Crying Wolf

Originally posted at The Festering Swamp on November 13, 2007

Not much to add here, but it is certainly ironic how Hitler's rise to power is one of the most mentioned, but least understood, historical events of the twentieth century. - Mike LaRoche

The above video (which clocks in at an excruciating forty-seven minutes, forty-six seconds long) is of a speech given by feminist author Naomi Wolf, describing how she believes America has taken ten steps toward becoming a "fascist" society. Rather than wasting your time watching the video (or buying her book, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot), you can read her article from The Guardian which summarizes the aforementioned ten steps.

I tried to watch the video, but only lasted eleven minutes. Once Wolf had effectively lapsed into "BUSH IS HITLER!!" mode, there was little point in continuing – there is only so much ahistorical nonsense I can tolerate. And on the point of history, what was particularly irritating was Wolf's idiotic attempt at equating early twenty-first century America with early 1930s Weimar Germany.

To understand just how ridiculous the analogy is, let's take a look at what Germany was like during the early 1930s, and what conditions brought about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazis). The event that signaled the inevitable death of the Weimar Republic was one that Germany had no control over: the American stock-market crash of October 1929. The reason that the crash was of such great significance to Germany was because the United States had helped support the Weimar government with huge loans made in 1924 (under a revised World War I reparations plan crafted by Vice President Charles G. Dawes) and in 1929 (under the auspices of a plan devised by American industrialist Owen D. Young).

After the crash occurred on October 29, 1929, the German government was given ninety days to start re-paying the loans, but being bankrupt, the German government was unable to do so. No other countries had the resources to provide assistance to the imperiled republic. As a global depression began to take hold late in 1929 and into the early 1930s, companies all over Germany were forced into bankruptcy and workers were being laid off by the millions. By 1932, the unemployment rate in Germany was hovering around thirty percent and national morale was at an all-time low.

The greatest beneficiaries of this crisis were Hitler's Nazis and Ernst Thälmann's Communists, who by the summer of 1932 were enjoying a surge in support amidst the ongoing crisis. In July 1932, German chancellor Franz von Papen (of the Center Party) called new parliamentary elections, from which the Nazis emerged as the most powerful party in the country, having garnered 37.2% of the vote. By the following month, the Nazis and other parties had failed to form a majority government, necessitating another round of elections.

The Nazis emerged from the second round of elections (held in November 1932) with 33.1% of the vote, but still the largest party in parliament. Von Papen stepped down as chancellor and was replaced by Gen. Kurt von Schleicher – a move seen by many at the time as a possible first step toward a military dictatorship, with Schleicher as leader. However, in the fifty-seven days that Schleicher was chancellor, he proved to be ill-equipped to handle his new responsibilities. Former chancellor von Papen, motivated by his dislike of Schleicher, chose to form a coalition government with Hitler. With Schleicher lacking support from parliament, President Paul von Hindenburg had to dismiss him and accept the new Center Party-Nazi Party majority coalition as Germany's new government. Under this new arrangement which took effect on January 30, 1933, Hitler became chancellor, von Papen became vice-chancellor, and the Nazis would only hold three of eleven cabinet seats. Von Papen was confident he could control Hitler.

Von Papen was wrong. Now in authority, the wily Hitler acted quickly to consolidate his power. Helped by a suspicious fire at the Reichstag – amidst other incidents of civil disobedience – Hitler was able to convince parliament to pass the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, granting Hitler and his cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of parliament (or the president). The granting of dictatorial powers to Hitler was intended to only be temporary – the Enabling Act was scheduled to expire on April 1, 1937. But it never did. The Nazi takeover of Germany was complete.

Does any of this resemble the United States of America in 2007? Obviously it does not, and Naomi Wolf should be ashamed of using historical ignorance to stir up hysteria for her own personal gain. After all, such behavior is more befitting rabble-rousing political extremists than allegedly responsible public intellectuals.