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Historical context - Germany, March 5, 1933:
On March 5, 1933, the government held an election for control of the Reichstag. The Nazis won 288 seats (43.9% of the vote).
The Communists won 81 seats (12.3%), even though their representatives were unable to claim those seats—if they appeared in public, they faced immediate arrest. Other opposition parties also won significant numbers of seats. The Social Democrats captured 119 seats (18.3%), and the Catholic Center Party won 73 seats (11.2%). Together, the Communist, Social Democratic, and Catholic Center Parties won nearly as many seats as the Nazis. But their members distrusted one another almost as much as they feared the Nazis.
As a result, these parties were unable to mount a unified opposition to the Nazi Party.
Still under Nazi control, the Reichstag passed a new law on March 21, 1933, that made it a crime to speak out against the new government or criticize its leaders. Known as the Malicious Practices Act, the law made even the smallest expression of dissent a crime. Those who were accused of “gossiping” or “making fun” of government officials could be arrested and sent to prison or a concentration camp.
Then, on March 24, 1933, the Reichstag passed what became known as the Enabling Act by a vote of 141 to 94. It “enabled” the chancellor of Germany to punish anyone he considered an “enemy of the state.” The act allowed “laws passed by the government” to override the constitution. Only the 94 Social Democrats voted against the law. Most of the other deputies who opposed it were in hiding, in prison, or in exile.
That same day, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, then police commissioner for the city of Munich, held a news conference to announce the opening of the first concentration camp near Dachau, Germany. According to Himmler, the camp would have the capacity to hold 5,000 people, including Communist Party members and Social Democrats “who threaten the security of the state.” Himmler continued, according to a newspaper report:
Throughout the spring and early summer of 1933, the Nazis used the new laws to frighten and intimidate Germans. By May, they forced all trade labor unions to dissolve. Instead, workers could only belong to a Nazi-approved union called the German Labor Front.
Posted this before, but seems apropos to mention it here as well.
I very much appreciate these historical perspective posts!
My pleasure!
Here's some additional context of this same political tactic and dynamic occurring in Iraq - the 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge:
The 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge (Arabic: تطهير حزب البعث), also called the Comrades Massacre (Arabic: مجزرة الرفاق), was a public purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party orchestrated on 22 July 1979 by then-president Saddam Hussein six days after his arrival to the presidency of the Iraqi Republic on 16 July 1979.
Six days after the resignation of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Hussein's accession to President of the Iraqi Republic, Regional Secretary of the party, and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council on July 16, 1979, he organized a Ba'ath conference on July 22 in Al-Khuld Hall in Baghdad to carry out a campaign of arrests and executions that included Ba'athist comrades, who were accused of taking part in a pro-Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam.
The list included most of the comrades who opposed Saddam Hussein's rise to power after Al-Bakr, and among these was the former president's secretary, Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi. Names of people were announced and they were taken outside the hall and into custody; 21 of them were later executed. Ba'athist propaganda at the time showed that they were convicted of conspiracy and high treason to the party. Iraq subsequently cut off diplomatic relations with its fellow Ba'athist regime in Syria, accusing Hafez al-Assad of organizing the plot.
Actual footage
i was actually somewhat worried this sort of thing was going to happen at the last State of the Union, and was somewhat relieved when Al Green made it out unscathed (props to the king for speaking truth to power).
The main reason I post this example is to prove that hey, it's not just Nazis, or Germany, or now sadly the US. Even though this administration is running the Nazi playbook, it's important to note that this sort of thing happens all over the world, in many countries. What we haven't seen since WWII is the dictatorships unifying and actively working to overthrow democratic governments.
We're all at war with this cabal, these tactics and these policies - not because we want to be, but because they want to actively enslave, exploit, and exterminate us. The US is just the latest casualty.