For now, of course. because eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. [Don’t forget the GA runoff, for example.]
I will get to the Baby Hitler part shortly.
My point is we are underestimating what we did this year, in 2020, and in 2018.
We used the peaceful resources at our disposal to stop fascism in this country. Among other things, we:
- Voted
- Registered voters
- Contributed
- Phone banked
- Sent postcards and letters
- Texted
- Canvassed
- Ignored the demoralizing effects of the bullshit “Red Wave” narrative
- Lots of other stuff
So what does Baby Hitler have to do with it?
There’s a continuing ethical debate using the time travel/Baby Hitler paradigm to argue whether it’s moral to commit a violent act for a greater good. Google turns up a bunch of articles about it. It’s similar, though distinguishable from the Trolley Problem, used a lot in The Good Place.
In 2015, the NY Times Magazine even did a poll.
The better idea is to prevent a baby Hitler from taking power after he grows up. And that’s what we did (so far).
It’s possible a modern version of a baby fascist dictator was born on June 14, 1946 in Jamaica Estates, Queens, New York, or maybe in Jacksonville, FL on September 14, 1978. I don’t have to describe to people on this site the dangers posed by elevation of those and other authoritarians to power, ranging from cruel separation of children and parents, to criminal fraud against asylum seekers, to book banning, to violent insurrection, to demonization of individuals and groups, to targeting political opponents with IRS Audits and criminal prosecution, to causing hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths from COVID and scores of other horrors,
But we survived it from 2017-2021, threw them out of office in 2020, and stopped them from strangling democracy by fixing elections in 2022.
In May, I wrote It's Time to Fully Appreciate the Miracles of November 3, 2020 and January 5, 2021. Now we can add the miracle of November 8, 2022.
Last week I tweeted about what Democrats had to overcome to achieve this year’s result:
Despite all of that, we staved off any “Red Wave” and likely gained in the Senate.
The Great Generations
As a boomer, I grew up with the justified lionization of my parents’ group — the “Greatest Generation,” which survived the Great Depression and defeated Hitler. In May, I wrote, They died. All We Have to do is Vote. Memorial Day Thoughts:
Our task is easy compared with the sacrifices of those who died for the Allies in WW II and in the Holocaust, and are dying in Ukraine. Not only that, but we already did it once, when we ousted an authoritarian leader in the 2020 election, and the people of Georgia gave us the Senate in 2021.
On many levels, there is no comparison between the achievements and sacrifices of The Greatest Generation and those that followed. But what we have in common is we both engaged in saving democracy, even if in very different ways, and even if our fight has to continue every day because of the forces arrayed to promote fascism.
And our fight is not being conducted just by one generation. Although I strongly believe mobilization of young voters has been and is the key to electoral success, the effort is multi-generational, and we are winning because all ages and groups are uniting in the struggle.