National Socialism--could it happen again

A Chinese-American friend was visibly upset by the election of Barack Obama. Thinking perhaps she was remembering her youth in China when Mao came to power and so many capitalists had to flee (my college roommate’s family went to Brazil), we discovered she was going back further than that, to the free and democratic election by the German people of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, the subsequent suppression of the already weakened church, and the collapse of capitalism. And to that perfect storm, I would add race-based myths-- only this time around it’s the idea that by being of African descent Obama is superior, almost messianic in his appeal not only at home but abroad. Only he can expiate the sins of a history of slavery and Jim Crow. Clicking briefly through the news programs since Tuesday, the adulation by the native and foreign press and capitulation even by Republicans have been revolting. Dancing in the streets in Indonesia because he has brown skin? Have they never had a brown skinned despot in Asia? The government will now take care of all your deepest needs ideology? Haven’t we heard this all before? I almost can’t believe my ears and eyes. The spiritualized political language and its mesmerizing affect is breathtaking in its reminder of both the past and its precursor of what’s to come.