Sleepwalking through Weimar (2.0)

JUNE UPDATE:? I am reposting my column below from March because of these dismaying occurrences:

·????? Revelations of the extreme and anti-democratic elements of Project 2025, an agenda by close Trump supporters for a next administration.

·????? The Economist’s recent cover story entitled “Is America dictator-proof?” (Spoiler alert: The magazine argues that, while our democratic institutions are strong, it will be the American people who will ultimately overcome the #far-right Trump.)

·????? The stunning unanimity of Republicans in undermining the justice system and the rule of law in the aftermath of the State of New York's conviction?of Trump.

·????? The former President’s intentional, insidious video use of the phrase "unified Reich,” which references the creation of modern Germany, which became the Nazi state.

The theme of the article is reinforced by these events:? “The future of American democracy is at risk and on the ballot. Let us all wake up, rapidly.”

- - - - - - - - -

?By Andy McLeod

March 2024 (reposted June)

(The author has served two Republican US senators and two Republican governors)

A charismatic extremist threatens the democratic order. His appeal is grounded in a far-right nationalism aimed at angry, aggrieved people. He exploits the electoral process and foments violence.? Political opponents are baffled and careless. An octogenarian president appears to be the bulwark against the threat of a would-be dictatorship.

This is a picture of America in the run-up to the 2024 election.? It is also the story of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the end of the Weimar Republic in 1929-33.

A comparison of the two eras -- which comes as a cold slap in the face to many -- is prompted by Donald Trump himself. Astoundingly he echoes the terrifying fanaticism of Hitler, dehumanizing adversaries as “vermin to be rooted out,” denigrating unwanted immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” and expressing admiration for Hitler’s “loyal generals.”

So, does the German road to fascism 90 years ago offer insights into America’s path today? Is the US sleepwalking through our version of the #Weimar period?

- - - - -

In 1923, Hitler, an embittered World War One veteran,?staged the?"Beer Hall Putsch," a brief,?bloody?attack on a German state government. He was imprisoned for treason and created martyrs for a nascent extreme cause. But it was?the scarcity and desperation of the Depression, beginning in 1929, that enabled Hitler's rise. One-third of the population was unemployed, support for extremists on the right and the left surged, and Germany’s first democratic government (named after the city of Weimar) floundered.

Hitler captivated crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, preaching betrayal by elites and victimization. In one election his previously fringe National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party?increased its seats in the parliament, the Reichstag, eightfold. Two million Nazi paramilitary “stormtroopers" harassed opposition political parties, unions, and, most ominously, Jews. Dozens were killed in?riots.

Coalition governments were made feeble by gridlock fostered by Hitler. Conservatives, viewing the Nazis as a safeguard against communists, moved further to the right, seeking to coopt the popularity of the fascists. With the Reichstag paralyzed, President Paul von Hindenburg, an aristocratic 83-year-old war hero, could only rule through unilateral decrees.

In early 1933, hoping in vain that he could stave off Hitler, Hindenburg recklessly appointed the Nazi leader the chancellor of a final "government of national concentration.”?Within weeks, the infamous "Reichstag fire” suspiciously destroyed the parliament building. Creating evidence to implicate the communists,?Hitler forced enactment of a catastrophic "enabling act" giving him absolute power. Kit was the "most monstrous resolution ever demanded of a parliament," declared one failed chancellor.

Opposition parties were soon banned, and dissent was ended. The #Weimar Republic died. The horrors of #Nazi Germany began and would last until 1945.

- - - -

The similarities between the advent of German #fascism and the Trump phenomenon today -- alienation, xenophobia,?personality cult,?political #violence -- are striking, frightening, and perhaps suggestive of an American future.

#Trump openly aspires to be a dictator, but “only for one day,” though history clearly informs us that dictatorships are long-term. He has justified the “termination” of the Constitution (to reverse the 2020 election), unilateral deployment of #federal troops into “Democrat-run” states, and the vengeful use of the @JusticeDepartment to persecute political enemies. He campaigns with a promise to pardon those rightfully convicted and imprisoned for his failed January 6 #coup.

The Trump presidency and the Capitol assault were episodes of “pre-insurgency” and “incipient conflict,” writes Barbara Walter, the author of How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop The Next who has advised the #CIA on foreign threats. Further erosion in #democratic institutions and increased support for #authoritarianism, she predicts, can bring “open conflict” in the US.

- - - - -

In 2012, esteemed political scholars Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann wrote that “the GOP has become an insurgent outlier in America #politics … ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise; unmoved by?conventional?understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of the political opposition.”

Twelve years later, Trump’s MAGA #Republicans -- branded by insurrection, pledging allegiance to falsehoods, and practicing the routinization?of radicalism -- are an ever-greater danger.

A reckoning is due. We must confront ruinous extremism and treacherous #partisanship at every juncture. It is imperative that adherence to our foundational democratic principles and to the #Constitution be absolute.

How can we, all of us, defend democracy in our daily lives?

1)??? Be active in our neighborhoods and communities.

2)??? Demand nonpartisan electoral reforms, such as fair political districting, open primaries, and campaign finance reform.

3)??? Find and support credible, independent, and nonpartisan sources of news.

4)??? Vote!

We are living a national nightmare. The future of #American #democracy is at risk and on the ballot. Let us all wake up, rapidly.

--- END ---

?#Reich #extremism #Republicans #Democrats #Republican #Democrats #justice #ruleoflaw @TheEconomist @Economist @dictator #Menendez #cuelllar #Biden