Go back a century to understand MAGA war on democracy

The January 6th armed insurrection at the Capitol. Heavily armed men intimidating early voters in Arizona. A 2020 election denier fanatic bashing in the head of Speaker Pelosi’s husband while shouting “Where’s Nancy?”

America appears to be replaying a 21st century version of the successful war by the Nazi Party on Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic a century ago.

While the differences are enormous, one factor should jump out at every American concerned about the fate of our 246 year old democratic experiment.

Like the Nazi Party a century ago, the Republican Party is unable to gain control of national government thru fair, democratic elections. They lost the popular vote for president, the worldwide democratic standard for victory, five of the last 6 elections, by wider and wider margins. The massive 7 million vote loss in 2020 triggered party wide effort, led by incumbent President Trump, to overturn the election with violent insurrection at the Capitol to stop Biden’s election certification.

Tho that failed, the Republican Party has spent the 2 years since, using an array of legislative roadblocks at Republican controlled state governments, to suppress the vote of likely Democratic voters.

Things may get worse with the November 8th election. So far, 345 Republican candidates for state and congressional office have been identified as 2020 election deniers. Those running for governor, attorney general and secretary of state will have great influence how elections in their state are run. Candidates for state legislatures could end up voting for laws further restricting voting such as minimizing early voting and reducing early and Election Day voting locations. US congressional candidates, if elected, will have influence on acceptance of presidential electors or any election thrown into the House of Representatives.

But the most ominous parallel to Weimar remains the resort to potential or real political violence as exemplified by the January 6h insurrection, armed thugs at polling places and now attempted assassination of the second in line to the presidency. It’s easy for Republican leaders to decry these tactics without doing or saying anything significant to discourage random acts of political violence from disturbed followers of the still active ‘Stop The Steal’ Republican meme.

The Republican Party is not the Nazi Party and America is not Weimar Germany. But it did happen there a century ago. If we’re not careful…it could happen here.