"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana
This quote actually makes more sense in it's original form, nothing about learning from the past, simply remembering is enough. Or is it? Far too often, those who remember the past and study it intensely are ignored by those in power. Even if Mark Twain's aphorism about history rhyming rather than repeating is closer to reality than a simple cycle of growth, destruction, and regrowth in human history, it is st, ill all-too-common to draw the wrong conclusions or simply not see the comparisons. This is why so many mainstream commentators eschew comparisons to nazis when republicans embrace violence, authoritarianism, and insist that every day is Day Zero. Erasing the past is a very high priority for revolutionaries, at least past evidence of your crimes because whataboutism and any perceived misdeeds by your enemies are not just fair game but integral to destroying the legitimacy of the opposition.
Making comparisons in history is fraught with danger, one needs to be an expert on both sides of the comparison and most historians specialize in one area. Are we really in a Weimar period of placid exhaustion between two political and social tragedies? Will remembering the past in Germany and the United States help us to avoid repeating it? And can we possibly educate enough people to care and make a difference? Salon shared this article by Matthew Rozsa today, I must have missed it when it was originally published in June but the content is still entirely relevant so I feel confident in analyzing it now.
If Donald Trump's movement is destined to be America's answer to Nazism, than the Joe Biden administration is currently a rough equivalent of the Weimar Republic — the unstable constitutional democracy that governed Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler. The comparison is imperfect, but the cautionary tale is still clear. There is an obvious risk that Biden and the narrow Democratic majorities in Congress will fail, and that Trump or a successor will take over and then cement themselves into power for at least the next generation. Every American who wants to avoid this — especially Biden and the leading Democrats in Congress — needs to learn the right lessons from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
Rozsa is an historian, his bio says that he is all-but-dissertated for his PhD but does not list his specialization. I have a feeling it is not German history because while he states that it would take at least a medium length academic article to really analyze the similarities between Weimar and the contemporary US, the similarities he presents are not really adequate to make the comparison. I am not a German historian either but have studied it enough to elaborate on these five points.
1. Both sagas began with an incompetent right-wing ruler. In Germany's case, they had the misfortune of being led by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who has been described as viewing "other people in instrumental terms," as a "compulsive liar" and possessing "a limited understanding of cause and effect." That sounds more than a little bit like Donald Trump, whose administration was plagued with scandal and who failed to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic. On both occasions, that ruler was eventually removed from power (through losing both World War I and the German Revolution in the case of the former and losing the 2020 election in the case of the latter).
A friend of mine is a German historian who specializes in that countries' involvement in the two world wars. He agrees that good 'ol Kaiser Bill II had a lot in common with doughfacedonny, they were both lazy, stupid, bullies with huge chips on their shoulders and were never meant to rule. But this comparison would make trump both the kaiser and hitler, which may or may not play out. American and German history prior to these points really muck up the comparison as well. Germany only became a unified state in 1871 and had no prior experience with republican politics, at least at the chief executive level. Though the German Empire after unification had some resemblance to a federal system of states in a union and elections to the national legislature, the major political party was subject to suppression and persecution by the monarch in a way that isn't true in the United States. Nor did the German press have the freedom to viciously slander and lie in bad faith the way the right wing media does in the US.
2. Both stories continued because of a Big Lie. Hitler appealed to nationalist sentiments by claiming that Germany had actually won World War I but been betrayed behind the scenes by a conspiracy of socialists and Jews. Trump, who displays narcissistic traits and has spent years telling people that any election he loses is by definition stolen from him, has without evidence or any logical argument insisted that Biden cheated in 2020. Another defeated president might have been dismissed as a pathological sore loser, but Trump's cult of personality is so strong that his Trumper tantrum has now become a defining part of Republicanism.
This is true, but the actors are separate. Trump's whining about losing the election has continuity with his whining during the 2016 election and all the way through his "presidency". After Germany surrendered, the Kaiser abdicated and fled to the Netherlands. Trump fled to Florida, and while that state is awful and insane, it is still part of the US. Trump has a lifetime of morally-depraved, narcissistic, and criminal behavior behind him that republicans looked at and decided were messianic traits. Is it worth noting how they came to power? Wilhelm II ascended the throne by birthright, trump squeaked in with an archaic and undemocratic electoral institution by the votes of 70,000 citizens in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Trump's big lie is entirely manufactured and illegitimate, perpetuated by himself and sore loser republicans. Germany's loss in WWI was devastating to the German people, by the end of the war they were starving and then the Versailles treaty was an humiliation imposed by outside forces that hobbled the nascent Weimar regime before it even started. The US was coming out of 8 years of scandal-free administration and relative prosperity when trump snuck in.
The relevance of history depends so much on where and when you start the story. Rozsa leaves out a pretty significant point by starting with trump's "presidency" and not factoring in Dubya Bush's 8 years of war, lies, economic collapse, and authoritarianism. The impotence of democratic function and republican institutions were clearly evident in America when Dubya snuck into office almost the same way that trump did (the lower case letters are meant to disconnect those terms from our political parties). The big lie used by republicans after 9/11 to get us mired in defeat in Iraq should play a part in this story. The complicity of mainstream corporate media and ease with which trampled on the constitution should also factor into the story. Which should play a role in point 3.
3. Both used their Big Lies to break democratic norms. In Hitler's case, he became a de facto legal dictator shortly after rising to power. Because America has a much longer history of unbroken democratic government than Germany did in 1933, things will be trickier for the Trumpists. In Trump's case, he became the first president to lose an election and refuse to accept the result (there have been 10 previous defeated presidents, and all accepted the voters' verdict), as well as the first to incite an insurrection to stay in power. Trump is now reportedly fueling conspiracy theories that he could still overturn the election; just as significantly, Republicans are using his Big Lie to restrict voting for Democratic-leaning groups throughout the country. Through these methods, they will make it possible for Republicans to steal future elections — presidential and local — through means created to "fix" the problem they manufactured through their Big Lie. No doubt there will be many future Big Lies.
Again, this is true but without the historical context for both countries is so superficial as to be almost meaningless. I don't mean to criticize Rozsa because these are all important ideas to consider but someone like Rick Perlstein would argue that the Big Lie is not necessary for republicans to break and destroy democratic norms, he has chronicled the descent into authoritarianism by republicans from Barry Goldwater in 1964 in a whole series of books. Fifty-six years prior to hitler's seizure of power Germany was a brand new country with few democratic norms to break. We could spend a few medium length academic articles comparing the core of the German Empire, Prussia, to the old South in America but it is sufficient to state that democracy was not what Germany was based on. While voting restrictions and the suppression of Democratic constituencies' ability to vote have really accelerated in the face of trump's Big Lie, they are definitely not new.
4. Both Hitler and Trump use fascist tactics to win over their supporters. These include appeals to nationalism, vilification of "out" groups and conditioning their followers to use self-expression as a substitute for authentic political self-agency. (It helps when they can create a cult of personality around the leader figure.)
Absolutely. The nationalism to which each tyrant appealed to differs markedly enough to require more explanation though. Hitler's goal of "one nation, one people, one leader" had some bearing on German history and the corrupted phrase "Deutschland uber alles" was originally a rallying cry for revolutionaries in 1848 that wanted a united Germany. Germans had cultural and ethnic similarities and can be identified as one nation. What does it mean to be an American? We have so many cultural and ethnical differences that the only nationalism that can define America is support and belief in the constitution. Trump and his republicans hate the nation that adheres to the crazy idea of democracy, liberalism, pluralism, individual liberty, and the rule of law. As Driftglass always says, "republicans hate this country." Trump and the republicans appeal to a white nationalism that doesn't really exist and is quite nebulous in form.
5. Both may wind up using their legal troubles to create resurrection narratives. Hitler famously served nine months in prison for participating in a failed coup d'état known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Trump may go to prison for anything and everything from his own coup attempt to the numerous financial crimes alleged against him. If he's convicted, he will likely be held up as a martyr; if he doesn't, that fact will be cited as vindication.
This is a speculative point so comparison is problematic. Yes, hitler tried to violently overthrow the government, the fact that he only served nine months should tell us what the lesson is from that event. Brother Charlie Pierce has been using the phrase "looking forward, not back" to describe Democrats' reluctance to prosecute actual crimes. The biggest mistake in my opinion that the Obama administration made was not prosecuting bankers or the Bush criminals because it convinced American authoritarians that they can do whatever they want and get away with it. The insurrectionists on 1/6 were so sure of their impunity that they videoed themselves trashing Congress. Part of the rule of law means that breaking the law must have consequences and thus far there have been none. A couple of people were thrown under the bus for Watergate but Nixon himself was pardoned. A few people went down for Iran-Contra but were easily rehabilitated by the mainstream. And extensive war crimes by the bush thugs went unpunished. If the same goes true for all of the trump thugs and the insurrectionists, it will simply embolden them to try again. Neither I nor Rozsa or anyone else in the mortal world can pressure the Biden administration or Merrick Garland's Justice Department to seek actual justice, but this is where remembering the past would be kind of useful.
