The Monstrous Stupidity of Jill Stein
She has no idea of the curse she would bring down on us all.
Third-party candidate Jill Stein may throw this election to Trump, as she arguably did in 2016. She has said that the re-election of Donald Trump would not be such a bad thing because it would incite people to activism. She, like a lot of Americans, doesn’t get that if Trump is re-elected, it’s over. Democracy in America will be done. There won’t be any more activism — like there isn’t in China, Hong Kong, Russia, or North Korea.
There are members of my family who belonged to the Nazi party. Some of them took their brainwashing to the grave. Literally. My grandmother had “Heil Hitler” inscribed on her tomb. It’s like what one Trump supporter told me, “Nothing will change my mind.” Sister, if you can say that, your mind no longer belongs to you. You have joined the zombie brigades like the followers of David Koresh, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and Adolf Hitler.
As a teen, I watched the videos of Hitler’s rallies. I couldn’t understand how a clearly deranged individual could command such a following. It haunted me. Coming from post-war Europe, it shocks me to the core that this mass psychosis is happening again.
Trump has promised “retribution” against his political opponents. RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.,” he reposted on his social media site. This should be terrifying to anyone.
Many critics of Trump, and even election workers trying to do their jobs, have received explicit and sometimes graphic death threats. These are Nazi tactics. Never once has Trump criticized the threat of violence against his opponents. Rarely, in recent history, has any Republican politician done so. With the exception of Mitt Romney and Liz Chaney, they have been cowed into submission. As Mitch McConnell, a former Trump critic, resignedly remarked, “We’re all in the same boat now.”
I am now a naturalized Canadian, but I care about the fate of US democracy. In post-war Austria, my original homeland, even as a young child, I learned the difference between the American and Russian troops that occupied our country. I only learned later of the details of the crimes Soviet Russians had perpetrated on our neighbors and family. But I remember the fear. It was all around me. And I remember the nightmares. I remember the first American I met, a GI. I was terrified of him. To me, everyone in a khaki uniform was a Russian. He must have recognized my fear, for he took off a brass bracelet he had around his wrist and gave it to me. It was present. I still have it. It has his name on it. Percy Stein. It is my most cherished possession.
Later, I learned how America rebuilt a Democratic Western Europe from the ashes while Soviet Russia enslaved the eastern part.
America, don’t break my heart. Don’t destroy your glorious experiment with democracy.
I’m pleading here for Trump supporters to come to their senses. Some of you may relish the idea of sticking it to the libs. Is that really worth gutting your country’s democracy for? Some of you may fear the prospect of creeping socialism that the right-wing propaganda network keeps banging the drum over. Be reassured something like socialized medicine is a long way from ever being adopted in the US.
And if it ever was, like it is in every other developed nation, oh horrors, there might be lower infant mortality like in those other countries, and Americans might live longer as they do in those other countries. Of course, Americans would have to give up the cherished freedom of facing financial destitution because of medical bills.
I’ve been comparing Trump to Hitler for a long time. Now former members of Trump’s cabinet, like former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and former Chief of Staff and Army general John Kelly, are warning of his fascist tendencies. Also, former Defence Secretary Mark Esper, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former Attorney General William Barr have warned of Trump’s unfitness for office. They have worked with him and know what he is. They and others managed to restrain his worst tendencies and mitigate the consequences of his vast ignorance during his first term. That won’t happen with his next cabinet if he is re-elected. Its members will be hand-picked sycophants.
When ever before, in US history, have former cabinet members of a president spoken out about his unfitness for office?
The prime reason Trump did not manage to hold on to office after his election defeat in 2020 is that he did not have the support of the military. He will not make that mistake again. He has stated publicly that he will use the military against his opponents. Believe him. The first thing he will do is replace the senior officers he deems not sufficiently loyal to him.
Trump has said that he wants generals like Hitler had. Trump seems unaware that Hitler’s generals came to their senses and tried to assassinate him, but we know what he means.
Some will argue that Trump could never have absolute power. But who’s going to stop him? A supine Republican congress? His stacked Supreme Court has already declared he is above the law. Most importantly, once Trump has replaced the upper echelons of the military, he will have control of the army. No past president has ever had the idea of abusing the power of Commander in Chief. Many still believe that Trump would never do such a thing. They are deluded.
Hitler was elected. So was the leadership of Hamas. Something that, in both cases, the majority of the people later regretted.
There is a view, both among some of the left and right, that a period of chaos may be necessary to bring on an age of renewal.
They have no idea how fragile a thing civilization really is.
Jill has no idea.