The US is Similar to Weimar Germany
by John Lawrence
In the 1930s the democratic government in Weimar Germany couldn't get much of anything done. It was largely because of this hapless democratic republic that Germany went for an autocrat that actually got a lot done because an autocracy doesn't have to deal with feckless bureaucrats in a democratic republic. The Weimar Republic came into being after Germany lost World War I. Germany suffered hyper inflation partly as a result of the large reparations Germany was required to pay as a result of having lost the war. Wikipedia says: "The Great Depression of October 1929 severely impacted Germany's tenuous progress; high unemployment and subsequent social and political unrest led to the collapse of Chancellor Hermann Müller's grand coalition and the beginning of the presidential cabinets. From March 1930 onwards, President Paul von Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher. The Great Depression, exacerbated by Brüning's policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to head a coalition government; Hitler's far-right Nazi Party held two out of ten cabinet seats." Inflation? Unemployment? Is there anything in common here with the US circa 2024. Hitler got rid of the reparations and other undesirable terms of the World War I peace settlement. The point is that autocrats can get things done that democratic governments may quibble over due to their not being in agreement as to how to proceed.
One of the impediments to a truly democratic election in the US this year is the same thing that has affected elections since 2000: the electoral college. This makes the US not a true democracy in terms of electing a President. A true democracy would be one in which every vote of every American counted. With the electoral college pretty much only the votes of certain swing states or battleground states mean anything. In fact the winner of the popular vote in 2000, Al Gore and 2016, Hillary Clinton, lost the US Presidency due to the electoral college. What a different country the US would be if those two would have been elected Presidents. There would have been no January 6, for instance. And the US would be much further ahead and in more of a leadership role in terms of climate change. In addition to the electoral college destabilizing the election for President in the US, we have a Congress that is dysfunctional. In the Senate opposing parties keep filibustering legislation efforts by the opposite party, and in the House, they don't seem to be able to agree on a budget until the last minute to keep the government in business.
So autocrats offer a way out of the morass of democratic dysfunction. Hitler did it in 1930s Germany albeit with disastrous results for the Jewish population in particular and the world in general. For democracy to work, voters have to be relatively knowledgeable and sophisticated. Autocrats will misrepresent and lie about the opposing party and the state of the nation. Voters have to have the mental wherewithal to see through the lies and evaluate the situation with some degree of intelligence. Autocrats offer simple solutions to difficult problems. If elected they don't need the agreement of Congress especially if Congress is dysfunctional and can't come to any agreement about anything. They get things done because they don't need agreement from a representational body.Things often function more smoothly because you don't have to compromise between opposing parties. The US has to reform certain aspects of the US system or be in jeopardy of an autocrat taking over. Those aspects in particular are the electoral college and the filibuster.
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