This Day in 1933

NickEs

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Wednesday January 25, 2017 · 7:44 AM PST

2017/01/25 · 07:44

Most of us are appalled at the events of the past few days -- the blocking of the USDA, EPA and National Park Service social media, the reinstituting of "black sites" for torture, and more.

This is not without precedent, unfortunately.

We need a daily "This Day in 1933" DKos, Facebook and Twitter post from historians with more chronologically-detailed information than I have. Let's crowd-source this.

Why is this necessary? Because fascism and strongman-politics can rise more rapidly than many people realize; the current administration appears to be hewing close to the playbook*, and Congress going along because they see a personal benefit in doing so.

*(This observation may sound hyperbolic, but in a 1990 Vanity Fair interview, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that "from time to time [her husband] reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, "My New Order," which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed")

As a reminder of how fast events can occur, 1933 is instructional:

30 January 1933 -- Hitler is named Chancellor.

27 February 1933 -- The Reichstag building was set on fire. This was then used as a handy excuse for those in power.

28 February 1933 -- Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order, was used to justify the "Reichstag Fire Decree," which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.

23 March 1933 -- The "Enabling Act" gave Hitler's cabinet the power to enact laws for four years without the consent of the Reichstag, laws that could (and did) deviate from the constitution. This had the effect of transforming Hitler's government into a legal dictatorship.

Let's equate the dates of both elections and get a "This Day in 1933" daily post going. Being prepared with what to expect is crucial for a resistance movement.

And don't be surprised if a crisis occurs in the next month or two that is used to create something that far surpasses the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

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