David Weigel reports the following from the mouth of Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) in the The Washington Independent
we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy.
No, no we’re not. Not even close. Further, such capricious comparisons (he also evoked Iran and Venezuela under Chávez) are nothing more than ill-informed scare tactics. There are, no doubt, any number of criticisms one could level at the policies of the current administration, but these silly comparisons to Nazi Germany are non sequiturs at best, and calculated propaganda at worst.
First, I am not even sure what he means by “social democracy” aside from some general stab at the notion of social benefits from the state (like medical care and such). First, there was no particular surge in social programs just prior to WWII as far as I can recall (although it is worth nothing that social policy was pioneered by Bismarck in the late 1800s in Germany, but that had nothing to do with WWII or Nazism). Second, Germany currently has a far more extensive set of social policies in place and yet isn’t governed by Nazis (not by a longshot).
Most importantly, I have dealt with the notion that inter-war Germany was some sort of democratic paradise that took a wrong turn before: On Hitler as a Cautionary Tale of Charisma in Democracy.
July 9th, 2024 at 2:17 pm
Last time I checked, Hitler abhored the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany. In fact, he outlawed it in 1933, and persecuted both social democrats and socialists.
July 9th, 2024 at 3:09 pm
Ah, why let facts and stuff get in the way of a good sound bite?
July 9th, 2024 at 5:03 pm
Actually, the Weimar Republic was pretty stable and effective as a democracy, with strong social benefits, and with the Nazi Party just a laughable fringe, until the hyperinflation. So I am going to guess–just guess–that the threat of hyperinflation is what was being referred to.
Or am I giving Weigel too much credit? (I have absolutely no idea who he is.)
While these kind of historical parallels are typically more abused for propaganda purposes than they are informative, there is reason to be concerned about an explosion of inflation in a country that continues to act as if it can have low taxes, massive imperialist military spending, and social policy improvements. And, yes, I am referring to two-party America here and not Germany. At least one of the three items has to give, and only one of them is ever open to debate within the “serious” political circles in the USA.
July 9th, 2024 at 6:39 pm
I actually don’t think he is talking about inflation, as the rest of the quote (if you click through) appears to be aimed at big government/socialism/authoritarianism. Still, I could be mistaken.
In re: Weimar, it seems to me (and perhaps I am being too harsh) that the system existed sans crisis for so short a period of time that it is difficult to assert that it was ever fully functional. Beyond that, however, by the 30s and before Hitler becomes Chancellor, there are already so many anti-regime forces in play (beyond the Nazis there were the monarchists and the communists) that I would argue the system was already non-functional.
July 10th, 2024 at 7:56 am
If I had to make a historical comparison (realising that these are inadequate), I’d put us somewhere in the danger zone of Rome between the Gracci brothers and Caesar. Not sure where in there, but the elected assemblies keep getting marginalized, supporters of politicans are starting to feel that results that don’t go their way are illegitimate (which will transfer to the pols themselves if we aren’t careful), plus, we have an office we can (and do) concentrate power into that the Romans didn’t have – the Presidency. Every time I hear about the problems of the late Republic, I keep getting nervous – we have a lot of those problems, and it wouldn’t be out of the question for us to just throw all the effective power to the President with a pliant Congress giving him all these honors. I don’t THINK we’d go the full dictatorship route – 8 years per President seems pretty ingrained in the American psyche – but other than that, we could have a President who looks and acts like a Caesar at some future point if this country isn’t careful.
July 10th, 2024 at 12:59 pm
Sure, the Weimar regime faced threats from the beginning. It was formed right after the humiliating terms of the WWI armistice and a subsequent communist uprising, after all.
I was just trying to argue that it faced down several threats pretty effectively; it even survived, against the odds, longer than several other democratic or semi-democratic regimes of interwar Europe.
It is easy to say its collapse was inevitable, in hindsight, and given what followed. But lots of dysfunctional regimes muddle through, or fail in far less spectacular fashion.
The bottom line is that I think we sometimes overstate the extent to which the Weimar Republic was born with defects that would inevitably lead to its fall, one way or another.