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From: david@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion,net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: The Shame of the President
Message-ID: <611@fisher.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-May-85 15:28:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: fisher.611
Posted: Tue May  7 15:28:53 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 8-May-85 05:25:17 EDT
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Organization: Princeton University Department of Statistics
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Xref: watmath net.politics:8898 net.religion:6839 net.religion.jewish:1929

> > > At the risk of getting the JDL after me, let me say that you do
> > > yourself, and many others, a dishonor by implying that the majority
> > > of the German people condoned Hitler's actions by serving their
> > > country in time of war.... 
> > 
> > One ought to reflect upon Nazi strength in the last Reichstag before
> > one erroneously assumes that a majority of adult Germans did not
> > apporove of the Nazis' anti-Semitic program.
> > 
> > 					David Rubin
> 
> I take it, then, that the majority of US citizens approve of proxy war
> on Nicaragua because Reagan was elected President.  Remember, campers,
> no-one is elected on single issues.
> 
> jeff m

Reagan soft-pedalled and evaded discussion of his plans for Nicaragua,
and thus the last election cannot be intrepeted as a referendum on
that issue.  Nicaragua was, at most, a MARGINAL issue.  The Nazis, on
the other hand, made anti-Semitism a CENTRAL theme of all their
campaigns, and even the densest German voter could reasonably expect
that Nazi street violence against Jews would become official
government policy upon there rise to power.  For most Americans in
1984, a Republican ballot was cast DESPITE concern for POTENTIAL 
events in Central America; for most Germans in the early '30s, a Nazi
ballot was cast at least partially because of APPROVAL of ACTUAL Nazi
actions against Jews.

We can accurately state that the 1984 election result reflected
American approval of Reagan economic policy (the CENTRAL issue);
similarly, we can truthfully state that the Reichstag elections
reflected German approval of anti-Semitism and the destruction of the
Weimar Republic (CENTRAL issues then).  Americans ignored Nicaragua;
Germans of the '30s paid much attention, indeed, to the "Jewish
Question".

And remember campers, elections often DO swing on single issues, even
in the stablest of democracies.  The truism which holds otherwise is
comforting, but untrue.  And if it can be untrue in a country as diverse
as this one is, it is even less likely to hold for the more homogenous,
less tolerant, and less democratic electorates of interwar Europe.

					David Rubin
			{allegra|astrovax|princeton}!fisher!david