Is America Now Like Germany In 1933?

It’s clear that Donald Trump doesn’t want to be president. He wants to be dictator. Can he and his henchmen make it happen?

Trump isn’t Hitler, although he admires Hitler and takes many of his actions and rhetoric from Hitler’s playbook. But Trump doesn’t have the fanatical focus Hitler needed to take over Germany and Europe. Trump is a scatterbrain who cares much more about money than about power. His ridiculous fantasy about acquiring Canada illustrates his bizarre mindset.

Also, America isn’t Germany in 1933. Germany was a fragile new democracy, the Weimar Republic, formed after its defeat in World War I. America has been a democracy for a quarter millennium and has withstood threats and insurrection before, including our Civil War, which cost our country 700,000 lives. And America’s Constitution is a hardy living document that includes safeguards against tyrants like Trump.

This is not to doubt the dangers we face right now from this belligerent bully. He has taken full ownership of a once-respectable Republican Party and perverted it into his plaything, with all the party’s politicians bending down to kiss his ass. Apparently, any adherence to the Constitution by the controllers of Congress has been replaced by rule of Trump.

But Hitler had organized gangs of brownshirts roaming the streets to beat or kill his opponents. Trump’s followers would mostly rather watch the game on TV. Yes, there are guys with guns who would gleefully kill judges, liberals or others who oppose their oaf of office, but these vigilantes are usually unorganized, which limits their power to destroy our democracy.

Also unlike Hitler, there is massive resistance against Trump’s daily s**t storm of cruelty. Anyone who resisted Hitler got jailed or killed. But now millions of Americans, including many MAGAs, are already angry at Trump’s dismantling of public services. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of lawsuits attempting to rein in Trump’s raging repression. Will the courts keep the craziness in check? And if the courts stop Trump, will the Supreme Court, which gave Trump nearly limitless impunity, uphold the lower courts’ decisions?

Either way they go, these cases will go down in history. Can the courts enforce their rulings with police power by arresting those following Trump’s orders? Let’s remember that bullies are cowards who don’t dare to fight back against anyone tough enough to challenge them.

Just because Republican politicians have abdicated any interest in upholding the Constitution does not mean that all Republicans will sacrifice democracy on the altar of their golden calf. When Trump’s policies fail in epic ways and send the economy down the toilet, most voters will want a choice both in Congressional midterms and the next presidential election, whether Trump plans to cancel elections or not.

So Trump’s support is not set in stone. It will whither away to only the full fanatics when eggs keep costing more, when veterans’ hospitals no longer have good care, when federal aid for disasters disappears, when diseases run rampant without vaccines, and when highly popular benefits like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are reduced or ripped from their recipients.

Then the MAGA power will wane, even if their racism remains. And many MAGAs will also see that the billionaires are robbing us of every red cent to satisfy their greed for endless billions.

Gradually, Republican pols will be like the Munchkins who slowly emerged from hiding when Dorothy’s house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East. They’ll dare to oppose the prez and not fear being primaried out of office.

That’s when we’ll all merrily dance and sing, “Ding dong the witch is dead, ding dong, the wicked witch is dead.”

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” 

Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. 

See his website: Greenbeat.world