Politik

"It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed. The Members of the Board will be announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place."

"We (United Kingdom) won't be one of the signatories today because this is a legal treaty that raises much broader issues. And we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something that's talking about peace when we've still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be commitment to peace in Ukraine."

"Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada's joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time."

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations."

"The significance of Project 2025 is that it calls for what in the Nazi parlance is called Gleichschaltung, the systematic replacement of civil servants by loyalists — by party loyalists — and the systematic replacement of teachers in schools and universities and, in general, institutions throughout society by party loyalists. In the case of education, it’s completely implausible that Trump is ideologically distant from the goals of Project 2025. Trump has repeatedly said he’s going to target critical race theory, which, let’s face it, is simply Black history. The Project — he’s targeted — he said he’s going to replace education with patriotic education — namely, representing the United States as an exceptional grand nation whose exceptionality is due to its white Christian heterosexual men, who have defined the nation."

"I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

"Today the Left is threatening the tax-exempt status of churches and charities that reject woke progressivism. They will soon turn to Christian schools and clubs with the same totalitarian intent. The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

"History teaches that a President’s power to implement an agendais at its apex during the Administration’s opening days. To execute requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it. In recent election cycles, presidential candidates normally began transition planning in the late spring of election year or even after the party’s nomination was secured. That is too late. The federal government’s complexity and growth advance at a seemingly logarithmic rate every four years. For conservatives to have a fighting chance to take on the Administrative State and reform our federal government, the work must start now. The entirety of this effort is to support the next conservative President, whoever he or she may be."

"Project 2025 is a conservative coalition's plan for a future Republican U.S. presidential administration. If voters elect the party's presumed nominee, Donald Trump, in November 2024, the coalition hopes the new president will implement the plan immediately. … People across the political spectrum fear such actions are precursors to authoritarianism and have voiced concerns over the proposal's recommendations to reverse protections for LGBTQ+ people, limit abortion access, stop federal efforts to mitigate climate change — and more. The Heritage Foundation — a conservative think tank operated by many of Trump's current and former political allies — is leading the initiative. President Kevin Roberts once said the project's main goals are "institutionalizing Trumpism" and getting rid of unelected bureaucrats who he believes wield too much political influence."

"Forty-four years ago, the United States and the conservative movement were in dire straits. Both had been betrayed by the Washington establishment and were uncertain whom to trust. Both were internally splintered and strategically adrift. Worse still, at that moment of acute vulnerability and division, we found ourselves besieged by existential adversaries, foreign and domestic. The late 1970s were by any measure a historic low point for America and the political coalition dedicated to preserving its unique legacy of human flourishing and freedom. Today, America and the conservative movement are enduring an era of division and danger akin to the late 1970s. Now, as then, our political class has been discredited by wholesale dishonesty and corruption. Look at America under the ruling and cultural elite today: Inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries. Overseas, a totalitarian Communist dictatorship in Beijing is engaged in a strategic, cultural, and economic Cold War against America’s interests, values, and people—all while globalist elites in Washington awaken only slowly to that growing threat. Moreover, low-income communities are drowning in addiction and government dependence. Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening.” And now, as then, the Republican Party seems to have little understanding about what to do. Most alarming of all, the very moral foundations of our society are in peril."

"We want you! The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission. By opening this book, you are now a part of it. Indeed, one set of eyes reading these passages will be those of the 47th President of the United States, and we hope every other reader will join in making the incoming Administration a success."

"Ever since it became eminently clear that Donald Trump had MAGA-tized the Republican party and would become its presidential nominee in 2024, the image of a broad slab of highly polished black marble has been flashing through my mind. Trump’s name is carved into its surface on the upper left. Below in gilded letters appear the names of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mark Meadows, Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman — and all the other accomplices who either rallied to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 or officially excused it. … One whole column lists the policy wonks at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, who are charting the MAGA Gleichschaltung of the federal government. Ah, here are Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and maybe a couple of others. I could go on. At the top of this black marble wall, large glowing letters read: “GRAVEDIGGERS OF DEMOCRACY.”"

"Gleichschaltung: the act, process, or policy of achieving rigid and total coordination and uniformity (as in politics, culture, communication) by forcibly repressing or eliminating independence and freedom of thought, action, or expression : forced reduction to a common level : forced standardization or assimilation"

"Putin’s control of the media is becoming more and more comprehensive. What is left over, that ownership does not ensure, self-censorship increasingly neuters. The Gleichschaltung of parliament and political parties is, if anything, even more impressive. The presidential party, United Russia, and its assorted allies, with no more specific programme than unconditional support for Putin, command some 70 per cent of the seats in the Duma, enough to rewrite the constitution if that were required. But a one-party state is not in the offing. On the contrary, mindful of the rules of any self-respecting democracy, the Kremlin’s political technicians are now putting together an opposition party designed to clear the bedraggled remnants of Communism — liberalism has already been expunged — from the political scene, and provide a decorative pendant to the governing party in the next parliament."

"Are we, under Trump, at the beginnings of an American-style Gleichschaltung? There are certainly some echoes of those times. For the past month, Trump has fired off a ceaseless barrage of executive orders that either violate or at least challenge established law and the Constitution. Like der Führer, Trump undertook sweeping moves to dump government employees who might stand in his way. Trump is also firing salvos at the arts world. During the Third Reich, Hitler’s regime banished artworks deemed "degenerate" from German museums. After Trump purged the leadership of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he selected himself as chairman and vowed that "woke" performances would not be permitted there. Trump’s insistence that he is above the law is also classic authoritarianism, as is his portrayal of himself as America’s Messiah."

"As the U.S. lurches toward authoritarian rule, we are facing a drive to control all education, whipping educators into line to march in lockstep with the MAGA agenda, imitating the German Nazis’ Gleichschaltung of the schools. U.S. universities are under attack like never before."

"You have a media environment in which Trump is very cleverly not at all like a charlatan — behaving exactly like any fascist would, claiming the other side is the democratic threat and being extremely open about his intentions. He’s going to replace everyone in the government-by-loyalists. He’s going to target the universities, the schools. This process is called gleichschaltung in the literature on Nazi Germany, where every organization, every government institution turns loyalist-like and is transformed. Their employees are replaced by people loyal to the leader and loyal to the party. And Trump has already announced he’s going to do this. So he’s already announced a full fascist plan."

"Gleichschaltung is the German term applied to the Nazification of German society following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Once Hitler became chancellor, he and the Nazi Party sought to "coordinate" all political, social, and cultural institutions with the Nazi state. This "coordination" was done in the name of national unity. However, it allowed the Nazi Party to extend its power by creating a single party state. Everything was subject to coordination: local government, professional organizations, social clubs, leisure activities — even those for children."

"We have come to perceive Hitler’s appointment as chancellor as part of an inexorable rise to power, an impression resting on generations of postwar scholarship, much of which has necessarily marginalized or disregarded alternatives to the standard narrative of the Nazi seizure of power (Machtergreifung) with its political and social persecutions, its assertion of totalitarian rule (Gleichschaltung) and subsequent aggressions that led to the Second World War and the nightmare of the Holocaust. … Both Hitler’s ascendancy to chancellor and his smashing of the constitutional guardrails once he got there, I have come to realize, are stories of political contingency rather than historical inevitability."

"Gleichschaltung is a German term meaning "coordination" or "bringing into line." Another name for it is "Nazification." And, in many respects, it was as easy as "flipping a switch." With only seven laws passed (in twenty sessions) by the Reichstag (which further eliminated barriers to Hitler’s control) and 986 laws enacted unilaterally by Hitler’s government, this cultural consolidation proved to be surprisingly easy."

"Ever since it became eminently clear that Donald Trump had MAGA-tized the Republican party and would become its presidential nominee in 2024, the image of a broad slab of highly polished black marble has been flashing through my mind. Trump’s name is carved into its surface on the upper left. Below in gilded letters appear the names of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Mark Meadows, Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman — and all the other accomplices who either rallied to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 or officially excused it. … One whole column lists the policy wonks at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, who are charting the MAGA Gleichschaltung of the federal government. Ah, here are Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and maybe a couple of others. I could go on. At the top of this black marble wall, large glowing letters read: "GRAVEDIGGERS OF DEMOCRACY.""

"On 31 March 1933, the "First Gleichschaltung Law" dissolved Germany's state parliaments (except Prussia). New state governments were put in place with the same powers as the Reich government. On 7 April, the "Second Gleichschaltung Law" put a Reich Governor in nearly complete control of each state, apart from Prussia. The governors answered to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick. Hitler reserved control of Prussia to himself through Hermann Göring."

"Another totalitarian temptation is the rapid and systematic elimination of opponents within power structures and the replacement of neutral or critical voices with loyal figures. This purge of opponents, often carried out very quickly and ruthlessly, is what we call equalisation, "Gleichschaltung" in German. The control compulsion that Trump is displaying in the Republican party is a typical example of such a power grab, completely transforming the party into an instrument of his personal power."

""Gleichschaltung" is usually translated, somewhat inadequately, as "coordination" or "unification." It is difficult to find a satisfactory English equivalent — possibly because the enforced uniformity which the German term describes does not commend itself to the English-speaking peoples. The French, with their genius for definition, have done better; they have translated the verb form, "gleichschalten," as "mettre au pas" — to bring into step. This phrase suggests an almost mechanical kind of conformity, as under military command; and no other human community so well represents a perfectly unified and coordinated whole — in precisely the sense of this German word — as a well-trained company of soldiers whose every movement is completely synchronized. If, therefore, following the French, one interprets "Gleichschaltung" as the application, mentally and morally as well as physically, of the principle of the goose-step, one gets a fair representation of what the word means to the Germans."

"The significance of Project 2025 is that it calls for what in the Nazi parlance is called Gleichschaltung, the systematic replacement of civil servants by loyalists — by party loyalists — and the systematic replacement of teachers in schools and universities and, in general, institutions throughout society by party loyalists. In the case of education, it’s completely implausible that Trump is ideologically distant from the goals of Project 2025. Trump has repeatedly said he’s going to target critical race theory, which, let’s face it, is simply Black history. The Project — he’s targeted — he said he’s going to replace education with patriotic education — namely, representing the United States as an exceptional grand nation whose exceptionality is due to its white Christian heterosexual men, who have defined the nation."

"“Once a group is banned as extremist in Russia, the impact is far-reaching,” [rights organization] Department One says. “Its activities are outlawed entirely; [and] any involvement in or facilitation of its work becomes a criminal offense, as does organizing or participating in public events on its behalf.” Moreover, “anyone linked to an extremist group is barred from running for office at any level.”"

"…some in the Duma want to confiscate the property of [those deemed "foreign agents" by the Russian Federation], effectively reducing them to a status no different from the enemies of the people in Soviet [Union] times."

"Westward the course of empire takes its way; The first four acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time’s noblest offspring is the last."

"The West is a series of institutions and values. The West is not a geographical place. Russia is European, but not Western. Japan is Western, but not European. ‘Western’ means rule of law, democracy, private property, open markets, respect for the individual, diversity, pluralism of opinion, and all the other freedoms that we enjoy, which we sometimes take for granted. We sometimes forget where they came from. But that’s what the West is."

"They started wearing gay badges on their lapels. They wanted money because they were on strike; we wanted recognition and acceptance – not that we went with any preconditions, we did not expect anything back."

"It would be dishonest to say there was no dissent. Years later, we found out there had been a meeting following my letter explaining a bunch of queers wanted to support them. It had led to a very heated discussion. But the consensus was: we have been demonised by the press, maybe we should meet the gay people because they've also been demonised. Those who had a problem with it were told to stay away. So we never encountered any hostility."

"I’ve mentioned Lesbians and Gays in every meeting for the last six months. That the support the Gays and Lesbians have given the miners led the miners to support the Gays and Lesbians… At the [1984 Labour Party] conference the NUM not only spoke about the mining industry and also on reselection, but they also spoke on women’s sections, Black sections and support of the Gays and Lesbians. Now that really is a very significant gain, that a union by the nature of its work has been all male… came out for the Gays and Lesbians."

"She said she’d learned a lot from contact with lesbians and gays, that we can’t do without the miners any more than they can do without us and if any child of hers says it’s gay she will understand. However depressed you might be about the outcome of the strike hers is not the voice of defeat. People are still changing and able to see a better future"

"The Women’s Support Groups of South Wales have not forgotten the solidarity, and the moral and financial support that the Lesbian and Gay Communities gave to our families during the Miners’ Strike of 1984/85… We will do all we can in our area to publicise and campaign against the implications of the Bill especially Clause 28."

"You have worn our badge ‘Coal Not Dole’ and you know what harassment means, as we do. Now we will pin your badge on us, we will support you. It won’t change overnight, but now 140,000 miners know that there are other causes and other problems. We know about Blacks, and gays, and nuclear disarmament. And we will never be the same again."

"The importance of LGSM is simply that we support the miners openly as lesbians and gay men."

"The forecasting methods used in three different contexts are described:"

",,, many persons with criminal records, some of whom had been convicted of election frauds, were again and again appointed as precinct election officials. ... Ballot thieves are recruited from the ranks of the pickpockets, card sharks, confidence-game men, and gambling-house operators. These persons have defied the law in other matters and know the sleight-of-hand tricks that are needed to put over ballot-box stuffing, alteration of tally sheets, and ballot erasures."

"Political bosses and their “machine organizations” operating in large American cities at the turn of the century enjoyed strong support among the poor and immigrants, who returned the favor by voting for the bosses’ preferred candidates. Many immigrants saw bosses and political machines as a means to greater enfranchisement. For immigrants and the poor in many large U.S. cities, the political boss represented a source of patronage jobs. To urban reformers of the early 20th century, the bosses and their organizations personified political corruption. For example, a notable political machine at the turn of the century was the machine of . It was built and led by two brothers, who controlled Kansas City politics for nearly 40 years. It was also famous because an early beneficiaty of the Pendergast machine was Harry S. Truman, who eventually became the nation’s 33rd President."

"Tweed's power could have been destroyed by an honest Republican machine. But one did not exist. What passed for the New York County Republican Committee was owned, lock, stock, and barrel, by Tweed, who had fifty-nine Republican leaders on his payroll. The Grand Old Party!"

"The questions raised during Japan's difficulties through the 1990s have forced a rethinking of Japan's recent history, and an intense debate about its future course. ... ... The starting premise is that the Japanese system was never so superhuman nor so mysterious as it had appeared. It was a smoothly run machine, all right. But it was a political machine—much like New York City's or Huey Long's apparatus in Louisiana, one that would be quite familiar to students of American history. Japan's machine did, in some respects, manage economic policy with remarkable consensus and efficiency. Yet the costs for holding the system together were huge, in the form of blatant favoritism, monumental amounts of pork, and gold-plated corruption. In many ways, Japan Inc. was a gaudy, inefficient mess."

"Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly riding o’er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm; Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind’s sway, That, hush’d in grim repose, expects his evening prey."

"Sail on, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope; What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were forged the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock— 'Tis of the wave, and not the rock; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock, and tempest roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, are all with thee!"

"W. J. Oates & Eugene O'Neill Jr., eds. The Complete Greek Drama, Vol. 2 (New York: Random House 1938), p. 610"

"Forever occupied and diverted by its factions and its politicians, in their local intrigues for the acquisition of political power, the Ship of State sailed proudly on, too blinded by her preoccupation and too reliant in her strength to bestow a thought upon the perils of the sea. She sighted afar the foam of the maelstrom, and tossed her haughty pennants in sovereign disdain of its power. But its current was around her, and she glided unconsciously to her doom. In vain the exercise of her giant strength; in vain that her factions, in happy forgetfulness of their petty antipathies, united their powers to save! Too late! She was hurled, helpless and struggling, to ruin and annihilation; and as she sank, engulfed, she carried with her the prestige of a race; for in America the representatives of the one race of man, which, in its relation to the family of men, had borne upon its crest the emblem of sovereign power since the dawn of history, saw now the ancestral diadem plucked from its proud repose, to shed its lustre upon an alien crown. Thus passed away the glory of the Union of States, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century."

"XANTHIAS: [...] But what was your dream? Let me hear.SOSIAS: Oh! it is a dream of high import. It has reference to the hull of the State; to nothing less.XANTHIAS: Tell it to me quickly; show me its very keel.SOSIAS: In my first slumber I thought I saw sheep, wearing cloaks and carrying staves, met in assembly on the ; a rapacious whale was haranguing them and screaming like a pig that is being grilled.XANTHIAS: Faugh! faugh!SOSIAS: What's the matter?XANTHIAS: Enough, enough, spare me. Your dream stinks vilely of old leather.SOSIAS: Then this scoundrelly whale seized a balance and set to weighing ox-fat.XANTHIAS: Alas! it's our poor Athenian people, whom this accursed beast wishes to cut up and despoil of their fat."

"SOCRATES to ADEIMANTUS: Conceive the captain of a ship, taller by a head and shoulders than any of the crew, yet a little deaf, a little blind, and rather ignorant of the seaman’s art. The sailors want to steer, although they know nothing of the art; and they have a theory that it cannot be learned. If the helm is refused them, they drug the captain’s posset, bind him hand and foot, and take possession of the ship. He who joins in the mutiny is termed a good pilot and what not; they have no conception that the true pilot must observe the winds and the stars, and must be their master, whether they like it or not;—such an one would be called by them fool, prater, star-gazer. This is my parable; which I will beg you to interpret for me to those gentlemen who ask why the philosopher has such an evil name, and to explain to them that not he, but those who will not use him, are to blame for his uselessness. The philosopher should not beg of mankind to be put in authority over them. The wise man should not seek the rich, as the proverb bids, but every man, whether rich or poor, must knock at the door of the physician when he has need of him. Now the pilot is the philosopher—he whom in the parable they call star-gazer, and the mutinous sailors are the mob of politicians by whom he is rendered useless."

"O ship, new billows threaten to bear thee out to sea again. Beware! Haste valiantly to reach the haven! Seest thou not how thy bulwarks are bereft of oars, how thy shattered mast and yards are creaking in the driving gale, and how thy hull without a girding-rope can scarce withstand the overmastering sea? Thy canvas is no longer whole, nor hast thou gods to call upon when again beset by trouble. Though thou be built of Pontic pine, a child of far-famed forests, and though thou boast thy stock and useless name, yet the timid sailor puts no faith in gaudy sterns. Beware lest thou become the wild gale’s sport! Do thou, who wert not long ago to me a source of worry and of weariness, but art now my love and anxious care, avoid the seas that course between the glistening Cyclades!"

"CHORUS: And now a sea of troubles, as it were, driveth on its billows; as one wave sinks, another, of triple crest, it reareth aloft, even that which now seethes about the ship of State. Narrow the space that stretches between as a defence—no wider than a wall."

"CREON: No man can be fully known, in soul and spirit and mind, until he hath been seen versed in rule and law-giving. For if any, being supreme guide of the State, cleaves not to the best counsels, but, through some fear, keeps his lips locked, I hold, and have ever held, him most base; and if any makes a friend of more account than his fatherland, that man hath no place in my regard. For I—be Zeus my witness, who sees all things always—would not be silent if I saw ruin, instead of safety, coming to the citizens; nor would I ever deem the country's foe a friend to myself; remembering this, that our country is the ship that bears us safe, and that only while she prospers in our voyage can we make true friends."