In March/April 1932, in Germany, a fading octogenarian, Paul Hindenburg comfortably won the Presidential Election, with 53% of the vote on a turnout of over 80%. Adolf Hitler (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) came a distant second with a mere 36% of the vote.
Three short months later however the far right National Socialist Party on 37% of the vote became the largest party in the Reichstag. Even though the Presidency had strong powers, Hindenberg could not prevent the rise of the make-Germany-great-again, propagandist, far right.
In November 1932 Hindenberg called another snap election which cost the Nazis 40 odd seats but which never-the-less obliged him to make the younger Hitler, Chancellor, and to grant concessions to the SS, to try to keep the resurgent far left contained. That was the last election the public were allowed to have and it was the end of their democracy until after Berlin was reduced to rubble in 1945. Hindenburg died in 1934 having “triumphed” electorally.
Steve Bannon in his prison cell is likely writing his memoirs. What working title seems likely for the Make America Great Again movement? My Struggle? He is probably enjoying living in “interesting times” posing as a “political prisoner” as Hitler did in his time.
If Biden has the best interests of America in what is left of his mind, he needs to avoid a Hindenburg style “triumph” and trust his party to assemble a more viable younger candidate who can not only campaign well and win in November 2024 but also can control the storms and backlash that will follow in 2025 and 2026, or these may be the last elections the US holds for the foreseeable future.
Biden simply cannot campaign for four months like this, much less run the Presidency for four years. This paralysis cannot continue. The consequences of putting Trump with his powerfully dictatorial instincts back in the Whitehouse or allowing his control of his invigorated, co-opted Republican movement, hostage to his MAGA, to continue or detention camps for anyone who stands in their way are beckoning. Lessons must be urgently learned.
Thank you for your insights. As a Jew I see the problem a little different. As a horseshoe magnet dictates both the right and the left show their animosity toward us in almost equal terms each one in their own psychological identities .