The Precedent of History
We have been here before. In 1930s Germany, Adolf Hitler did not hide his intentions. He laid them out plainly in Mein Kampf and in countless speeches. Many who voted for him did so knowingly. After the war, some claimed ignorance or detachment from his crimes. But historians largely agree: the population was not wholly unaware, and many were not innocent. The rise of tyranny is always accompanied by a chorus of enablers—some active, some silent, but all part of the system that allo...
Voting Is a Moral Act
The same is true of segregation-era America, where citizens repeatedly voted for candidates who promised to uphold racist systems. Their votes were not neutral. They were acts of preservation—for injustice.
Democracy is not a shield from guilt. It is a mirror of collective values. When a society embraces a leader who promises destruction, that society cannot later disown the damage. To vote for a man who says, “I will do horrible things,” and then to act shocked when he does them, is the height of moral cowardice.
The ballot carries with it a burden. To vote is to take responsibility—not just for what a candidate says, but for what he does. The excuse of "I didn’t think he meant it" no longer holds. Not after history’s long, bloody record of men who told us exactly who they were—and were believed by the victims, if not by the voters.
