Iowa's Cowards in Congress
Iowa's delegation is silent in the face of Trump's growing and increasingly dangerous, authoritarian crazy talk
It has come to this:
Donald Trump is waxing nostalgic about the German Nazi despot and fascist dictator Adolph Hitler.
Yes, that Adolph Hitler. The one who waged genocide against European Jews, costing 6 million souls their lives. Also the one who waged World War II, 85 years ago, at a cost to America of 405,399 killed and 671,278 wounded - and millions more world wide - to stop him.
And yes, that Donald Trump - the twice impeached ex-president, 34x convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and so much more - who Republicans offered up this year as the best candidate they could find within their ranks to lead America for the next four years.
That Donald Trump.
This week, the Atlantic magazine published a stunning report from a series of interviews with Trump’s longest serving White House Chief of Staff (2017-2019), retired Marine Corps Four Star General John Kelly, who said Trump:
told him in the White House that Hitler did some pretty good things;
told him, also in the White House, that he (Trump) needed Generals like Hitler had - Generals who would simply follow orders and do what they were told, regardless of the law.
Trump denies saying any of that, but he’s also the guy with 30,000+ documented, flat out lies during his time in the White House. He denies everything all the time. Even that he lost the 2020 election when every court who heard his lie-packed case ruled otherwise; and even that there was violence at the US Capitol on January 6.
Trump reminds me of what former President Harry Truman once said about Richard Nixon: “He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in.”
So, my response to Trump’s denial of these reports is: “Yeah. Whatever. “
What it has also come to, is this: Iowa’s all Republican congressional delegation is unwilling or unable - or too afraid of Trump - to speak up and suggest that Trump knock off the Hitler Fan Boy talk.
Here we are, less than two weeks before the election, and not one of the “silent six” has said a word about Trump’s fawning admiration of the Nazi Fuhrer.
Not Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the US Senate’s senior Republican.
Not Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is seeking a Senate Republican leadership post in the new Congress that will convene in January.
Nothing from Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-1st IA).
Crickets from Representative Ashley Hinson (R-2nd IA)
Zilch from Representative Zach Nunn (R-3rd IA).
Silence from Representative Randy Feenstra (R-4th IA).
Most Iowans do not remember Hitler as fondly as the Republican nominee for president apparently does.
We remember this:
The horror of the Holocaust.
Hitler’s wild, unprovoked military aggression.
The fact that more than 16 million Americans served in the military during Word War II working and fighting to stop Hitler’s unspeakable atrocities and the war he began. Of those men and women, 226,638 were from Iowa. Approximately 8,398 came home in coffins or their remains were never found.
Yet, it is apparently too much for anyone in Iowa’s congressional delegation to speak up and suggest - even politely - that Trump put a lid on his Hitler Fan Boyism.
When I think about that silence, I’m reminded of the conversation I had with a 90+ years old woman I met in 2015 in a pizza parlor in Washington, DC. Some folks in my apartment building organized a dinner outing there, and we were seated across from each other for our pizza dinner.
I’ll never forget the look in her eyes, the sadness that came over her face, or the sound of her voice when she looked up at a big screen TV on the wall, saw Donald Trump making a speech - 2015 was in the very early days of his first presidential campaign - listened to him a bit, and then said quietly - more to her herself than to anyone else: “I’ve seen that man before.”
Now, it is not at all uncommon in Washington, DC to meet people who have seen or met political celebrities, or even worked for them. (It’s kind of like Iowa in that respect, after decades of Iowa Caucus campaigns - on steroids). I thought she might have an interesting story, so I responded “Oh, you’ve met Donald Trump? Where did you meet him?”
“I’ve never met him. But I’ve seen another man say exactly what he’s saying.”
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Hitler. He said the same things, promising to make Germany great again. He sounds just like him.” I asked more questions and learned her backstory, which was both horrifying and harrowing. I learned that she was Jewish. She grew up in Nazi Germany. She escaped the worst of the Holocaust when her parents were able to get her on one of the last "Kindertransports” out of the country, allowing her to escape to England.
That conversation, that “I’ve seen that man before” moment in 2015 was my first tip off re: what was to come from Donald Trump; about his fascination with authoritarianism; and the playbook he was using in his campaign even then that came straight out of Hitler’s fascist playbook.
She lived in my apartment building, so I ran into her a lot. We talked often.
I learned that, over the decades she successfully - but with great difficulty - willed herself to forgive many, though she never forgot.
One group of people, however, that she never forgave - and absolutely never forgot - were “friends” and neighbors of her family who remained silent, looked away, did nothing to stop the fascists in their midst and, in fact, eventually joined with them and became fascist partisans themselves.
Those concerned about what their legacy might be after this election may want to ponder this. No, I don’t think Trump is waiting to launch genocide in this country, but there can be no doubt that he is planning things many of us would consider to be horrors, to destroy democracy, abolish freedoms, and rule as a dictator rather than govern as a public servant.
The evidence is all around.
He tells us every day on the campaign trail. Others who know him well warn us about him:
Trump’s former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley says in Bob Woodward’s new book that Trump is “fascist to the core” and is the most dangerous person to this country.
Trump’s former Chief of Staff - General Kelly again - says Trump is a fascist, and “certainly prefers the dictator approach in government.”
Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, says Trump is unfit to be President. Not just that he, Bolton, disagrees with Trump, but that Trump is actually unfit for the office.
Trump himself is now talking about the “enemy within” - that’s regular Americans who disagree with him or oppose him. He said two weeks ago he’d use the military against them as president.
Let that sink in.
Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to Iowa’s “silent six” - the Iowa Republican congressional delegation - yet, but when Trump talks like that, he’s talking about their constituents, Iowans, as much as he’s talking about anybody else.
And they’ve had nothing to say about it.
It would be nice if the Iowans in Congress could muster up at least a clearing of the throat to object to that kind of dangerous talk coming from their party’s nominee for President of the United States of America.
But they haven’t. They’ve said nothing to even suggest they disagree with Trump’s authoritarian talk or fawning over Hitler. They have chosen instead to be be good, loyal Republicans - who remain silent, look the other way, and do nothing to stop the crazy talk before it turns into reality.
They want to be leaders. But their silence on this fundamental issue - fundamental to our democracy and our nation’s well being, to our basic rights and our fundamental freedoms - makes clear they know nothing about leadership.
Certainly they know nothing about responsible leadership.
Iowa’s “silent six” in Congress have now become part of the problem - enablers in America’s descent into despotism and dictatorship if it comes to that.
Iowa voters should remember that failure to speak up when they enter the voting booth on Election Day.
And this: the questions frequently comes in many conversations - "How did we get here?" The simplest answer I believe is Reagan's elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, which paved the way for Rush Limbaugh in 1987 and FOX News in 1996. Suddenly it was okay to say whatever you want on broadcast programs with no accountability. Rupert Murdoch saw it as the opportunity to sell BS just for ratings and increased ad revenue. Add in the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which loosened up federal oversight on what could be broadcast, sold, and how it was received by audiences. Add in the subscription revenue by cable, and whala! A gold mine!
We now have entire generations of Americans who have grown up exclusively with FOX, (add in Breitbart, Newsmax and others) a network that perfected the development and usage of the false narrative that roughly half of America believes. In essence, they are not getting the same information as the rest of us. They simply don't know that DJT has publicly praised Adolf Hitler. And if they hear it from someone else, well "that's fake news." That's how I think we got here. I'm convinced that If FOX didn't exist, DJT would be in prison. And until we figure out how to squash the real perpetrators of fake news, which the now-transformed party we used to call Republicans conveniently uses as their echo chamber, America will teeter on this abyss.
Spot on Barry. Thank you. My Dad, also, served in WWII. He went to Japan to fight THAT monster. But he knew plenty of guys who went the other direction to fight Hitler. That last words I heard my Dad say two days before he died: It was March in 2017. Trump had only been in office less than two months. Trump came on the television, my Dad looked at it in disgust, and uttered, "What a XXX jerk!"