David Brat, the man who upset House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on Tuesday, published an essay in 2011 warning that Hitler’s rise “could all happen again, quite easily,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The 13-page essay, titled “God and Advanced Mammon — Can Theological Types Handle Usury and Capitalism?,” was published by “Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology.”
According to the Journal, one section of the essay discussed how if Christian people “had the guts to spread the word,” government would not need to “backstop every action we take.” Then it stated:
Capitalism is here to stay, and we need a church model that corresponds to that reality. Read Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the weak modern Christian democratic man was spot on. Jesus was a great man. Jesus said he was the Son of God. Jesus made things happen. Jesus had faith. Jesus actually made people better. Then came the Christians. What happened? What went wrong? We appear to be a bit passive. Hitler came along, and he did not meet with unified resistance. I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily. The church should rise up higher than Nietzsche could see and prove him wrong. We should love our neighbor so much that we actually believe in right and wrong, and do something about it. If we all did the right thing and had the guts to spread the word, we would not need the government to backstop every action we take.
Brat, who chairs the economics and business department at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, criticized both the “Right” and the “Left” in the essay:
It does not mean that the State alone uses violence, but it does mean that when push comes to shove, the State will win in a battle of wills. If you refuse to pay your taxes, you will lose. You will go to jail, and if you fight, you will lose. The government holds a monopoly on violence. Any law that we vote for is ultimately backed by the full force of our government and military. Do we trust institutions of the government to ensure justice? Is that what history teaches us about the State? Or do we live in particularly lucky and fortunate times where the State can be trusted to do minimal justice? The State’s budget is currently about $3 trillion a year. Do you trust that power to the political Right? Do you trust it to the Left? If you answered “no” to either question, you may have a major problem in the future.
“Warned” or “Wanted” – a typo? His Nietzchean rhetoric is precisely the (mis)reading that Nazism gave to the German philosopher: only the strong deserve to live; all others must be crushed. Nice guy.
Oh great, another right wing hysteric? Can’t wait to here his position on the rape issue.
Hey remember those halcyon days prior to January 2009 when making Hitler analogies would get you effectively kicked out of polite society, let alone national politics?
I miss Godwin’s Law. Oh well, I’m sure it will go back into immediate effect the next time we have a Republican in the White House.
First he implies that violence is not exclusive to the State. Then he says that the government holds a monopoly on violence. Is he contradicting himself or is he trying to say that the State, unlike individuals, may commit violence with impunity as part of maintaining order?
He’s not very coherent. And the Nietzsche stuff?? At least he has the WILL to be an obscurantist.
UGH a “Hitler Prophesier” - another freaking dipstick who frivolously tosses the idea of “Hitler” around just to make his points more dramatic.