GOEBBELS RALLIES THE PEOPLE

[Bottomfeeder 244]

GOEBBELS RALLIES THE PEOPLE

Goebbels Rallies the People

by Harry Browne

September 7, 2004

Almost 65 years ago, the Nazis' rule in Germany was threatened

by the Social Democratic party, which opposed Adolf Hitler's

foreign policy and even began to oppose Hitler himself. To

counter this, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels addressed

a crowd of Germans. With 25 Nazi swastika flags flying behind

him, he told an excited, appreciative crowd:

I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the

willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect us?

[applause]

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this

hall with you tonight.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust

our future and that man's name is Adolf Hitler.

[cheering]

There are some crazy men who would kill us if they

could. So Adolf Hitler has told us, "All private plans, all

private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an

overriding public danger." [cheers]

But where is the national unity in this country when we

need it most? [cheering]

Now, while young Germans are dying in the mud in

Czechoslovakia and the mountains of Poland, our

nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of

the Social Democrats' manic obsession to bring down

our Führer. [cheering]

What has happened to the nation I've spent my life

working in?

I can remember when Social Democrats believed that

it was the duty of Germany to fight for freedom over

tyranny.

Time after time in our history, in the face of great

danger, Germans worked together to ensure that

freedom would not falter. But not today. [applause]

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national

security, today's Social Democratic leaders see

Germany as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes me madder than someone calling

German troops occupiers rather than liberators.

[cheering]

Tell that to the Czechs, Poles, Frenchmen, and

Belgians who have been freed because Adolf Hitler

led an army of liberators, not occupiers. [great

cheering]

Tell that to the millions of men, women and children

who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from

Poland to the Balkans, because Adolf Hitler built a

military of liberators, not occupiers. [cheering]

Never in the history of the world has any soldier

sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total

strangers than the German soldier. And, our soldiers

don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us

here at home. [cheering]

Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive

Germany. Fainthearted, self-indulgence will put at risk

all we care about in this world.

In this hour of danger our Führer has had the courage

to stand up. And I am proud to stand up with him.

God Bless this great country and God bless Adolf

Hitler.

[wild cheering]

As we read those words, we can't help but wonder what had

gone wrong in the minds of the German people. Didn't they

realize that there was no freedom when they gave their

lives to a single individual ­ idolizing him, letting

him make all the important decisions, letting him take

away their liberties, watching him conquer and oppress

foreign countries in the name of advancing freedom?

We should be very thankful that this sort of thing can't

happen here. Americans would never allow one-man rule,

never allow the American military to invade foreign

countries.

Can It Happen Here?

Wait a minute.

It is happening here.

Americans have already lost many liberties at home ­ as

the President has decided he can cancel the right to

a trial, the right to counsel, the right to confront

one's accusers, the right to privacy in one's email,

phone conversations, and bank accounts. And Americans

have watched as the American military has invaded

foreign countries ­ Afghanistan and Iraq.

And all to the accompaniment of cheering crowds.

In fact, the speech I quoted above didn't come from

Joseph Goebbels. It was delivered by an American ­ Senator

Zell Miller at the Republican convention last week. I

had to change only a few words in order to disguise

the source. Republicans cheered Miller

enthusiastically ­ even as he quoted Franklin

Roosevelt saying, "All private plans, all private

lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding

public danger."

The news media focused on Miller’s attacks on John

Kerry. They should have been focusing on Miller’s

attacks on America ­ America the land of the free,

the land of the Bill of Rights, the land that is

sinking away from us.

(Incidentally, in 1940 the Social Democrats weren’t

speaking out against Adolf Hitler. By then, thanks to

the Zell Millers of Nazi Germany, public opposition to

Hitler was no longer safe.)

Losing One's Mind

Political parties are a dangerous phenomenon. They remove

the power to think for oneself. Individuals who become

Republicans or Democrats no longer evaluate issues

according to fixed principles. They care only about

parties. Their worst fear is that the opposition party

will win the next election.

Would those Republicans have cheered so wildly if it had

been Bill Clinton who'd had the "courage" to invade

Afghanistan and Iraq? Would any Democrats be opposing

the Iraqi war if John Kerry had started it?

Obviously, the answer to both questions is no.

As the Admiral says in Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S.

Pinafore:

I grew so rich that I was sent

By a pocket borough into Parliament.

I always voted at my party's call,

And I never thought for myself at all.

I thought so little, they rewarded me

By making me the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!