60 Years Later

August 13th will be the 60th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. To commemorate this there are a number of programs and films currently bring run on German TV reflecting on the history of the 20th century in Germany in general and the rise and fall of the Wall more specifically. One of the most powerful comments was from a West German born in 1944 who made the decision as a 16 year old to emigrate to East Germany to help fulfill the Socialst ideal. He became disenchanted but after the construction of the Wall and so was trapped in a One-Party state. His dislusionment eventually led to his imprisonment for political dissent. He recalled how he was brutally beaten and his crying out to his tormentors, "but you are Socialists, not Nazis!" The moral of the story is that brutality and repression are not specific to the left or right, but rather is much more a question of which political group is in power under a One-Party state. Regardless of the political affliation any and all opposition must be repressed in order to preserve the party in power. The less legitimate the ideals of the powers that be- the more violent the repression of the "other". The Trump Republicans want a One-Party state predicated on inequality in terms of race, gender, religion and economics (taxes/regulation). They will employ the brutality common to all police states to protect their position. I can only hope they are unsuccessful in their current attempt to overthrow our democracy.