Political Intrigue, Fascism and a Very Depressing Anniversary

By Tracy Dove, Ph.D
Editor, The Russia News Service

January 30, 2008

In this uninteresting election year it seems that the issues of war, financial implosion and global warming have been replaced with optimistic spin about the chances of a woman or African American being the first of its kind to win the executive office. Spin- which in the last century carried the bolder name of propaganda back when we didn't have the wit to call a spade anything else but a spade- is king. Everyone is trying to come up with the new third word in the sentence, "it's the economy, stupid", but all contenders have proven unworthy. And uninspiring; the candidates have been curiously silent on the evils of the previous administration which throttled our constitution with the Patriot Act, and it seems that Giuliani has claimed "Nine-Eleven" as his own and may secretly be seeking copyright of it. Perhaps we should be thankful that things are- politically speaking- stable. So just for kicks let's tip our caps to an ominous anniversary today- January 30- because it was 75 years ago today that Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. The eerie similarities that this event has with American elections since the year 2000 are purely speculative, but its what provides grist to the mills of our talk show routines and keeps those historians writing books.

To start with, historians are a civil bunch but they split like atoms over whether Hitler was democratically- and legally- elected as Chancellor of Germany in 1933. At that time in German history, the public was politically torn between remaining slavishly true to Weimar democracy or jettisoning it in favor of the fruits of fascism as promised by Hitler. The last election in 1932 didn't come out well for the little corporal; the Nazis had lost a number of seats in the Reichstag, but some well-dealt cards in the back room would change the fortunes of Germany. A political agreement was reached between the Nationalists and the Nazis to have "dual" chancellors in 1933, and Hitler managed to convince the senile President of Germany to give him the chance. The move was hardly legal, but for those who lived through the absurdity of that January there was hope that this would be the last concession to the Nazis.

The split elections of 2000 were equally indecisive as the German ones of 1932 were, and in hindsight we can safely say that Al Gore back then was not the cool environmental superstar of YouTube that we know today. That fated election, too, was tainted with back room extravagances, and it was finally the Supreme Court that gave the victory to George W. Bush. The first 8 months of his presidency passed with little fanfare or whopping legislation- primarily because the President was seen as weak and illegitimate- and the major them of that year was that "Chad" had ceased to be a name of choice for boys in 2000. The pain came after 9/11, when George Bush became privy to a series of executive powers that would have scared even the likes of reactionary Founding Father John Adams who first tried to manipulate the constitution in times of crises. The Patriot Act, Guantanamo and sadistic Marine guards at Abu Ghraib may have shocked America, but despite the excesses the country still stood behind its President.

While conspiracy theorists would be tempted to argue differently, the Bush Administration did not fabricate the 9/11 terrorist attacks- but Hitler did mastermind the Reichstag fire in 1933 shortly after his own frustrated election in 1932. A deranged Dutchman was goaded by the Nazis into setting the fire, and the assault on the symbol of German nationhood effected Germans everywhere- just as the 2001 terrorists' strike at the heart of American empire- Wall Street- left us all hopping mad. Hitler was quick to wring from President Hindenburg a carte blanche to beat the opposition into line, and for several months he did just that. Political intimidation, blackmail and murder were employed by Goering to silence the German opposition, and in the end, Hitler obtained his "Empowering Act" from the Reichstag to change the German constitution from a democracy to dictatorship.

For George Bush, the war that ensued between the United States and Afghanistan was easy to get going- indeed, it had popular support from the world that resented the Taliban for blowing up the sandstone Buddhas and wrapping their women up in birkas. But the Iraq connection to the Taliban proved to be a harder sell, and this time, the world was not buying. An elaborate campaign that taxed most of the wits of clandestine Washington was whipped up and a Potemkin village of WMD's were put in place for the UN to mull over. Still, no one was hopping on board the Coalition of the willing- save for a few post-Soviet states and the equivalent of welfare mothers in less-developed geographies of the world.

Except for England; this was a (recently) wealthy country with protestant morality and a long history of dirty deeds in the Middle East. Tony Blair, not unlike Franz von Pappen in 1932, came to President Bush's emotional rescue with prayer breakfasts and the promise of a significant troop commitment for the upcoming war in Iraq. While Pappen in 1932 was actually trying to dislocate, or otherwise double-cross Hitler, Blair had no such intentions. With the world watching, an unnecessary war was tooled into life, and the Bush Administration's hawks were finally able to slay the dragons that haunted them since the 1970's. But at what cost?

Been there, done that; Americans will be going to the polls this year- once bitten twice shy- and the likely candidates don't resemble the comic reality that was the election of 2000. We have had our flirt with absolute power in America now and possibly without exception no one wants to go down that road again. Luckily- so far- things never went the way of German fascism in the 1930's, and the American Republic is back. For those who find the current debates uninspiring or predictably timid, we must remind ourselves that citizens become impulsive voters in times of national crises, so let's not go the way of reactionary politics and save our breath for next year's 120th anniversary of Hitler's birth.

Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and Dean of Summer Programs for the Lessing Institute. He also teaches history at the Anglo-American College in Prague.

See all previous articles by Tracy Dove here.