Your Post-Election Reading

The First Nazi: Erich Ludendorff, The Man Who Made Hitler Possible

My schedule changed yesterday and I found myself with hours available to read.

In a turn of bitter irony, the New York Public Library dropped that requested book on me on Election Day.

I’m halfway through it.

And it has scared the shit out of me.

World War I is not something I’ve read much about.

I knew it was a charnel house for a generation. But I had no real idea. World War II I knew much about.

Ludendorff paved the way for Hitler.

Ludendorff ruined the world well before Hitler ever assumed power.

Ludendorff made possible the overthrow of the democratic revolution in Russia and its conversion into a Communist police state. He sent an exiled Lenin — along with a one-hundred million dollar slush fund — to Russia to infect it. And he succeeded!

Ludendorff had zero introspection. He had no friends. It is doubtful that he even had any scintilla of a conscience.

Faced with a two-front war that everyone but him knew Germany could never win, he didn’t just double-down, he bet the house. Back home, in the country he longed to glorify, the citizenry were reduced to eating horses that died in the street, stray cats, trapped rats, and dogs that wandered off from their homes. Stop and think about that a moment. Germans came to the point where they never questioned the meat they were able to put on their plates!

And despite the abysmal suffering at home, he made sure his troops got food — what little there was, for even they were half-starved!

And despite all the suffering, the German people still supported and cheered him!

Because he lied to them. Over and over and over. He inflated death tolls of the enemy. He decreased the death count of his own men. Victory was always at hand.

There were times when the endless massacre could have ended. Ludendorff refused all chances for peace. It was victory or nothing!

His screwball plans were never at fault (inveigle Mexico to go to war with America, was one!). He was never at fault. Someone else was. Others were. Jews. Catholics. Masons. Anyone but Ludendorff himself.

Kaiser Wilhelm was reduced to a figurehead. Ludendorff skillfully manipulated himself into such a position of power — and was so popular with the German people — that he could do anything he wanted. He had carte blanche in a way Hitler would later.

Ludendorff was crackers in a way that Donald Trump — now elected President of the United States — is crackers.

A megalomaniac so convinced of his own competence who can never be convinced of a different course of action other than his own.

Reality must bend to his will, not his will to reality.

And if you don’t think that’s also President-elect Donald Trump, here’s your reality check from the man himself:

Does that sound like anyone who is open to changing his course?

Don’t be fooled by the tone of Trump’s victory speech. That’s his euphoria speaking, not what passes for his heart.

When he begins in office to actually Do Things and they don’t work out — because they can never work out! — he will look for Others to blame.

Just as Ludendorff did.

Just as Hitler did.

Seriously, do you thunk either Ludendorff or Hitler saw themselves as evil?

Hell no!

To them, everyone else was!

We are in for some serious shit.

Because this isn’t just about Trump.

Trump is not Hitler.

Trump is Ludendorff.

He has shown the upcoming American Hitler the way to get into the highest office of the land.

Just as World War I changed the idea of warfare forever, Trump has changed the way American politics will work forever.

This book is your wake-up call. Ludendorff was not a figure open to historical study until now. A hidden portion of history has finally been brought to light. One man — one solitary man — changed the world for the worst well before Hitler ever appeared.

If you want to know what’s ahead for America, this is the book to read now.