Readers Write: Stakes for county DA are high

The Island Now
"Millions Are Behind Me"

When it comes to choices for Nassau public office, we’re generally given the equivalent of a Walmart store brand. I’ve lived here since 1962. I can’t think of one Nassau County politician who has distinguished himself above and beyond the mediocre.

But we have a big problem in this country, and that is the control Mr. Trump still has on his party. And that means we do not dare elect a Republican to any office dealing with law enforcement, for the simple reason that the Republican Party itself is a lawless organization.

There’s been enough evidence to prove that the Jan. 6 coup attempt had inside help, including plans to destroy electoral college votes, videotape “confessions” from members of Congress, or perhaps kill the vice president. But the recently discovered news regarding the use of our Justice Department made subject to Mr. Trump’s diktat should be enough to frighten anyone, including the Babbitt-like “cloth coat” Republicans out there. This is treason, plain and simple.

So why care about local party affiliation when the national head of the party is a mentally unbalanced narcissist? Simply put, all history demands it, because of the nature of a party structure. As we repeatedly see, loyalty, not competence, is more highly prized in politics. Which is one reason why these organizations rarely improve and the worst of the lot remain in one position or another for decades.

Perhaps the best assessment of this dynamic was by Sir Ian Kershaw, who was knighted for his historical work on WWII Germany. He cracked the code as to how Hitler was able to achieve and consolidate his power in his famous “Working towards the Führer” maxim. It is presented here:

“Everyone who has the opportunity to observe it knows that the Führer can hardly dictate from above everything which he intends to realize sooner or later. On the contrary, up till now, everyone with a post in the new Germany has worked best when he has, so to speak, worked towards the Führer. Very often and in many spheres, it has been the case—in previous years as well—that individuals have simply waited for orders and instructions. Unfortunately, the same will be true in the future; but in fact, it is the duty of everybody to try to work towards the Führer along the lines he would wish. Anyone who makes mistakes will notice it soon enough. But anyone who really works towards the Führer along his lines and towards his goal will certainly both now and in the future, one day have the finest reward in the form of the sudden legal confirmation of his work.”

And so you see the nature of how party members simply “fall in” without even thinking about it. Trump doesn’t personally order voting restrictions in individual states. He doesn’t order shrieking anti-vaccine zombies at school board meetings. He doesn’t personally organize caravans of horn honking pickup trucks with obscenity-laden flags. People “work towards” this state as if in a trance, and indeed they are, because as Kershaw noted this is a predictable feature of the charismatic dictator.

Kershaw argued that in Nazi Germany officials of both the German state and Party bureaucracy usually took the initiative in initiating policy to meet Hitler’s perceived wishes, or alternatively attempted to turn into policy Hitler’s often loosely and indistinctly phrased wishes.

As another historian noted, “What happened in Germany after 1933 was the imposition of Hitler’s charismatic authority on top of the legal authority that had existed prior to 1933, leading to a gradual breakdown of any system of ordered authority in Germany. Kershaw argues that by 1938 the German state had been reduced to a hopeless, polycratic shambles of rival agencies all competing with each other to win Hitler’s favor, which by that time had become the only source of political legitimacy.”

Sound familiar?

And so, for the good of the nation, the GOP must be evicted from public office, right down to town councilman. Because if GOP state attorneys general refuse to certify an election, things could get dangerous. And if an AG can get away with that, a district Attorney can wreak even more disruption.

 

Make certain Todd Kaminsky wins office. Even if for no other reason but a bulwark against treason and fascism.

Donald Davret

Roslyn

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