“History doesn’t always repeat itself but it often rhymes,” said Mark Twain. As I write this in mid-July, it looks like there will be a change. For better or worse, I’m not sure.
A wonderful thing about a firmly-established republic or republican-democracy government form is that leaders can legally be replaced peacefully with ballots instead of bullets.
Our U.S, Constitution spells out the length of a politician’s term: Two years for a representative, four for a president with an option to renew, and six for a senator. Add to or subtract from that term limits established by some states.
Other countries have their own systems. In Canada and England, prime ministers are elected for a 5-year terms but if things are going well, he or she can call for an election before the end of the five years. Even so, sooner or later, they get the proverbial sheet cake and are replaced.
Greece and Italy constantly hold elections because their leader never has a solid majority and must create a coalition government of several parties. It works out for a short time, then they squabble.
Think of it in terms of sports teams that constantly fire managers and coaches and replace them with someone new. With it comes the eternal hope that this time things will be better.
When ballots are used instead of bullets, the world rarely waits in fear and apprehension. We just shrug, hope we can pronounce the name of the new office holder and that he or she will be a good one.
Winston Churchill once said politics is messy and democracy is its messiest form, but it gives people the best chance to live in freedom and peace.
Turnover in autocracies rarely ends well. Tyranny begets more tyranny and bloodshed. Two examples from the last century, Russia and Germany, illustrate this cycle.
The Romanovs, czars of Russia since the 1600s, became increasingly abusive, repressive and out of touch with the lives of their subjects. Joining them in this abuse was the Russian Orthodox Church.
Not surprisingly, there were assassination attempts on the czars and bishops, some of which succeeded, followed by even more repression. Then in 1914, Russia was caught up in World War I.
Their first engagement with the Germans, at the Battle of Tannenberg, was a fiasco for the Russians. Almost half a million soldiers were killed or captured, and the rest hastily retreated. The defeat was demoralizing for the civilians, made the more so by inflation, conscription and shortages.
The situation was ripe for Lenin to lead the Communist Revolution. In 1917, the Romanovs were arrested, exiled and executed. Lenin became the new leader. Sort of.
Lenin faced many opposition groups and armies, and Trotsky was put in charge of the Red Army to deal with them. Soon Trotsky became dangerous because he had power and knew too much.
When Lenin died in 1924, perhaps pushed along by Stalin, Stalin knew he had to get of his rival Trotsky. At first, he was exiled to Siberia, then his citizenship was revoked and he fled the country.
Though exiled, Trotsky stayed in touch with the Russian officer corps. Stalin perceived them as a danger and began executing officers and enlisted people. The result were the purges and show trials of the 1930s.
As for Trotsky, Stalin sent his thugs who whacked him with ice picks in Mexico — the better to warn people that he had power well beyond Russia. Soon Stalin feared the judges and executioners, so he liquidated them. The pattern continued until Stalin died following a stroke.
After chaos and confusion, Khrushchev gained absolute power and, to better cover his tracks, he ordered the execution of Beria and other high-ranking officials from Stalin’s government. Others were given a one-way rail, unheated boxcar class, ticket to Siberia.
Although Germany’s Hitler was legally elected to office, he relied heavily on two different groups to keep him in power.
On one side was the giant military-industrial-banker complex. Opposite them were his street thugs, the SA, better known as the Brownshirts, led by Ernst Rohm.
These brawlers took sadistic delight in hurting others, especially Jews, socialists, LBGTQ people and foreigners. The more the Nazis trampled the rights of “outsiders,” the more popular they became.
By the early summer of 1934 the Brownshirts were so successful, Hitler saw them as a threat. He changed on June 30 to July 2 in what became known as the “Night of the Long Knives.” Several hundred Brownshirts were murdered by the SS and others. Then, within 35 days, Germany transformed from a republic into a dictatorship.
We know the ultimate results of the policies of these two tyrants, as well as their own ends. It all happened because of anger, jealousy and greed. We can learn from them.
First, every successful tyrant has to have an obedient group of followers willing to make him their demigod. They must be united in their belief that their political hero is wise, never makes a mistake, and must always be obeyed because he is the smartest man in the world.
When Stalin addressed the Supreme Soviet, his loyalists applauded until he gave permission to stop. Anyone who did not last the 10 or more minutes was soon picked up in the middle of the night by men in black coats and were on their way to a gulag.
Second lesson for wanna-be dictators is there must always be one sneaky, no-good enemy trying to destroy him and his subjects. Stalin had Trotsky and other high-ranking officials; Hitler had Stalin, could point to Russians as dangerous communists, then claim he alone could stop them.
Number three, tyrants never run out of potential enemies. The Bavarian corporal understood that. He went after the LBGTQ communities, the mentally ill, the severely handicapped, trade unionists, Lutherans, Catholics and Jews. Once his army crossed into Eastern Europe, he turned the worst of his thugs on the Slavs. They followed orders and rounded them up for either deportation or execution.
As Twain pointed out, history doesn’t always perfectly repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Our democracy will always going to be messy and fragile, but we must always stand up to tyrants at home or abroad who seek to destroy it and our freedoms.
