The last time an aspiring world leader talked about banning all members of a religion it didn’t end well.
In the 1920s, a young zealot in Munich started giving fiery speeches to small groups of supporters at first, where he blamed the blight of the German people on the Jews. Slowly, one speech at a time, he added more and more supporters and put momentum behind the political party he cofounded. Over the course of about 10 years, this little upstart politician clawed his way into political leadership in Germany, when, through a series of unconstitutional maneuvers he was named chancellor in January 1933.
Within weeks, he took control of the police and then the military, abolished all other parties, and designated the members of the Jewish religion as the official state villains that had to be eradicated. It started slowly at first, but as it happened more and more often, more and more of the people believed it was right.
The zealot was Adolf Hitler. He had hijacked an entire country. We know how this ended.
Banning millions of people based on their religion has been tried before through the millennia, and it has never ended well. It has never been successful. And it has often resulted in the ruin of the nation that tried it.
Putting indiscriminate blame for the atrocities of a very few is fear mongering. Trump is a demagogue. The statistic above may be exaggerated. I am not sure how many Americans were killed by ISIS last year. We may have to add the 14 victims in San Bernardino to the 4 listed here. So now, finally, there are more Americans killed by ISIS than by furniture.
Why don’t we ban all people with guns from America. They’re killing a lot more than ISIS do, and most of them by accident. We don’t do that because it’s ludicrous and insane.
But when our demagogue tells us how smart he is, and how thousands of Muslims celebrated when the towers fell on 9/11, and how all this misery we’re in is the fault of the Muslims, if he just tells us that over and over again, we might just be stupid enough to vote him into office.
May Allah help us then.
I’m glad you keep reminding people that Muslims aren’t a problem.
Hi again, Norbert-!!
Just wanted to say THANKYOU for your post about Donald Trump’s latest symptom of his CHRONIC “Foot-In-Mouth-Disease”—!!!
Well said Norbert—!!!
Even in far-off Australia, many are concerned that this crazy person might end up in charge of the most powerful nation on earth–!!
Whilst it’s the Muslims today—only a few months//weeks ago, all the ills of the world (or at least those of the U.S.) were attributable to Mexicans—!!!
Here, there’s recently been a change of leadership “at the top”—–ppl finally became utterly disenchanted with the “macho-rhetoric”
which was ALL our former Prime Minister (Tony Abbott) ever seemed able to offer ppl–!!
His party was facing complete electoral annihilation at the coming national elections.
In our system, the political party decides the leader. They replaced Abbott with the far more popular (& far more articulate & intelligent–!!) Malcolm Turnbull.
My point here, is that we have recent experience with having an idiot as the leader of our nation–!! Not too many here would recommend trying that particular “experiment” again. If an Aussie might be so bold as to offer some “advice” to our U.S. voter counterparts—–PLEASE don’t “run the risk” of letting this man (Trump) get his hands on the “levers of power”—it will NOT end well–!!
The “scapegoating” of an entire “group” of ppl (along religious//ethnic//political//color//sexual orientation grounds) clearly demonstrates a dearth of any REAL solutions (on the part of the person doing the scapegoating) for the many societal challenges which face real ppl in their //our lives.
Such “would-be-rulers” (they are NOT true LEADERS–!!) are not merely devoid of real & practical ideas which might make great differences in the lives of those whose votes they seek—-they are also morally bankrupt—-& DANGEROUS–!!! #
Cheers—Ray
Morally bankrupt at least and dangerous for sure. First the Mexicans, then the Muslims, then the elderly, the women, then all of us. It never ends well.
Good advice Ray. I’m in Australia too and am so relieved the Abbott experiment has passed.
Hi Peggy—& Norbert.
I certainly do NOT agree with much of the policies of the (ruling) political party in “Oz”— which WAS led by Abbott—who has been replaced by the less extreme//more articulate & intelligent Turnbull.
Nevertheless, it IS a relief for the entire country to have as its leader, someone who at least APPEARS to be “half-reasonable”–!!!
Another “thought” for U.S. voters—based upon our recent experience here.
It is EMBARRASSING when one’s country is represented upon the world stage by a “CLOWN”–!!
With Abbott, we just never quite knew in what (leadership) “company” he might AGAIN eat another RAW ONION—!!!
These are worthwhile considerations for U.S. citizens as the Presidential election approaches.
As an aside, Malcolm Turnbull has a background which will be new to, & might interest those in the U.S.
As a young lawyer, he very successfully represented Peter Wright (Ex-M.I.5 espionage operative) in the notorious “Spycatcher” trial in the U.K.
Wright had written of his experiences within M.I.5—the British equivalent of the C.I.A. He went so far as to accuse the head of M.I.5 of being a KGB spy—!!!
This was at a time when the Cold War was still
anything but “cold”–!!
Needless to say, the British government sought to suppress the publication of Wright’s book. Apparently the (then) young Turnbull’s defense of Wright was nothing short of brilliant–!!
I won’t be a “plot spoiler” by detailing the dramatic events of this internationally scrutinized trial–& the media interest in same.
Those who are interested can find much information online.
Rather, I’ll “return to message”—& limit myself to the following comment. Same may be worth consideration in the U.S., with the lunatic possibility looming, of Trump actually becoming President-!!
It IS a worthwhile consideration before voting—to consider that the person who is electorally successful, will represent my country internationally. That person MAY be someone with whom I may disagree on policy issues, but can nevertheless feel SOME pride in, as he//she engages constructively with other world leaders.
Alternatively, that potential President might be a bombastic, spoiled, foolish,bigotted,divisive,egotistical,racist—!!
Both the U.S. & the world more generally, deserve so much better than—Trump–!!!
We are (in both U.S. & Australia) privileged to live in affluent, pluralistic democracies. We ought treasure one of the cornerstones of such a society—the right to vote RESPONSIBLY–!! The manner in which we use that thing which others have defended with their very lives–our VOTE–will contribute greatly to determining the type of country in which we//our kids & grandkids will live.
We voters (wherever we may be) need to zealously “guard” the “value” (& “power”) of our vote—so that, as far as we each are individually able to so do, we elect men & women to public office of whom we can be proud–!!
It is a sad thing to have, as the chief representative of one’s country, a person who causes us to CRINGE with EMBARRASSMENT whenever our “leader” opens his//her mouth–!!
Here, Abbott was such a person.
Trump is even MORE “mad”.
Australian Prime Ministers are relatively limited in their wielding of power—much “government muscle” is somewhat “spread” across the “hands” of the ruling political PARTY.
By comparison, a U.S. President has far greater “executive” powers. He//she IS after all, the military Commander In Chief—& thus, effectively “in charge” of the most overwhelmingly powerful military “machine” the world has ever known–!!
To entrust THAT high office//THAT kind of power to an “unhinged” megalomaniac like Trump, goes WAY beyond embarassment–!!! THAT would be dangerous LUNACY–!!