Going completely out of my comfort zone today (being an almost Emily Dickinson level introvert) I attended one of the many No King protests. To be clear, I am anti-fascist, stand for Democracy, for the Rule of Law, for the Constitution and the 1rst Amendment. In other words, I am opposed to the Republican Regime and their titular leaders in executive, legislative and judicial branches (who consider American citizens involved in the demonstrations to be ‘America haters’—and by America they mean Republicans—and anyone who opposes fascism—and by fascism they mean Republican policies—to be terrorists).

The generation of my grandparents (by whom I was raised) all fought against the Nazis.

They told me their stories.

And I’ve often wondered what they would think of a party that is, at this very moment, struggling —struggling— to respond to other Republicans who wrote things like “I love Hitler” and who proudly display American flags with Nazi swastikas on them. Among these “young” Republicans who were not [said Elise Stefanik blatantly lying] “even candidates for elected office”, was elected Vermont state Sen. Samuel Douglass (R). A mere 27 years of age and just out of diapers. He just resigned.

But, as I was saying, I was asking myself what my grandparents would have thought.

Is it any coincidence, then, that during recycling this morning, a newspaper dated from May 12th, 1943, showed up. Among the many articles about America’s fight against the Nazis, was this cartoon. Americans trying to escape a Nazi prison (analogies anyone?).

I have no idea what a Jungle Masher is but, apparently, it merits you a go-straight-to-hell-Nazi slap.

Do you believe in coincidence?

While the Republican Party struggles —struggles— to respond to swastikas and “I love Hitler” [and the vice-President defends them] I’m certain in thinking my WWII fighting grandparents, aunts and uncles would not have struggled—at all. I mean, just look at her. And I’d like to think my demonstrating today, along with many of you, was a slap in the face to the Jungle Mashers running our country.

The Stranger’s Case

I also thought I’d once again post what our greatest poet had to say as regards intolerance and cruelty toward immigrants—today being a good day to do so.

Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th’ offender mourn)
Should so much come to short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whether would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, any where that not adheres to England,⁠—
Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountanish inhumanity.

This passage was Shakespeare’s contribution to a collaborative play called Sir Thomas More. The play was neither performed nor published in his lifetime and is possibly the only extent example of Shakespeare’s handwriting.

The image comes from this post. Then, just as now, there was anti-immigrant sentiment. You can read about Shakespeare and Elizabethan era immigration sentiment here.