable of obstructing authoritarian rule.  

4. Mass surveillance and mass detention aimed at controlling the general population.  Information gathering is part of an effective police state.  In addition to suppressing the opposition, knowing the names, locations, and activities of the general population can enable the new regime to determine who their true supporters are and just as importantly suppress the opposition with precision and minimal use of force.  

5. Once established cultural norms and political institutions are swept aside or demolished, the way is cleared for the passing of laws and establishment of a new government infrastructure that will carry out the ideals of the new regime.  

 

What if Trump Declares Martial Law?

On 4 August 2020, an enormous explosion devastated Beirut, Lebanon.  Shortly after the explosion, Donald Trump told the media that the explosion was an “attack.”  He insisted that it was an attack even when a journalist raised the possibility that it might have been an industrial accident.  He insisted that this was the findings of the U.S. military. Later, it turned out that the explosion was caused by a huge shipment of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in Beirut’s port for years.  If such an incident had taken place on U.S. soil, there’s a good chance that Trump might have used it as a pretext for declaring martial law.  Trump is not likely to wait for the results of a fact-finding investigation.  Trump will declare martial law preemptively.  

 

Thinking the Unthinkable

One important step towards protecting our democracy is to take seriously the possibility of the unthinkable.  We must consider Trump prematurely declaring martial law in the face of a perceived terrorist attack.  We must also consider Trump being willing to incite domestic terrorism that will justify his declaring martial law in the United States.  We must consider what we would do if Trump does in fact declare martial law.  Any delay in action due to confusion or surprise will result in the loss of valuable time in which we can mount a viable opposition to a Trump dictatorship.  

Trump is like a slowly encircled beast who might at any moment lash out with deadly force and so must be approached warily and if necessary, with forceful action.   By forceful action is meant ordinary American citizens, government workers, and even U.S. military personnel engaging in civil disobedience in the name of protecting the U.S. Constitution.  What is needed is for us to educate people around us as to what the Constitution guarantees us and how civil disobedience may be necessary for defending the American constitution.  It is also helpful for us to educate ourselves and others about the similarities between Trump and Adolf Hitler, especially with their leadership styles.  

 

Time Frame

There are two important dates to the ending of the Trump presidency: 3 November 2020 (General Election) and 20 January 2021.  These two dates represent serious threats to Donald Trump’s grip on the presidency and he will do anything to disrupt or delay these dates.  Thus, the time of great dangers will be those leading up these dates.  The month of October will be a time of high risk in which we should all be on the lookout for any attempt by Trump and his allies to delay, cancel, or postpone the November 3 election.  After the November election is the counting of the electoral ballots in the joint session of Congress on 6 January 2021.  The seventy-two-day period from the general election to the presidential inauguration will be another high-risk period.  Trump will possess the full powers of the presidency until the formal handover.  

For this reason, it is crucial that the American people have these two dates in mind, be on the lookout for attempts to delay the peaceful handover of power, prepare in advance for an emergency situation by studying the issues and collecting materials for non-violent civil disobedience, network with potential allies and coordinate potential public civil disobedience.  Hopefully, none of these will be necessary, nonetheless it is important that we take seriously the threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy.  We must not think: “This could never happen.”  We must learn from the lessons of history in Adolf Hitler and the Reichstag Fire.  Let us remember that the Reichstag Fire took place just mere weeks before the March election.

Coming soon: Part II

Ken Arakaki

 

References

Al Jazeera.  “Trump says mail-in ballots ‘big scam’US Election news.”  Al Jazeera.

History.com editors.  “Reichstag Fire.” In History.com  Updated 10 April 2019.

Anthony Izaguirre.  “Delays in verifying mail-in ballots will slow election tally.”  AP 4 October 2020.

Sam Levine and Alvin Chang. “Revealed: evidence shows huge mail slowdowns after Trump ally took over.”  TheGuardian 21 September 2020.

National Conference of State Legislatures.  “The Electoral College.

NBC News.  “President Donald Trump: Generals Think Beirut Explosion “was a bomb of some kind.”  4 August 2020.

Roger Olson.  “Excellent Historical Documentaries about Christians in 1930s Germany.”  Theological Musings 20 August 2020.

Roger Olson.  “Trump and the Rhetoric of Tyranny.”  Theological Musings 2 October 2019.

Julie Pace.  “AP Analysis: Why Trump’s election delay tweet matters.”  AP 31 July 2020.

Nicholas Stargardt.  “How Hitler Transformed a Democracy into a Tyranny.”  Review of Peter Fritzsche’s Hitler’s First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich.  New York Times 20 March 2020. 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  “Timeline of Events.”

Chris Wallace.  “President Trump goes one-on-one with Chris Wallace | Full Interview.”  Fox News 19 July 2020.  [See 37:16 to 38:28 for the segment relating to Trump accepting the election result.]

Mindy Weisberger.  “Beirut blast was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever.”  LiveScience.com 5 October 2020.