Evil Is Evil

In the 1920s, Nazis and Communists frequently battled in pubs and streets as they fought for supremacy in Germany. After the prolonged battle, the Nazis won out and the Communists were outlawed in Germany the day Hitler took power. That was the beginning of the rise of the Nazis becoming the most hated group in world history.

The battle between the two groups did not end there as Stalin took control of Communist Russia, renamed the Soviet Union. In the 1930s, while Hitler was consolidating power and beginning to eradicate his enemies, Stalin was throwing thousands into the Gulag and murdering millions. The rivalry -- which had been in Germany -- was now internationalized to determine how despicable these competing and similar political philosophies could become.

Despite the acrimony, on August 23, 1939, these two countries signed a non-aggression pact. They decided to carve up Europe. As you know, that began nine days later when Hitler invaded Poland. With his greatest enemy pacified, Hitler went about taking over the rest of Europe. With only Britain left in the West and convinced that the Americans were going to stay neutral, Hitler decided to turn on his rival and attacked Russia in June, 1941. Do not ask the Polish people who were more evil, the Nazis or the Communists. You might get a three-hour answer demeaning both. They will tell you that both were the definition of evil. The Polish lived it.

This history lesson serves to show why Stalin and the Communists were not perceived as being as evil as Hitler and the Nazis. Everyone has seen pictures of the mass murderer Stalin sitting with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta. This sanitized Stalin and the Communists.

It was probably correct of General George Patton that we should have gone on and wiped out the Russian government. It would have saved the world 45 years of the mass murders they committed and spread through other countries.

As evil as the Nazis were (are) and -- they define evil -- we should never have given the relative pass to Stalin, Mao and other Communists who killed millions and millions of people. We should call out these kinds of evils and never judge them on a relative basis.

Once you achieve a certain level of evil, you are way past the discussion of whether you are just “plain” evil or some other derivative of evil. Claiming you are fighting a despicable evil does not give justification to your existence if you create a comparative level of evil. Both need to be eradicated.

This country has had groups and philosophies that took a significant role in our existence that were overtly evil. Though we have not eliminated them completely, they have been diminished yet are still deplorable blemishes. I doubt we will ever completely get rid of evil philosophies simply because we have 325 million people within our borders. We will have demented, evil people no matter what we do. The price of freedom.

We have laws and police forces to control and minimize the effects of these groups. We have the First Amendment and moral suasion to eradicate them.

We don’t have vigilantes in America.

What we do not need is a private group of people claiming to represent us, using the same tactics as the evil groups, displaying the same hatreds and violence, using a justification of supposedly fighting the evil forces to suppress and damage the First Amendment to reach their self-determined outcome. They are just as evil as the forces they are fighting. We do not need a replay of the Nazis vs. the Communists on the streets of our cities. We don’t need more evil people.

As I wrote before it was fashionable, the Black Bloc, also known as the Antifa, is evil. They are violent anarchists. They are dangerous and potentially destructive to our society. They want to be judge, jury and police force in determining who has rights in this country and who does not. To accomplish that they are ready, willing and able to be violent against anyone they deem to be their unfavorable enemies.

Far too frequently, we see these disgusting militant anarchists cause violence on our streets and our college campuses.

Nazis, Black Bloc, KKK, Antifa, Neo-Fascists (as if there is a fresh take on fascism), Communists, ISIS, Red Brigade, Boko Haram, Khmer Rouge, Al Qaeda. To have a discussion of which one of these is the “good” evil would be ludicrous. Yet we have been having one about a few of these in America. You don’t get to choose your favorite hate group.

Evil is Evil. America stands against all forms of evil. We fought very violent wars to eradicate those evils. Within our borders, we combat them with the rule of law and the First Amendment. Let’s get back to that. That will save America; if we don’t, we will lose America.

Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee.