I don’t usually engage in comparing modern politics to those of Nazi Germany. There is a principal called “Godwin’s Law” that hold that any on-line discussion about politics–if allowed to go on long enough–will lead to a reference or comparison to Naziism. One need only refer to the comment section below any article about the Trump Presidency on news sites or the Twitter responses to any post by Donald Trump to see “Godwin’s Law” in full effect.
But sometimes something happens that actually does deserve comparison to what happened in Nazi Germany–and one of those took place yesterday as the President called his former Chief Advisor Steve Bannon “insane” for comments he made about Trump in a book about to be published. My mind immediately flashed to the infamous Rudolph Hess incident during World War II.
For those unfamiliar, Hess was one of Hitler’s earliest supporters–helping him to write Mein Kampf while both were imprisoned for attempting to overthrow the government in the 1920’s. Hess was key in the formation of the Nazi Party, helped Hitler to manipulate the German political process to gain a foothold in Government, to increase Nazi influence and eventually to seize complete control over the country. For his loyalty, Hess was eventually named Deputy Fuhrer–making him the second-most-powerful man in the party.
But early in World War II, Hess had a falling out with Hitler and was left out of battle planning. Believing that Germany was on the path to defeat and destruction–especially if it invaded the Soviet Union–Hess flew his own Luftwaffe plane to Scotland hoping to meet with an obscure member of the Royal Family to negotiate peace with Britain. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war for several years–much to embarrassment of Hitler.
In fact, the Fuhrer wanted to discredit Hess by releasing a statement that the man was insane and should have been committed to a mental institution. However, Hitler was talked out of that by his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels–who pointed out that the German people would wonder why a crazy man would have been allowed to hold the second-most-powerful position in the Nazi party in the first place.
Obviously, Steve Bannon telling tales out of school about his former political puppet isn’t as bizarre as the second in command crash landing in a foreign country while on a clandestine, unauthorized peace mission–but sometimes history does repeat itself in slightly different ways. Oh, and in both cases–the guys were likely insane.
