Article by Gary Gindler in "The American Thinker":
In a recent article, journalist and historian Mark Ellis wrote that the Democrats are experiencing a "Stalingrad." The article convincingly argues that the current political battle for impeachment resembles a real battle — the Battle of Stalingrad. This refers to the fact that the Democrats, in their battle with Trump, seem to have "reached their Stalingrad."
As it is known, the Battle of Stalingrad — the largest battle of the Second World War — served as a point that can be called the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. According to Ellis, Trump's impeachment will mark the beginning of the end of the Democrat Party.
Let us leave aside a question that has a purely academic interest: is it possible to compare a real battle with a political one? Most likely, such direct comparisons are incorrect, but Ellis does not raise such a question — he considers only some characteristics of these events, which have much in common and allow comparison of the theoretically incomparable.
Developing this interesting analogy, the following can be added to the conclusions and analogies of Ellis.
In December 2019, the Democrats impeached President Trump. This resembles the Wehrmacht's capture of a bridgehead on the banks of the Volga river in 1942, near the city of Stalingrad. At the same time, the losses of the German invaders grew to an unprecedented, unacceptable level, an analogue to the shocking loss of financial support for the Democrats in 2019. At the same time, financial contributions to the Trump campaign after impeachment have reached a record level both in absolute terms and relative to fundraising by his Democratic opponents.
The American people are not waiting for the presidential election in November 2020; their revenge for the shameful and unconvincing half-impeachment was to cast their votes in cash right now.
Following other analogies, the German blitzkrieg — the quick seizure of foreign territory with the effective suppression of any resistance — resembles the way the Democrats held shameful hearings on the impeachment of Trump. Hearings of Democrats in the House of Representatives were amazingly fast, just three months. For comparison, the preparation of the impeachment of Nixon (which did not take place) took three years, and the impeachment of Clinton (which took place) lasted two years.
The Democratic blitzkrieg — the hearings in the House of Representatives — was held so Trump was not even given the opportunity to defend himself in any way. His lawyers were denied attendance to the hearings, and not a single witness to the defense was allowed.
Despite the fact that a significant part of Stalingrad was captured by the Nazis (and this seemed like a victory), the prestige of the German army did not increase; rather, it fell. As a result of impeachment, Trump's ratings increased, and the Democrats' ratings fell. In particular, as a result of impeachment, Trump has been beating all of his potential Democrat rivals in the polls.
Another distinguishing feature of these two battles is that in both cases, the attacking forces were a motley conglomerate. The main contingent of occupying forces in Stalingrad was not German, but Russian, Romanian, and Italian units of the Wehrmacht. The main contingent of modern American Democrats is not the Democrats of World War II, but a bunch of socialists, Social Democrats, communists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, and other leftists.
At the end of winter in 1943, the German command threw its troops surrounded at Stalingrad to their own devices. Similarly, the leaders of the Democratic Party abandoned 31 members of Congress, who were forced to impeach Trump. These Democrats are not quite ordinary. They were elected in 2018, not in the traditional Democrat, but the Republican districts — in those districts where Trump won in 2016. Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually threw her fellow Democrats to the mercy of the winners. Few of these members of the Congress who rashly voted for impeachment will return to Congress after the 2020 election.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht used almost all of its strategic reserves. In America, the situation is similar — in the presidential election in 2016, about 65 million Democrats and about 63 million Republicans cast their votes — i.e., only about 128 million people took part. In 2016, all leftists, without exception, enthusiastically (as ordered by the DNC) participated in the elections. Their reserves are almost exhausted.
In total, about 252 million people have the right to vote in America — that is, a political battle is fought for the remaining 124 million people. Recent opinion polls suggest that every time the word "impeachment" is heard from a TV screen, one of those 124 million becomes a Republican. In other words, the Republican reserves — the so-called "silent majority" — are about twice the number of Democrats in America.
Nevertheless, despite all the analogies that can be seen in these two completely different events, there are significant differences.
In the Battle of Stalingrad, two strains of socialism — German National Socialism and Soviet International Socialism — clashed in the battle to the death. No doubt, they were ideologically like-minded adversaries. On the contrary, the battle for the impeachment in the winter of 2019–2020 is a clash of diametrically different ideologies.
Another difference is that in February 1943, the Soviet command mercifully, under the threat of total destruction of the enemy, invited the encircled German invaders to surrender, and Field Marshal Paulus finally accepted this proposal.
Trump certainly will not show such mercy.
Judging Trump's fighting mood, the battle for impeachment will be a historic turning point for the Democrats, just as the battle for Stalingrad was a turning point in World War II. The new year 2020 will mark the beginning of a full-scale discrediting; criminal prosecution; and, possibly, total self-destruction of the non-democratic Democrat Party.