Sleepwalking Through Weimar, The Danger of Trump — Andy McLeod

Sleepwalking Through Weimar, The Danger of Trump — Andy McLeod

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.  His political opponents are baffled and careless. An octogenarian president appears to be the only bulwark against the threat of a would-be #dictatorship.

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

A comparison of the two -- a cold slap in the face to many -- is prompted by Trump himself. Astoundingly, he echoes the ugly 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.”

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

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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 his nascent extreme cause. But it was the scarcity and desperation of the Depression, beginning in 1929, that enabled Hitler's rise. With one-third of the population unemployed, society unraveled, 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. His previously fringe National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party increased its seats in the parliament, the Reichstag, eightfold in one election. Two million Nazi paramilitary “stormtroopers" harassed opposition political parties, unions, and, most ominously, Jews. Riots killed dozens. 

The established political parties joined coalition governments made feeble by gridlock fostered by Hitler. #Conservatives, viewing the #Nazis as a safeguard against communists, moved further to the right, seeking to co-opt #Nazi popularity. 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 him the chancellor of a final "government of national concentration.” Within weeks, the infamous "Reichstag fire” destroyed the parliament building suspiciously. Creating evidence to implicate the communists, Hitler forced enactment of a catastrophic "enabling act" giving him absolute power, the "most monstrous resolution ever demanded of a parliament," declared an ousted 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.

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

#Trump openly aspires to be a dictator, but “only for one day,” though history clearly informs us that dictatorships are long-lasting. 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 Justice Department to persecute political enemies. He campaigns with a promise to pardon those rightfully convicted and imprisoned for his failed #January6 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.

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In 2012, political scholars @NormOrnstein and @ThomasMann 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 extremism -- 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?

·       Be active in our neighborhoods and communities.

·       Demand nonpartisan electoral reforms, such as fair political districting, open primaries, and #campaign finance reform.

·       Find and support #independent, #nonpartisan, and fact-based sources of #news.

·       Vote!

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

 

Andy McLeod served on the staff of two Republican governors and two Republican U.S. senators.