Monday, December 30, 2019

Channeling the Weimar Republic



Yours truly chanced upon an article about the Weimar Republic, the government that ran Germany from 1919 to 1933, that collapsed due to the catastrophic Treaty of Versailles, and the devastating hyperinflation of the German Papiermark thus giving rise to Hitler, something somewhat akin to the rise of Trump and what it could mean for the future of America if he gets reelected in 2020. 





As pundits often state, history never repeats but it does rhyme, a notion most disquieting to say the least, especially if one watches a Trump rally whereby our dear leader riffs for about an hour explaining to the devout just how great a president he truly is. Trump's bloviation isn't as potent as Hitler's nor is his message as horrific but similarities do apply without issue.


Is America about to suffer its Weimar moment, culminating in the collapse of its republican institutions? Our democracy may be far more rooted than that of Germany’s first republic, which fell in 1933 to Adolf Hitler, but there are disturbing similarities.

A polarizing would-be despot as national leader, rising anti-Semitism, an out-of-control upper bureaucracy, a politicized media and education systems, an economically stressed middle class, widespread dalliance with extremist ideologies and the rise of armed militant groups. America’s descent to authoritarianism is far from pre-ordained, but the reality remains that it could happen here, and perhaps already is.

2020 looms

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