“First They Came For…”

He attempted a coup. When it failed, he embarked on a brash campaign of revenge and retribution. With a deep sense of grievance among the population, the environment was ripe for his message. He took full advantage, blaming the nation’s ills on different groups and on “wrong “thinking. Many people saw him as a joke, but he was ultimately elected to high office.

He created stunts and phony reasons for ignoring the law. He targeted “undesirables” getting in the way of the nation’s “greatness.” There were a lot of them: political opponents, people of different sexual orientations or ethnicities, journalists, intellectuals and teachers. Many were shipped off to prisons. Books were burned, schools were under pressure to teach an approved, pro-government curriculum.

Next, he cast his eye to other countries. He claimed that taking their sovereign territory was in the national interest. And thus, one of the bloodiest wars in human history began.

Yes, this was Adolf Hitler’s Germany. But this is exactly the route Donald Trump has taken and continues to pursue. Trump’s America 2025 is frighteningly like Hitler’s Germany in 1933. Brushing it off as hyperbole would be a mistake and a big failure of imagination.

At this writing, we’re not even 100 days into the administration. The usual methods of addressing the power grab, corruption, and criminality aren’t working; he simply ignores the law. He uses the glacial pace of the justice system to just bulldoze through. We need some kind of rapid-response pushback.

We’re seeing a little of it, with ever louder townhall events and the proliferation of Hands-Off marches across the nation. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) have made headlines with their wildly popular Anti-Oligarchy tour in some of the reddest areas of the country; we need more of that from our lawmakers. A lot more.

In the meantime, we citizens have some heavy lifting to do. Call out the tyrannical behavior; don’t be cowed into silence. Support those in your community who are being targeted. Use your wallet, sending a message to businesses who do the right thing (and those who don’t).

Support responsible, independent media that doesn’t sane-wash the daily outrages of this administration.

A thought exercise: what if you could go back in time to Germany, 1933 when Hitler came to power? What would you do to stop him? Whatever your answer is, do that now.

Because 92 years later, we are here.

Again.

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me”

-Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1946

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.