Don’t be misled. Galatians 6:7 (The Message)
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. –Winston Churchill
Part 1 of this column introduced the 1933 Reichstag Fire in Berlin, Germany.
To recap, the Reichstag was the capitol building of Germany. A few weeks after Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany–but not yet dictator–a fire broke out there. Since details are sketchy, some 90 years later historians and political scientists still are unclear as to who started the fire, and why. What historians and political scientists do agree on is, the Nazis used the fire as a pretext and excuse to take over complete control of Germany. It is the “textbook example” of a government using a crisis for its own advantage to extend its power and control.
The fire was a turning point event that Hitler and the Nazis used to cement their control, destroy all other political parties, silence all other voices, and turn Germany into a dictatorship…within just a few weeks. Tragically, once that dictatorship was in power, the German people were unable to overturn it. It took WWII and the combined Allied forces of the British Empire, USSR, USA, and others to stop the Nazis, and that tragic, six-year conflict claimed some 70-85 million lives–an astounding 3% of the world population in 1940.
Fast forward to 2008. Remember that year? The global economy was crashing, fear swept over the world, and it helped propel Barack Obama in a “blue wave” to the White House over John McCain and gave the Democrats supermajorities in both houses of Congress for several years. Obama’s key advisor and Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel then famously quipped, “You never want to let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is, it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
With that remark, Emanuel explained how individuals and governments can take advantage of a crisis and the accompanying fear, chaos, and uncertainty to do things they would not be able to do in normal times. The 2008 elections, for example, gave the Democrats control of both the White House and Congress so they were able to pass not only their plans to deal with the financial crisis, but much more too, such as Obamacare, etc.
Many think that Emanuel’s was an unusually honest admission, especially for a politician. In 2020, I am unaware of any politicians making that admission, but many Americans recognize that government authority greatly increased last year as our civil liberties shrank.
I am not a scientist or a doctor, but I believe some of the changes brought about were probably necessary to protect public health. Still, I am sure we all agree that the mask mandates, business closures, school lockdowns, church restrictions, curfews, mass mail in ballots, last-minute voting changes etc. would have been unthinkable had there not been a virus outbreak.
When, with God’s help, this pandemic is over, will our civil liberties return to pre-2020 levels? We will see, but history teaches that individual rights are hard to win, a challenge to keep, easy to lose, and once lost, very difficult if not well-nigh impossible to regain.
That brings us to January 2021. Do you see any parallels between the Reichstag Fire and our situation today? Do you see or hear anyone “not letting a serious crisis go to waste?”
With God’s help, we will discuss that next time.
– Scott Dreyer
