BRATTLEBORO-The incoming president has now signed pardons for the violent treasonous folks who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, signaling his intent to not hold his violent followers accountable.
He has also issued orders that those who are taking part in his efforts to round up people, put them into camps, and deport them should start with schools and churches. He also has attempted to revoke the 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship.
These are all straight from the authoritarian playbook. The Nazis in Germany forced Jewish leaders to list all the Jews in their towns with addresses, and then used the information to deprive them of property and their civil rights, and ultimately to murder them.
For police and paramilitaries, the Nazis also removed the fear that they might be held legally accountable. This allowed the Nazi police to torture, kill, and terrorize those with communist sympathies, LGBTQ people, and others seen as undesirable into revealing the names of their friends and connections, so that those people could be rounded up, encamped, and murdered.
The writers note that they originally sent this letter to their congregation. "We offer it for your publication in the hope that it might give people of other traditions encouragement to articulate their own perspectives, and as an invitation to work together for justice in America for all people."