In the late spring of 1940, the German army broke through French lines, and the government in Paris collapsed. In its place arose a regime in the resort town of Vichy. The regime was led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of the first Great War. For four years, this government ruled in the shadow of the occupier. They enforced Nazi laws. They rounded up Jews for death camps. They were the elite of French society, respectable men who believed they were saving their nation by working with its conquerors. While the occupation held, these men were the law, and the law was respected.
Then on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy. The German front cracked. Almost overnight, the world flipped. The men of Vichy were no longer the state. They were the enemies of the state. The respectable became the reviled. History had moved on, leaving them on the wrong side of a very sharp line.
We are at a time of extreme rhetoric. I don’t invoke the Vichy to suggest our government is run by Nazis. They are not Nazis. But there is a lesson in this history that should be the focus of the Republicans who allow this nation to be ruled by a man who openly threatens genocide, or who give him power by not resisting his outrages.
Anyone who has any friends working on Capitol Hill knows that almost no Republican in Congress likes or…
