If you\u2019ve been reading the news lately (if you haven\u2019t I don\u2019t blame you) you know there\u2019s been a bit of \u201ccontroversy\u201d over the choices to fill cabinet positions and other high-level government jobs. The interviews before congress has left me wondering about some of their responses. After reading about some of the choices to fill these positions and their views on various subjects, and some of their backgrounds and rhetoric, it makes me wonder if this has always been the type of people seeking higher political offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past few years there\u2019s been a lot of comparisons between several U.S. \u201cpoliticians\u201d and the rise of the Third Reich in Germany. I thought I\u2019d do some extensive research on those that came to power in Germany in the early 1930s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January 1933, Adolf Hitler, a popular German politician who had launched his career in the beer halls of Munich, reached the top of German government. He was known for inflammatory speeches and for his stances against Jews and Communists.
It\u2019s said that Hitler\u2019s inner circle were the most powerful leaders in the Nazi Party and that it was a finely balanced team of military commanders, administrative leaders and Ministers of the Nazi Party.
But if you look not too far below the surface, it appears that when Hitler assembled his henchmen to help him run the Third Reich, he chose an assortment of losers and failures that represented the bottom rungs of German society. Let\u2019s check out some of that \u201cinner circle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joseph Goebbels \u2014 Propaganda master for Nazi Germany with control over all news media, arts and information. He was named in Hitler\u2019s final will, as his official successor. But \u2014 although Goebbels propaganda machine praised the perfect Nordic physique, Goebbels himself had a physical disability \u2014 a clubfoot so badly twisted that it kept him out of World War I. In the university, Goebbels\u2019 favorite professors were Jews and he was once engaged to a Jewish woman. After he graduated he tried (unsuccessfully) to make a living as a writer before drifting into the Nazi party. In hindsight, his Nazi career can be seen as a desperate overcompensation for his physical shortcoming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rudolph Hess \u2014 (Deputy Fuhrer) was born in Alexandria, Egypt and didn\u2019t actually live in Germany until he was 14. Most Nazis started their careers as losers and achieved some sort of career satisfaction by successfully wreaking havoc, but Hess\u2019s career went the other way. His reputation was cemented when he went to prison, voluntarily, to be with his Fuhrer. As his largely ceremonial powers began to recede, he hoped to gain favor with a strange peace mission to Scotland that ended with him being locked in the Tower of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin Bormann \u2014 Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery (a role previously called Deputy Fuhrer until Hess defected and Bormann replaced him with the new title.) He was Hitler\u2019s Personal Private Secretary, controlling all information passed to and from Hitler and controller of all personal access to Hitler. But Bormann has one of the flimsiest resumes of any of the Nazis. A school dropout who worked briefly as a farm laborer, Bormann very briefly served in an artillery regiment during World War I, then went straight into far-right politics \u2014 or more exactly, far-right violence. He joined a group of disgruntled former soldiers who spent their time attacking Communists. He even helped murder his former elementary school teacher and served a year in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hermann G\u00f6ring \u2014 Commander-in Chief or the Luftwaffe (German Air Force,) founder of the Gestapo in 1933, Minister of the Economic Four Year Plan, and designated by Hitler as his successor and second in command. Goring, a well-bred war hero, was the closest the Nazis came to respectability. He once even succeeded the Red Baron (von Richthofen) as leader of his flying aces. But his personal life was marred by scandal \u2014 he lured a Swedish baroness to divorce her husband and marry him and after the attempted government overthrow, he was badly injured in \u201cthe groin\u201d and became addicted to morphine. He also became monstrously obese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So from what I can tell, Hitler put together his team of henchmen to help him run the Third Reich, by choosing an assortment of losers and failures that represented the bottom rungs of German society.
I keep hearing that history repeats itself \u2014 I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true, but I hope not\u2026..
\u201cEvil is unspectacular and always human
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.\u201d
~ W. H. Auden
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you\u2019ve been reading the news lately (if you haven\u2019t I don\u2019t blame you) you know there\u2019s been a bit of \u201ccontroversy\u201d over the choices to fill cabinet positions and other high-level government jobs. The interviews before congress has left … Continue reading