I find the events of January 6, 2021, an insurrection and coup attempt predicated upon Trump's Big Lie, more disturbing than those of September 11, 2001. Because it was/is a deep, deep self-inflicted wound.
So I must remind you today of another time when the majority ignored the warning signs. I learned of it at the single most impactful museum I have ever visited.
That museum is in Munich, Germany, and it is The Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. This is the national museum in Germany that documents their Nazi and fascist history.
The museum is as stark as its subject is horrifying. After decades of discussion of whether it should be built at all, and if so, how, in early 2015 it opened, and we visited that summer.
The museum, where one can hear a pin drop and also tears falling, is stunning for many reasons. But my biggest takeaway was how the museum impartially documents the complacency of the general population as Hitler began his evil. Little by little, things were changing in Germany, as Hitler imposed his terrible will. But the people - especially the government's leaders - sat idle.
Please remember that today, and think about those in Congress that refused to procedurally certify Biden's election one year ago today, after the Capitol insurrection and riot. We may disagree over policy, but we just cannot disagree over the need to abide by the norms of our country and its Constitution.
I encourage you to visit the website of the museum, or better still, visit in person. If you do, you'll never again take for granted what we have in the USA.
After I wrote the above, our weekly copy of The Economist arrived. This is the January 1 - 7 2022 issue, and they have similar concerns. This is the cover story.
I hope you'll read the two articles on this same subject from the issue, which I have put into a single PDF. The similarities I see between a passive German populace allowing Hitler's rise in the 1930's, and Trump's Republican enablers of today as reported by The Economist, are frightening.
No, I am not predicting anything as purely evil as The Holocaust. But the graceful transfer of power, a hallmark of our democracy for over 200 years, was forever soiled by Trump's Big Lie and the resulting insurrection on January 6, 2021. I hope American democracy itself is not next.
