"The Suffocation of Democracy" by Christopher R. Browning in
the New York Review of Books (October 25, 2018) provides a very interesting look at the common and contrasting aspects of the current US government and Germany's 1930s transition from the Weimar Republic to Nazism.
LINKThe US in the 1920s valued a foreign policy of isolationism, rejecting international organizations like the League of Nations, financial agreements targeting “free-loading” former allies, high tariffs that crippled international trade, increased domestic income disparity, highly restrictionist immigration policies.... deja vu.
In Germany, von Hindenburg destroyed democratic norms, ruling by decree because parliamentary majorities were increasingly impossible to obtain because German politics had become hyperpolarized. Given the shrinking support base for traditional, more moderate conservatism, Hindenburg and the old right made their deal with Hitler and installed him as chancellor, thinking that they could control him while enjoying the benefits of his popular support.
Browning has a particular hate-on for Mitch McConnell, but his analysis spans widely and is worth the read. He considers aspects of the Mueller investigation, and the notion that a Trump presidency indebted to Putin is far preferable to the nightmare of a Clinton victory. Hitler's Ministry of People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda is seen in a similar light to the privatized form of Fox News and Sean Hannity, in which "Fox faithfully trumpets the 'alternative facts' of the Trump version of events, and in turn Trump frequently finds inspiration for his tweets and fantasy-filled statements from his daily monitoring of Fox commentators and his late-night phone calls with Hannity. The result is the creation of a 'Trump bubble' for his base to inhabit that is unrecognizable to viewers" of other news services or those who read beyond confirmation biases.
While it's unfortunate that "Trump is not Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism" doesn't come until the end, I can't imagine those who dismiss the premise out of hand reading that far anyway.
