Time dragged on, and still Hitler was not in power, but he continued to campaign. In left-oriented Essen--in front of fifty thousand on October 30, 1932--he said his aim was to unify the 'body politic' (volkskorper), overcome all social divisions, and create the racially based "community of the people." He had to succeed because "Germany had to be German or it will be Bolshevik." The goal was to create a new and unified Reich. One half of the nation could not rule the other nor terrorize it into submission. The entire "community" had to be in agreement: "One can not construct from the top down, nor from the top down falsely invent a constitution, but it has to grow naturally out of the community." His aim was to attract "the broad masses, that are difficult to conquer because they are thickheaded and stubborn." Yet "in times of need they are the basis on which one could build".
This came from a book called Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler and in it Hitler expresses the same desire we often hear in American politics about the need to unify the body politic. It seems to be ideal to be in the middle where there is no discord at all. This was beneficial to authoritarians who could define what idea people can be united in and make those who don't agree seem like enemies of the solidarity and unity of the body politic. One has to wonder why we hear such similar language about "healing", "uniting", or "rise above politics" in our own political debate. We have to wonder who and why this is being introduced into our political thinking.
Obama: "The one thing we have learned from this great tragedy is we have come together"
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