Godwin’s Law having been suspended for the duration, I feel no compunction in pointing out that Herr Gropingfury, who reportedly kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, is using one of the classic Nazi tools of terror: Sippenhaft— arrest or apprehension of kin.
Sippenhaft was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to arrest and sometimes execution. Many people who had committed no crimes were arrested and punished under Sippenhaft laws introduced after the failed 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. Military Wiki
Robert Loeffel argues that the Nazis did not use Sippenhaft very efficiently, and in fact there few recorded instances of its use. But it was used in 1933-34 against some political enemies, and the implication that it could be applied was enough to keep the population in line. (Warning: the link is to a 250-page academic paper.) More to the point, knowing that it has been used makes it easier to use again.
Even a man courageous enough to risk that fate [imprisonment] had to weigh his family’s circumstances against his own courageous conscience. Even dismissal without the possibility of finding another job meant ruin for his wife and family as well as for himself. Mere demotion could prevent the children obtaining a proper education. (Page 5, quoting Peter Phillips, a historian of the Nazi era)
As Trump is doing. Most recently and most egregiously, Trump threatened Michael Cohen that he might go after his father-in-law if Cohen testifies to Congress:
Kevin Corke, @FoxNews “Don’t forget, Michael Cohen has already been convicted of perjury and fraud, and as recently as this week, the Wall Street Journal has suggested that he may have stolen tens of thousands of dollars....” Lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!
Sippenhaft.
Democrats immediately and correctly jumped on this as witness intimidation (a felony), and it’s being compared to mob intimidation (paywall). But I suggest this is also part of Trump’s Nazi persona acting out.
Trump does the same thing with the children of asylum seekers, and does it with the intent of using children to dissuade their parents from coming to the US:
Separating families was not a rare and unintended consequence of a policy but part of the point of it. Not long after Trump took office, senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security began saying that the administration was considering separating children from their parents as a deterrent to illegal immigration. www.theatlantic.com/...
Sippenhaft.
Trump is now holding 800,000 US government workers AND their families hostage until the Democrats give in to his demand for money for a useless wall.
Sippenhaft in the second degree.
Trump has a lot of venal reasons, and even more stupid reasons, for doing the things he does. But I see here a definite pattern of imitating the Nazis in these actions.