Santayana Was Right

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

---George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905


Germany, 1932: Adolph Hitler's party wins a minority of seats in the Reichstag, Germany's Parliament. Through extra-electoral means, despite decreasing vote support, he gets himself a central seat of power, much like a president stealing another election after losing Congressional seats.

To continue the story of history repeating itself, the Populist Party blog has this post, reproduced here:


It'll Never, Ever, Ever Happen Here

by Cliff Carson


I was reading about the rise of Hitler to power and found that there were eight things he asked the German people to give him (each of the eight were a surrender of a right they enjoyed per their Rule of Law) so that he and his administration could "protect" the German people from their enemies.

They gave up the rights gladly because Hitler preached that Germany would once again be a great nation if they would be a Christian Nation and trust him to pull them up out of their poverty.

Over 90% of the Germans supported him. Once they had given up their rights, they woke up one morning to find that they, the people, were the enemies of the Government.

Every one of those eight have been usurped by this Administration here in the U.S., and way too many people state "If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear". That's exactly the rationale that the Germans used to give up those rights.

One day it was too late to disagree.

It is now time to examine some of the actions the Third Reich took and the individual liberties they removed from German Law during this period, and then compare them to our "War against Terrorism Laws". Remember (that) our Constitution bans the practice of these items:

1) Denial and Restriction of  habeas corpus
2) Unauthorized rampant militarism without Congressional approval
3) Warrantless spying on all citizens
4) Arrest and indefinite imprisonment without trial
5) Secret detention
6) Secret Prisons
7) Torture
8) Unfair trial practices

George Bush already has claimed a right to adopt, and has put into practice, every last one of the eight Constitutional protections listed above. He has claimed the right to ignore these banned practices.

The Germans never thought it could happen to them. Neither do a majority of Americans.


The murderous moron marches on, ignorant and insidious, a sock-puppet gamboling with destructive intent before a surfeit of indifference.

Germany, 1932; the U.S. 2001. Launch points of what can only be called fascism.

Santayana, Orwell, Lord Acton... History ignored. History repeating itself.


The Jenius Has Spoken.