Sleepwalking through Weimar. The Grave Dangers of Trump/Vance (3.0)
Andy McLeod
Strategic Advisor | Democracy defense | Public history, historic preservation | Nonprofit news | Conservation, environmental policy | Licensed Washington DC tour guide
I am recirculating the column below, from March and June, because:
The future of American democracy is at risk and on the ballot right now. Let us all rally, organize, protest, and recommit ourselves to our constitutional republic before, it's too late.
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By Andy McLeod
March 2024 (reposted in June and July)
(The author 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 is the bulwark against 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.
The frightening comparison of the two eras is prompted by Donald Trump himself. Astoundingly he echoes the fanaticism of Hitler, dehumanizing adversaries as “vermin to be rooted out,” denigrating unwanted immigrants who are “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 meaningful insights into America’s path today? Is the US sleepwalking through our version of the catastrophic Weimar period that brought fascism and disaster?
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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. Imprisoned for treason, he had succeeded in creating 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) foundered.
Hitler captivated crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, preaching betrayal by elites and the victimization of average Germans. 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 enfeebled 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 last-ditch national unity government. The infamous "Reichstag fire” suspiciously destroyed the parliament weeks later. Creating evidence to implicate the communists, Hitler forced the enactment of an "enabling act" giving him absolute power. It 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.
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The similarities between the advent of German fascism and the Trump phenomenon today -- alienation, xenophobia, personality cult, political violence -- are striking 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.
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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 and pledging allegiance to falsehoods -- are an ever-greater danger.
A reckoning is due. We must confront ruinous extremism and partisanship at every juncture. It is imperative that adherence to our foundational democratic principles and to the Constitution be absolute.
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How can we 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, use, 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.
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