We are good Germans now

A kind of good-German passivity has overtaken me and everyone I know.

 Even the most ardent of us can no longer bear to watch Rachel Maddow. If we do, we can’t sleep at night. 

 We’re not allowed to talk about the ugly mess our country has become. “One thing,” the daughter of friends of ours said, setting the ground rules for our dinner on the Fourth of July. “No talking politics.” 

 The next day, I was visiting my daughter in Bushwick and started spewing off to her roommate about the latest outrage. “Stop!” my daughter said impatiently. “We all know. No one needs you to tell us.” She's right. 

 I’ve marched in more protests this year than I did in the whole of the Viet Nam era. But it’s a listless sort of marching, mostly treading in place, no real hope any more of making any difference. 

 We’re all good Germans now. 

 What precisely was it that good Germans could have done to stop the Holocaust?

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