Martin Niemöller Updated for the Reich of Donald Trump

Martin Niemöller  Updated for the Reich of Donald Trump

By

David Gottfried

Niemoller, in ruing the scourge of Fascism and Adolf Hitler, said, in lines that should reverberate today: 

”First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

Updated for Trump

First, they came for Latin immigrants, and they separated 5-year-old children from their parents, and I did not speak out because I was not a Latino immigrant.

Then they came for all immigrants, and I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant.

Then they came for women, and I did not speak out because I was not a woman

Then they came for critics in the media, and the very notion of a free and independent press, and I did not speak out because I was not in any way connected to the media

And then they came for homosexuals, and I did not speak out because I was not a homosexual

And then they came for people injured by toxic chemicals, and I did not speak out because I had not been injured by toxic chemicals  (Trump constricted the rights of workers to obtain relief if their employers used toxic chemicals on the job)

And then they came for workers entitled to overtime pay (Trump’s new Labor Department regulations reduced, by approximately 1.5 million, the number of workers entitled to overtime pay)

And then they came for Ukrainians, and I did not speak out --- after all,  Mr. Trump said that he would help Ukraine if it spread dirt about Hunter Biden,

And then they came for the most seminal and splendid rights enshrined in American jurisprudence, including the right to vote (The Supreme Court effectively dismembered the 1965 voting rights act), the tenet that no man is above the law, and the right to sue the President if he obliterates our rights (The Court’s July 1, 2024 decision grossly expanded presidential immunity by, among other things, deliberately misinterpreting Fitzgerald v. Nixon and numerous provisions in the U.S. Constitution), but I did not care because I was on obtuse, obese, obstreperous fat fuck like Trump who was too  busy eating big macs and watching Fox News, and too busy drifting off into a diabetic  coma, to care about anything of substance    

And Trump said that he could shoot people on 5th Avenue, at random, and still be loved by his supporters, but  I did not expect to be on 5th Avenue when Trump had one of his many award-winning psychotic breaks with reality in which he becomes, essentially, a diabolical diva trapped in a fat man’s body. 

And then Trump publicly praised our veterans, while privately calling them suckers and fools, while thousands of overfed, overpaid, bellicose, belligerent thugs gather at the Republican convention to deify Trump and ready the nation for jihad against truth and goodness.     

And then they came for me, but there was no one left to speak for me.