RE: [Marxism] Michael Moore, Wesley Clark and Jose Perez

[Jon Flanders <jonathan.flanders@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Noted German historian Oscar Meyer was rummaging through a dusty box of
archives in the former East Berlin recently. He found a tattered book
entitled "Mann, wo ist mein Vaterland?" by Michael Mohr lying in the
back of one box of papers, which had been severely singed by the
saturation bombing of the area around the building. Out of the book
dropped a letter entitled "Ich Werde Für Hindenberg/gut vorbei Hitler!"
Meyer was intrigued by the title, which referred to the 1932 election in
which many Germans sought to stop the onrushing Nazi tide by voting for
the old General Paul von Hindenberg one more time. Part of the letter
was burned, and could not be read, but this portion Meyer was able to
translate.

Jon Flanders


I'll Be Voting For Paul von Hindenberg/Good-Bye Mr. Hitler

by Michael Mohr

January 14, 1932
Feuerstein, Germany

I have decided to cast my vote in the election for Paul von Hindenberg.
That's right, a peacenik is voting for a general. What a fatherland!

I have met Hindenberg and spoken to him on a number of occasions,
feeling him out on the issues but, more importantly, getting a sense of
him as a human being. And I have to tell you I have found him to be the
real deal, someone whom I'm convinced all of you would like, both as a
person and as the individual leading this country. He is an honest,
decent, honorable man who would be a breath of fresh air in Berlin. He
is clearly not a professional politician. And the reports of his
senility are overblown.

I believe that Hindenberg will end the growing danger from the Nazis. He
will make the rich pay their fair share of taxes. He will stand up for
the rights of women, Jews, and the working people of this country.

And he will cream Adolph Hitler.

This is not about voting for who is more for peace or who was for peace
first, or who the newspapers have already anointed. It is about backing
a candidate that shares our values AND can communicate them to Middle
Germany. I am convinced that the surest slam dunk to stop Adolph Hitler
is with a Prussian four-star-general graduate of the Wahlstatt and
Berlin cadet schools.

Hindenberg, hero of Germany's wars, veteran of the Franco-Prussian war,
victor in the World War  in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914) and the 1915
Battle of the Masurian Lakes against the Russian army, can save us from
Nazism!

You don't get handed a gift like this very often. I hope the
liberal/left is wise enough to accept it. It's hard, when you're so used
to losing, to think that this time you can actually win. It is
Hindenberg who stands the best chance -- maybe the only chance -- to win
those south German  states that we MUST win in order to stop Hitler in
his tracks. And if what I have just said is true, then we have no choice
but to get behind the one who can make this happen.

Why expend energy on the past when we have such grave danger facing us
in the present and in the near future? I don't feel bad nor do I care
that Hindenberg-- or anyone -- voted for monarchists,  Let's face it,
the vast majority of Germans voted for monarchists -- and I want every
single one of them to be WELCOMED into our tent this year. The message
to these voters -- and many of them are from the working class -- should
not be, "You voted for the Right? Well, to hell with you!" Every time
you attack Hindenberg for that, that is the message you are sending to
all the people who at one time liked the Right. If they have now changed
their minds is that not something to cheer?

In fact, having made that political journey and metamorphosis, is he not
the best candidate to bring millions of other former Nazis to our side
-- German workers who have now learned the hard way just how bad the
Rightists were (and are) for them?

We need to take that big DO NOT ENTER sign off our tent and reach out to
the vast majority who have been snookered by these Nazis. And we have a
better chance of winning in 1932 with one of their own leading them to
the promised land.

There are times to vote to make a statement, there are times to vote for
the underdog and there are times to vote to save the fatherland  from
catastrophe. This time we can and must do all three. I still believe
that each one of us must vote his or her heart and conscience. If we
fail to do that, we will continue to be stuck with spineless politicians
who stand for nothing and no one (except those Korporationen who write
them the biggest checks). But this time the danger of Hitler and his
Nazi thugs is too great.

Vote for General Hindenberg!

(end of text)

Meyer noted wryly that after winning the election Hindenberg appointed
Hitler Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Hitler used this position to
consolidate Nazi power and began his reign of terror against the
Communists, Socialists, trade unions and the Jews. Hindenberg died in
1934. The rest, as they say, is History.



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