On Wednesday, as I listened to President Bush’s bail out offer-you-can’t-refuse speech laced with heavy doses of fear and panic, I was reminded of another Great Depression parallel: Hitler’s political exploitation of the Reichstag fire in 1934. Historian Anthony Read in his recent work, The Devil’s Disciples, reminds us how the Nazis hit the press to justify granting Hitler emergency powers.
Goring justified it with a lurid press statement, claiming – without producing a shred of evidence – to have proof that the ‘burning of the Reichstag was to be the signal for a bloody insurrection… and also the beginning of a general civil war.’
Hitler sought and received the issuance of an emergency decree approved unanimously by the Cabinet, and signed without demur by German President Hindenburg.
The ‘Decree for the Protection of People and State to Guard Against Communist Acts of Violence Endangering the State’ was the death warrant of democracy, and the charter for the coming Third Reich and all its iniquities. It was short and simple. Its first article removed at a stroke all the fundamental human rights enshrined in the Weimar constitution, specifically listing personal liberty, freedom of expression (including freedom of the press), rights of association and assembly, privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communication, the need for warrants for house searches, and confiscation of property.
After listening to Bush, I followed up on my intuition about the German parallel. As I read Anthony Read’s account quoted above I was horrified. If we say that the Reichstag Maneuver is the extortion of dictatorial executive power though threats, fear, and panic, the Bush presidency is defined by its use. His first application was the cram down of the Patriot Act; the second, the Iraq invasion to prevent a mushroom cloud over America. Then the threat of terror warranted the suspension of the treaties against torture and the constitutional prohibition of warrantless wire tapping. Now Bush’s prediction of collapse of the American economy is being used to shake down the American taxpayers for $700 billion by Monday to restore the free market status quo on Wall Street.
However, on Thursday conservative Republicans counter-maneuvered Bush. They are distancing themselves from their President who has “gone socialist” with the Paulson Plan that Obama favors if significant modifications are put in place to protect Americans. Conservatives are putting a game of Reichstag chicken in play. The only way conservatives will do the necessary bailout is to package it with government hating tax cuts and administration by a non-governmental entity. That way, the Reagan free market ideology that caused the Crash of ’08 can remain alive and well and nobody can use the “s” word to describe Republicans who vote for a bailout.
If McCain stands with the conservatives, all this Reichstag maneuvering will have the effect of clarifying the alternatives presented to voters in this presidential election. It will be a choice between anti-regulatory free marketers who encourage Wall Street greed and advocates of a rational regulatory government that serves the interests of Americans and the health of capitalism. McCain will be standing target for Obama.
If McCain does not stand with the conservatives, he will remain a Bush echo who accepts Obama-type modifications to the bailout plan and alienates conservative Republicans.
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