Friday, March 18, 2016

Power to the Party

My opinion at this moment in time is that Trump cannot be defeated as the Republican Party's nominee even at the convention. If the convention is brokered denying him the nomination after he has gained so much support I close my eyes and shudder as the power in the Republican Party, weak and ineffective, folds like a paper tiger fearful of the violence that is behind Trump.

The rise (and hopefully ultimate fall) of Trump is reminiscent to me of the rise to power of the Nazi state. One by one responsible power brokers in Germany at that fateful time caved and through the Enabling Act in response to the Reichstag fire (lit surreptitiously by Nazis themselves but blamed on Communists and, of course, Jews,) gave the elected Chancellor Hitler all the power that he needed to assume totalitarian control. The Nazi rallies at Nuremberg foretold the portents of doom.

Trump's rallies show us in living color the violent nature of their supporters' essence and the encouraging remarks by Trump himself who easily admits if he is challenged "rioting will break out" show his tolerance of it.

It is up to ALL of us to stand with those in the Republican Party who have the power to challenge the delegate count which ultimately selects the nominee. In this case, unknowing by most, the Party has enormous power to choose the nominee. Whether they have the will use it is surely up for conjecture. I personally doubt that they will.

A Lesson for All Time

Renée Graham's excellent Globe editorial "Anti-Trump protesters are Patriots" see link here or below is one to which I wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it not treasonous to oppose the likes of the egomaniac racist Trump it is OBLIGATORY and patriotic to vociferously oppose him.

I am reminded of the great Spencer Tracy in his brilliant performance of an Allied tribunal judge, Dan Haywood, in "Judgment at Nuremberg" which centered on the trial of Nazi judges guilty of war crimes. Burt Lancaster plays Ernst Janning, a former German judge of some intellectual heft and moral compass before the rise of Nazism. He realizes his egregious crimes during the Nazi period sentencing the innocent to imprisonment and even death. He is seemingly the only former Nazi of conscience. He asks to see Spencer Tracy at the end of the film and says:

"The reason I asked you to come. Those people, those millions of people... I never knew it would come to that. YOU must believe it, YOU MUST believe it."

Judge Haywood says "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent."

The film speaks of conscience and of personal guilt. It speaks of one man's obligation to protest and refuse to commit inhumane acts of bigotry and monstrous acts of inhumanity. Nuremberg is not just applicable for that era but for all eras and man's duty not to commit unconscionable acts against the powerless in the name of the state.

The protesters at Trump rallies are doing just that and my heart is with them as they do a moral good and make judgment at Nuremberg and its lessons a lesson for all time for all men.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/03/16/anti-trump-protesters-are-patriots/AYf5RW9hzpJB0UnqJTDMgI/story.html#comments

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