America’s Reichstag Moment?

By Alan Singer 

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag, the German parliament building, was destroyed by arson. Without evidence, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party blamed Communists who he accused of a plot against “national renewal.” The resulting Reichstag Fire Decree abolished constitutional protections leading to the Nazi dictatorship, the European Holocaust, and World War II.

I deplore political violence as a threat to community and democracy. I fear the murder of Charles Kirk, a founder of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, in Utah, has the potential to become America’s Reichstag moment.

As of this morning, no suspect has been caught by police and no name has been released, but Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans without evidence already claim to know who to blame for Kirk’s murder, the “Radical Left.”

Click here for the full article.

Source: Daily Kos

Alan Singer is a historian and teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. His most recent books are Social Studies for Secondary Schools, 5th edition (Routledge, 2024) and Class-Conscious Coal Miners (SUNY Press, 2024). Blogs, tweets, essays, interviews, and e-blasts present his views and not those of Hofstra University.