The Republican “Not See” Party threatens America
By Rabbi Barry Silver October 10, 2022
The Republican “Not See” Party threatens America as it pretends to “not see” that Trump’s “America First” slogan was first used by fascists and Nazi sympathizers such as Charles Lindbergh who sought to keep America out of WWII so Hitler could slaughter the Jews. They also choose to “not see” that “America First” is the American equivalent of “Deutschland Uber Alles”.
The Republican “Not See” Party pretends to “not see” that Trump’s favorite President, whose picture he hung in the oval office was Andrew Jackson, a slave owner who defied the Supreme Court with his Indian Removal Act, which led to a genocidal death march of Native Americans known as the “Trail of Tears”.
The Republican “Not See” Party pretends to “not see” that their leader imitated Hitler’s beer hall putsch with Trump’s attempted armed insurrection of the Capitol and like Hitler, Trump is planning to try again. They also choose to “not see” that Trump shares the view of Joseph Goebbels: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, with his big lie of a stolen election and countless other lies.
As the Nazis led a Holocaust of a people, the Republican “Not See” Party, leads a Holocaust of our planet by denying climate change, fiddling while forests burn and chanting “burn baby burn” as trees and our children’s future go up in smoke.
The Republican “Not See” Party and their MAGA (Mutinous Anti-Government Anarchists) supporters try to “not see” that “Make America Great again” is borrowed from a similar slogan used by the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. Like all fascists, the Republican “Not See” Party blindly follows a leader who attacks those who refuse to swear blind obedience, who makes common cause with other tyrants and who surrounds himself with corrupt, incompetent sycophants, whose loyalty to the leader “trumps” loyalty to the country and competence.
Jewish Republicans try to “not see” overt anti-Semitism within its ranks as Trump collaborates with anti-Semitic hate groups, disparages most Jews as “disloyal”, promotes QANON’s anti-Semitic blood libel of a global conspiracy of child molesting, devil worshippers who want to take over the world and criminalizes Jewish law on abortion, replacing it with a Christian nationalist theocracy.
In the 1920s, the Nazi Party arose in a formerly cultured, refined nation. The people of Germany wanted a strong leader so they pretended to “not see” Hitler’s insane hatred and fascism and/or mistakenly thought they could control his excesses. Similarly, today’s Republican “Not See” Party pretends to not see Trump’s ominous warning signs. Like Sergeant Schultz on Hogan’s heroes whose catch phrase, “I see nothing, I know nothing” epitomized his effort to feign ignorance of Nazi wrongdoing that swirled around him, with rare exceptions, today’s Republicans serve as Trump’s useful idiots, ignoring his every outrage.
Hitler didn’t start out as a mass murderer and didn’t begin his career with the Holocaust. The lesson of history is that we must not wait until six million innocents have died or a world war has been unleashed, before we respond to hate. We must be ever vigilant to protect our freedom from what Einstein called the “measles of mankind” a mindless nationalism that can destroy any nation. As Santana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
In French, trompe means deception and in old English trumpery means foolishness and deceit. Founding father John Adams warned "The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity." (emphasis added)
Carl Sagan observed “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Trump bragged that if he shot someone on 5th Avenue, his mindless minions would remain loyal. As this appears to be true, it is up to the rest of us who still have a moral compass and love Democracy to stand against fascism and hate. Let us replace hubris with humility, servility with civility and mindless faith with a mindful fate based on love, kindness and reason, to guide our nation’s future.
If I have offended anyone by this message, I assure you it is purely intentional. Political correctness is our biggest enemy and silence to evil our gravest threat.
Rabbi Barry Silver is the founder of Cosmic Judaism and the local chapter of the Temple of Understanding. To learn more about rational, activist faith, go to www.rabbibarrysilver.com
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