Elon Musk performed a Nazi salute twice behind the presidential seal during the inaugural ball on Jan. 20. This is not an interpretation. This is not an accusation. This is a fact. To say it was “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” or a Roman salute is to insult the intelligence of reasonable, thinking people. Beware historian Hannah Arendt’s words: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” A grave danger to democratic governance threatens our republic when individuals can behave in a vile fashion – on camera, in front of hundreds of millions of people – and then not only deny that it happened but denigrate anyone who says it happened. To the good people of New Hampshire and the United States, to members of both the Democratic and Republican parties, go on record when others try to conceal or erase actions that menace the well-being of our people. Defy political tyranny with reality.
Brandon Gauthier
Concord