Perhaps it is another example of what can happen to someone who has been disabled for too long but I do a lot of things to stave off boredom. One of these things is to reread a lot of good books. Therefore, I have a habit of rereading William Shirer's classic, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, once a year or so. Don't worry about this becoming a comparison between Bush and Hitler. I haven't even reached the part of the book where Hitler takes office. I've been reading about the Weimar Republic and it looks awfully familiar to me.

People have been known to state that Hitler was inevitable. When the unpopular Weimar Republic was faced with a world wide depression, some dictator had to rise and take power. Serious historians never buy into inevitability arguments but I wonder if there isn't something to be found here.

Just as in Washington today, Berlin was run by a peculiar type of politician. These politicians hated the Republic that they served and sought to either twist it or overthrow it. Organized violence was used by former military officers to counter the liberal government that the people wanted. After the liberals were cowed by violence, that majority of politicians who wanted to make the government work never dared cross the conservatives again. Therefore, the conservatives ran the Weimar Republic no matter what the political breakdown in the Reichstag suggested.

Our government in Washington did not result from an army that fought in the streets to chase off a liberal Congress. On the other hand, conservative institutions including certain churches and the organized gun lobby threw money at Congress until it reflected their views. Those who claimed to hate government were chosen to participate in it by voters who were overwhelmed with disinformation.

Both today's Washington and the Weimar Republic ignored debt and its economic impact. In Germany, a massive amount of new currency was printed to pay on these debts. The common people saw their savings become worthless literally overnight. No business could take place when no one knew what the money they had would be worth tomorrow so all sorts of essentials were hoarded and those common people suffered. This avoided taxing the conservatives who would have overthrown the regime. At the same time, it made it almost certain that the regime would fail eventually as those common people lost faith in it. Therefore, the only people with a stake in the Republic's success were turned against it.

The United States has not turned to massive inflation to keep conservatives happy. Washington has what appears to be an unlimited power to borrow and spend. This keeps the conservative backers of this government happy with artificially low taxes and high subsidies. The common people suffer through poor health care and disappearing jobs. Just as seriously, government is not there to take care of the various crises that take place. Since government exists for the rich to get richer, incompetence becomes institutionalized. Thousands died and suffered when Hurricane Katrina hit because the government did not do its supposed job. Those suffering poor and middle class people lost a lot of faith in government.

Do I believe that Bush can be compared to Hitler effectively? No. Bush has caused hundreds of thousands to suffer but Hitler killed millions by direct action. On the other hand, Hitler told everyone what his plans were while Bush pretended to be compassionate. Bush and Hitler have too little in common for a fair comparison.

My fear is that there is a chance of an American Hitler rising eventually. Washington's ability to borrow is not infinite. If we do not restore sane taxation and find a peace dividend of a sort soon, that debt will be devastating. Our household debt is already a massive problem but those human costs could take place on a governmental scale.

If a hurricane that hit hundreds of miles away could shake this writer's faith in our system, imagine what an almost total lack of government could do. We could end up with a dictator who would make Bush's assault on liberty seem pleasant.

For now, it seems that a Democratic Congress with a Democratic President could still fix matters. President Clinton's policies left us with a surplus to be squandered. Unfortunately, Bush and his fellow thieves are inflicting even greater damage than Reagan or Bush's father. It won't be easy to fix and that pain could make people resent government even more.

We need to stop government kleptomania at our very next opportunity. We need a Democratic Congress to investigate the problem and see how it can be fixed. We need a Democratic President to lead the repair efforts. We need a Democratic people to enforce these efforts, to back them and to prevent this from ever happening again.