Learn from history... or else!!

[Manedwolf]

As for the original post, we're far from the conditions that brought about Nazi Germany. Their Great Depression made ours look like a stock market downtick, and their grievances--perceived or otherwise--over the loss of the Sudetenland, national pride and other factors is something we haven't experienced.

They were humiliated as part of WWI reparations. Even all of their commercial liners were taken as reparations and given to Cunard and other lines and renamed. The biggest liners like the Vaterland were very important to Germany before the war, and they were taken as prizes. There was a lot of resentment that allowed for the rise of Nazism, for it to promise that sort of "pride". Revenge is a basic human emotion.

We don't have any such widespread resentment against anymore.

[oldfart]

"We don't have any such widespread resentment against anymore."

Not yet anyway...

[freakazoid]

As for the original post, we're far from the conditions that brought about Nazi Germany. Their Great Depression made ours look like a stock market downtick, and their grievances--perceived or otherwise--over the loss of the Sudetenland, national pride and other factors is something we haven't experienced.

Well times haven't been looking very good lately, don't know how bad it was over there but things could get real bad here. Also while they might of been ticked about how they were treated after the war, many here are ticked about a certain war that we are in. While I certainly wouldn't compare Obama to Hitler, but it is possible for what is planned under Obama to eventually morph into something far worse in the future.

[K Frame]

Psst? Mike? Permanant is not a word. Permanent is.

Your sorry ass will be gone for good.

Better?

[seeker_two]

Psst? Mike? Permanant is not a word. Permanent is.

Been nice knowing you, MB.... 

[Monkeyleg]

Well times haven't been looking very good lately, don't know how bad it was over there but things could get real bad here. Also while they might of been ticked about how they were treated after the war, many here are ticked about a certain war that we are in. While I certainly wouldn't compare Obama to Hitler, but it is possible for what is planned under Obama to eventually morph into something far worse in the future.

After WWI, Germany was forced to pay reparations to the Allied countries, which strained the German economy. The Versailles Treaty also took German land--some of it the most valuable industrial land--and gave it to other countries.

Germany needed to revalue its currency to cover the cost of the reparations, and also the tariffs other countries put in place to block German exports. In 1920 the exchange rate was 40 Marks to 1 US Dollar. By 1923 the rate was $4.2 trillion marks to $1 US. It literally took bushels of Marks to buy a loaf of bread.

This was all happening in advance of the Great Depression. When the world financial markets were hit in 1929, Germany took it even worse. In addition to an almost worthless currency, the country had an unemployment rate that ran as high as 33%.

People may be ticked off here about the war in Iraq, but we're not giving up the Midwest to another country because of it, or being forced to pay another country a huge amount of our GDP for reparations.

We'd have to be in much more dire straits to enable the rise of a Nazi-like regime.

[neviander]

While I don't doubt Obama WANTS to change this country's population into a sniveling, defenseless mass of pleebs that depend on the government to wipe their rear end, such as half his constituency already is, he won't be able to pull off anything of Nazi proportions, not in his lifetime anyway. 

There are too many people that will cry foul if we start shipping a certain section of the population off to concentration camps.  We have the largest armed population in the history of the world.  Anything done on a large scale and fast time table that remotely resembles the third reich will go down in flames; even if there's another terrorist attack.  Now, given a long enough time table, who knows? 

[slingshot]

I tend to think much like Old Fart.  He says it so so much better then me.

I really do think Obama wants to Change a lot of things.  Whether he can or not, time will tell. For now, you work within the system and express your opinion or you run for office and try to effect change that way.  I hope that Obama finds being President a lot different than what he expects.  It will be interesting to say the least.

[Antibubba]

The libs have managed to control the whole dialog, not just the labels.

Worse than that: They controlled the ideas.  The Republican Party of late is the anti-idea party.  Just intoning the word "maverick" over and over doesn't make it so; that's a practice I would attribute to liberals, who believe that if you want it bad enough it'll happen, in defiance of all evidence to the contrary

And when did "intellectual" become a dirty word?  Apparently we've forgotten George Will, and William F. Buckley, both towering giants of intellect AND academia, another dirty word.  The GOP is the party that appears to oppose science, medicine, education, etc. The apogee of these beliefs is Sarah Palin.  Talk about anti-intellectual!  As sorry as I am to see the Democrats in power, I am relieved that Palin will be nowhere near Washington.  It isn't enough for her to have her heart in the right place, or to be a down-home mom.  I want her to have a clue about foreign policy, and the economy in places where petroleum doesn't create a surplus. 

[oldfart]

"Talk about anti-intellectual!  As sorry as I am to see the Democrats in power, I am relieved that Palin will be nowhere near Washington.  It isn't enough for her to have her heart in the right place, or to be a down-home mom.  I want her to have a clue about foreign policy, and the economy in places where petroleum doesn't create a surplus."

Don't be so hard on Sarah.  Remember, she had to toe the line drawn by the McCain camp.  There were a few times she tried to strike out on her own but even those in her corner got antsy when she did.  I honestly can't say she has a firm grasp on international politics but I do believe she knows a lot more than her detractors give her credit for.  After all, she IS the only governor with Top Secret clearance because of her position as commander of the Alaska National Guard which is tasked to guard against incursion over the north pole.

Besides, a good leader can hire intellectuals.

[Monkeyleg]

"Intellectual," as the word was used in this last campaign, was referring to the Ivy League-educated politicians who don't have a clue as to how the real world works. Reagan wasn't regarded as an intellectual because he didn't attend the right universities or travel in the right circles. Like Palin, he took some delight in poking fun at the elite. He once remarked that an economist was someone who saw an idea working in practice, and wondered if it would work in theory.

The GOP is the party that appears to oppose science, medicine, education, etc.

Really? If you're referring to teaching creationism versus evolution, you're talking about a tiny faction within the GOP. As for medicine, I don't know what you're referring to. On education, Republicans should be voicing concerns over what students are learning, and who's supposed to pay for it.

There's no question that the GOP needs to regroup and get back to core principles. Like it or not, Sarah Palin is going to be a force in all of this, unless the old guard finds a way to get her out of the picture.

[gunsmith]

There are too many people that will cry foul if we start shipping a certain section of the population off to concentration camps

Well, unless they're homeless, drug users.

Liberal NYC rejoiced when its homeless were removed to "rehab centers" upstate.

[Antibubba]

After all, she IS the only governor with Top Secret clearance because of her position as commander of the Alaska National Guard which is tasked to guard against incursion over the north pole.

And if Alaska elected a grizzly bear as governor, it'd have Top Secret clearance too.  It comes with the post.

f you're referring to teaching creationism versus evolution, you're talking about a tiny faction within the GOP.

And Palin is part of that faction.  Why do I doubt that Raelian theory will be on the curriculum?

"Intellectual," as the word was used in this last campaign, was referring to the Ivy League-educated politicians who don't have a clue as to how the real world works.

I understand how it was implied.  A better word would have been technocrat, which is an apt definition of Al Gore.

Like it or not, Sarah Palin is going to be a force in all of this, unless the old guard finds a way to get her out of the picture.

Like it or not, you're right.  But we should be able to go into the mid-term elections defining who we are, instead of who we're not.

[Uncle Bubba]

Your sorry ass will be gone for good.

Better?

[off topic]

I know it's a serious matter, but I couldn't help laughing when I read this. Not 'cause it's funny itself but because it reminded me of a tale about Winston Churchill.

During a conference in WWII he was informed of something about the Soviets by his intelligence apparatus, then a bit later told about the same matter by Stalin. Churchill said the information from the two "...differed in no wise in general detail, but that Stalin's version was 'more pithy'."

Precisely what I thought when I read your "clarification".

[/back to topic]