While GOP candidates troop to Iowa to promise control of the government to evangelical voters.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
....we should remember how a politician decreed a Christian nation on March 23, 1933
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
By its decision to carry out the political and moral cleansing of our public life, the Government is creating and securing the conditions for a really deep and inner religious life.
The advantages for the individual which may be derived from compromises with atheistic organizations do not compare in any way with the consequences which are visible in the destruction of our common religious and ethical values......
The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society......
. ......The national Government will allow and confirm to the Christian denominations the enjoyment of their due influence in schools and education........And it will be concerned for the sincere cooperation between Church and State.
The struggle against the materialistic ideology and for the erection of a true people's community (Volksgemeinschaft) serves as much the interests of the German nation as of our Christian faith. ...
The national Government, seeing in Christianity the unshakable foundation of the moral and ethical life of our people, attaches utmost importance to the cultivation and maintenance of the friendliest relations with the Holy See. ...The rights of the churches will not be curtailed; their position in relation to the State will not be changed.
This was Hitler's speech urging passage of the Enabling Act, which outlawed other political parties and trade unions. Some people correctly suspected that this would be the beginning of The Terror.
Here is a stunning parallel to Wisconsin:
Meanwhile, the Social Democrats initially planned to hinder the passage of the Act by boycotting the Reichstag session, rendering that body short of the quorum (two thirds) needed to vote on a constitutional amendment. The Reichstag, however, led by its President, Hermann Göring, changed its rules of procedure, allowing the President to declare that any deputy who was "absent without excuse" was to be considered as present, in order to overcome obstructions. Because of this procedural change, the Social Democrats were obliged to attend the session, and committed to voting against the Act.
With the passage of the Act, the Gestapo was unleashed on the citizens of Germany.