The following is the first of a three-part series. In the opening essay we examine the big lie that led to the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.
The prospects do not look good.
History teaches us that when democracy is not strenuously defended it easily falls prey to demagogues that know only their own unrestrained self-interest. Such unfettered egoism often distorts the meaning of liberty into an excuse to oppress the other.
Unfolding before us is a disturbing parallel to another series of events that first began with a foundational lie that fed a fringe Right-wing party of an earlier time, one in post-Great War Munich, Germany. In 1923 the lie provoked an insurrection by that party that failed – but temporarily so. The insurrectionists then changed tactics, invoking the democratic process to destroy itself. The lie, still powerful, was employed it to build a national movement. Reactionary forces that believed they could hire and control that movement for their own ends handed the insurrectionists power. In short order, the hired controlled the hiring party, thus ending that nation’s democratic republic. Finally, returning full circle to Munich in 1938, the lie and its movement transformed from being a domestic threat to democracy to an external threat.
A hard-learned lesson is being ignored by Republicans that refuse to cauterize the wound to democracy inflicted by the Trump presidency: When the law provides the caretakers of a duly elected government with the opportunity to stop a would-be tyrant from rising, the opportunity, which may never arise again, must be taken.
It began with a lie by former President Trump not accepting his legitimate defeat in the 2020 Presidential election. It was a lie that flew in the face of all facts and reason, sustained by the former president’s constant harangue that only his word was to be trusted, not that of an objective press or a properly supervised fifty state election system. A lie that was further fueled by a man that asked his base to suspend all critical thinking and just act upon his word, no matter how often not proven.
The lie was made palatable to many because it relied upon scapegoating the other – the immigrant, the low wage-worker, the person of color. In this manner, the creator of the lie sent the barely esoteric message that other to be feared was superfluous in terms of human value. In this way, it resonated in impassioned hearts having the desired effect of shutting off both the thoughtful mind utilizing an objective sense of justice. Because the lie’s creator was of prestige and status, an authoritative affirmation was given those seeking justification to see the other as expendable.
Last month when the U.S. House of Representatives met to certify the presidential election 147 Republicans members voted to overturn the results. They did so despite no credible proof of impropriety and even after a seditious mob drove those legislators and their colleagues from the House and Senate. Fully aware of the underlying fear of the other and the danger of such stoked anxiety, the still proceeded. Their excuses for objecting ranged from Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) sixty court-rejected claims of voter fraud to freshman Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ (R-NY) reed-thin concerns “about rooting out fraud” and “holding those who commit it accountable and ensuring the integrity of our election system which” she directly continued, “I believe is the foundation of our democracy.” These and other myths form the lie of the “stolen election.”
Too many in the GOP are willing to ride this lie to power; a threatening mendacity that now goes to the heart of American democracy.
The truth, which is quite transparent, is far more transactional. Many of these Republican legislators know full well that Trump lost fairly and squarely. Yet a Faustian bargain was struck. With hopes of regaining both houses of Congress in 2022, Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the overwhelming majority of Republicans would dare not alienate the Trump base. Power had become more important than either patriotism or democracy.
What is now transpiring is not as much conservatism within the GOP’s legislative ranks as much as it is a radicalism girded by a raging mediocrity. These Republicans have ceased thinking critically about the consequences of their choices and have surrendered their consciences to merely acting on a soulless politician’s impulse. Getting the vote has replaced value judgment; fear has replaced courage. It is through such banality morally cynical egotism goes unchecked.
The excuse now being pedaled by the GOP is that impeachment will further divide the nation and possibly harm domestic tranquility. It is the idea of buying peace at any price even when the price becomes intolerable at a later date. This too, as we will see in the third essay, is another lesson of Munich.
THE POWER OF THE LIE
German fascism – Nazism – was similarly conceived in a lie. By summer 1918, the German army was battered and retreating in France. While casualties thinned its ranks, 250,000 fresh American troops were arriving in Europe every month to join the fight. If the war were to continue, American, French and British troops would have been entering the homeland by early 1919. At home Germans were starving not able to get food and other supplies due to a vice-grip Allied blockade. Germany was ready to rip itself apart through revolution. Field Marshalls Hindenburg and Ludendorff, then head of the army (as well as the government) had no choice but to seek an armistice.
But unable to take responsibility or face up to the fact that Germany was soundly beaten, a convenient lie was invented: Germany had been “stabbed in the back” -- Dolchstosslegende -- by social democrats, Jews, and unionists. It was the lie that fed a reactionary backlash that in turn fueled the fascist rise. As historian Jeffrey Herf recounted in a November 23, 2020 Washington Post op-ed:
“Many people, including prominent figures such as Field Marshalls Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who both knew it was an obvious falsehood, repeated it and lent the mendacity their prestige and status. These actors associated the new democracy, not the old authoritarian order, with defeat and humiliation, when in reality it was German democrats who recognized the value of peace and bringing an end to the senseless slaughter of the war and who understood that the only alternative to accepting the armistice was continued war and an Allied invasion of Germany.”
As well as:
“The refusal to accept defeat, and instead to point at scapegoats, voice conspiracy theories and avoid responsibility, indicates that the spirit of Erich Ludendorff is alive and well in Trump and the Republican Party. That spirit undermined democracy then and does so today.”
Likewise, similar such lies fuels the former president’s ability to accept that he was squarely beaten. We hear outrageous stories of Dominion voting machines or stuffed ballot boxes and changed votes. This eerily echoes the “stabbed in the back” lie that was used to stir up a violent takeover of a young democracy.”
Today’s Dolchstosslegende is about non-existent mass voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election. Both were designed to provoke backlash. Both excited a mob to violence in order to overthrow a legitimate democracy.
And here lay the first lesson of Munich for the GOP: You may believe you can control the lie that motivates your base but eventually the lie will control you – and in many ways, it already has done so. The lie will lead you to make regrettable decisions. You will discover the liar and his followers you believed you could control will instead control you.
In time, conservative elements of German society also believed they could ride a similar tiger to power, forgetting that the tiger would also devour them. It is the same lesson today’s GOP is ignoring.
This is what happens when a tyrant in the making is not stopped because the warnings from history are ignored.
Next part: Insurrection.