Republicans didn’t, and still don’t understand the forces they’re dealing with.
History is repeating itself.
In the Weimar Republic, Germany had lost everything. It’s empire, it’s status of an emerging superpower, and then hyperinflation. The Conservatives realized that Germany was on the possible edge of going towards socialism. The working class was one shade of red or another be it anarchist, communist, social democrat, or syndicalist. It seemed like doom and gloom for the capitalist class of Germany.
Oh wait, something happened a few years before.
Hitler and his Nazis committed the Munich Beer Hall Putsch and were sent to jail. He realized that violent action wasn’t what would catapult him into power, but political action. The capitalist class of Germany, particularly the conservatives and the classical liberal parties, were desperate for solution so they looked around. Amid the chaos, they found a strange but charismatic man with a short mustache who could serve as a distraction for the working class.
Hitler understood that if he was to win power, he would need to selectively appeal to the working classes. The Nazis had a secret meeting with the industrialist class and told them what he meant by “socialism” [2]. He came up with a gambit called “national socialism” and labeled themselves the “National Socialist Workers Party”. The conservatives had this idea that maybe they could control the nazis and get their rivals, the left, out of the way. Also make a little bit of money. Classical Liberals like Ludwig Von Mises thought that fascism was an “emergency makeshift” to save Europe from destruction [3]. So they voted unanimously to give full power to the new Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler.
All was going well, and it seemed like everything was working out. The left was sent to the concentration camps and Jews were made as a scapegoat to save the ruling class. Also making some sweet moolah on the side as worker unions were suppressed and went back to work. Italy did very similar measures with the fascists against their left-wing working class.
Unfortunately, death and destruction were soon to follow. 40 to 70 million people died in World War II as the Nazis needed the irrationality of their ideology to continue so war was the solution. The war became too hot for Germany to handle as they bit off more than they could chew with their war against the allied major powers of America in the west, and the Soviet Union in the east. Conservatives realized that Hitler was insane and should never have given power to him. They launched a coup against him to oust the Nazis.
Germany fell and worse, it failed to kill the left. In fact, they made the left stronger not just in Germany in the years to come, but throughout the world. The German capitalist class was forced to compromise with their working class and the young people, hated the old generation for Nazism. The Marshall Plan was enacted and created the social democracy that we are familiar with in Europe.
American Exceptionalism at its finest.
During the late 1960s, the American capitalist class was experiencing a profitability crisis. While profits themselves were quite high as the middle class was growing, the rate of profit was falling massively. Strikes were raging across the country and anti-war protests were getting quite violent. The Middle class was rising and able to get higher wages than ever before.
The business class decided, it had had enough. As a result of the New Deal, which was created to save capitalism, wages were high. So, they started scheming to take back power from the working class. The call for action was in an infamous memo called the Lewis Powell memo. In it, Powell identified the New Left and many workers movements who would one day rise and “destroy the entire system, both political and economic.” [6] I guess Russell Kirk was right!
It has become increasingly revealed over the years that the center-right, would secretly meet with the far-right in the early 1970s and perhaps even earlier, and say that “you are allowed into the political landscape so long as you vote for our party.” The center-right would have to demonize the far-right, however, which the latter was already used to anyway. Conservative Intellectuals like William F. Buckley (who despite some of his critiques of the far-right, was pretty much responsible for its rise) would criticize the center-right Rockefeller Republicans and say they aren’t good enough at all. No compromise would be made. They thought the system’s guard rails would hold up because it was America. Americans would never take these people seriously!
The Southern Strategy was put into place which courted the racists of the country who were upset at democrats for giving blacks equal rights. Over the years, men like Newt Gingrich went around the country started to spread the ideology of no compromise. American values needed to be upheld against those socialist democrats! It is of little coincidence that news outlets like FOX news rose up during the demise of democrats in rural America.
The alliance has worked out well for both sides over the years. The business and economic-minded center-right got to keep their favored economic policies into place (even though they weren’t popular when they were conceived), while the far-right got to rise as social norms began to change.
Eventually, the far-right’s efforts at putting out their message over the years came to head. The Tea Party became a relevant force during the Obama administration. They attacked Obama and became “concerned about taxes and spending” the moment a black man was elected president. It was made to look like a grassroots movement because they featured a bunch of “normal, hard-working Americans” (they mean white people) as they’re sales pitch. Never mind that it was originally founded behind closed doors by Dick Armey (a right-wing economist and politician) and Americans for Prosperity (which is a Koch-funded network). It was astroturfed from the very beginning. The Tea Party was condemned by the more center-right Republicans, but no actual moves to silence them was done.
Donald Trump announces his political campaign for presidency by starting with “Muslims are terrorists and Mexicans are rapists!” A very right-wing populist rhetoric becomes the force which guides the campaign. As usual, he was immediately condemned. However, this time it didn’t work. The far-right candidate was winning votes in the primaries. The GOP launched a campaign from within to try and counterforce Trump, but it wasn’t effective. Trump wins the primary and almost overnight, becomes the de facto dictator of the party.
Republicans became scared of their own creation and those who tried to challenge him, have often met their political doom. Trump immediately went to work showing everyone who was boss by centering political power around his twitter.
I say that Trump was their own creation because this was years in the making. From Buckley demonizing the Rockefeller Republicans, to Newt Gingrich and his fake populist messaging, and the funding from behind doors by rich business tycoons like the Kochs. The Rockefeller Republicans at least somewhat understood that compromise was needed to maintain a healthy democracy, but many conservatives didn’t understand this. Newt Gingrich thought that hey, maybe if I can spread an ideology of no compromise, then it would work out in their favor. Along with astroturfing of campaigns like social conservatives who wanted to stop the rise of the progressive social progress. Of course, nothing they said was really all that serious.
The GOP and business class say they should go along with all of this. Thinking that they could get some more tax and regulation breaks out of this. Yeah, what he’s saying about immigrants is terrible but there are more important things on the docket. After all, Bernie Sanders was also quite popular and worse yet, a socialist. Heck, he finally managed to overturn Roe v. Wade with his Supreme Court picks. He gave them what they wanted, and the social backlash became harsh. The young people show up to the polls to oust Trump from power. Which brings me to my next point.
The young people are furious towards the conservative movement. Conservatives have demonized millennials and said that they were lazy and entitled (such projection honestly). And now they are threatened. You know that old trope of someone being a liberal when they are young and becoming conservative when they are like 30? Well, it isn’t true. Millennials are the first generation to do worse than their parents and they are blaming the GOP for it. The GOP is now associated with Trump and the Jan 6th attack on the Capital. Also, climate change is now in full force. Conservatives are now frightened that maybe their once held stranglehold on the nation is slipping away. They were hoping that Zoomers (generation Z) would become more conservative after the 08 financial crisis but nope, they are even more progressive than millennials.
It may not look like it, but conservatives are growing quite frightened at this new movement of labor rights and progressive rising amongst the young people. Project 2025, which is a heritage foundation plan to take over America if Trump was ever elected president again, pretty much says “we need to go towards fascism now before it’s too late.” But wait a minute, those same policies are why are being shunned in the first place. How does that work out? If they go through with it rather than maybe compromise, and history repeats itself, then things can only end poorly for them.
It has pretty much become a conservative tradition throughout the world to try and prop up fascists thinking they can control them. It happened in Chile, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc. They all thought the same. But it always ends up blowing in their face eventually. Something horrible happens and the ruling class is forced to give up power. Fascism is reliant on its own irrationality to sustain itself, which only hastens its end.
Republicans barely understood the dialectical forces it was wielding. Fascists cannot be controlled and are very reliant on fear and irrationality to control people. During the Nazis, it was Jews and communists. For the Neo-Nazis in America, it is brown people and the LGBT community. Mike Johnson’s ouster of Joseph McCarthy has pretty much sealed the hold of the far-right’s influence over the Republican Party. The liberal conservative era of GOP politics is pretty much over and even being associated with Trumpism. Trump is now even calling for concentration camps along the border for all of America’s “enemies”.
A good book to read is called “It was all a Lie, how the Republican Party became Donald Trump” by Stuart Stevens, a former GOP operative turned Lincoln Project operative. He explains that it was all he and his cadres fault that Trump and his lackeys have come to power because of Southern Strategy rhetoric and the fusion of politics with Christianity. Of course, they never actually believed anything they said. It was all just a bit to win power.
Something horrible is about to happen in America if history plays out. Conservatives in Germany paid a terrible price. Republicans are about to do the same.
Thank you for reading this article. My email is derekhudley@gmail.com. I would love new ideas to write about!
Source
[1] Liu, Eric. “Speaking to Donald Trump’s people”. CNN Speaking to Donald Trump’s people | CNN
[2] Wikipedia. “Secret Meeting of 20 February of 1933.” Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933 — Wikipedia
[3] Liberalism: The Classical Tradition by Ludwig von Mises (1995) Foundation for Economic Education. ISBN 1572460229. Originally published as Liberalismus in 1927.
[4] Roberts, Michael. “The US profit rate of 2021.” The US rate of profit in 2021 (cadtm.org)
[5] Perry, Kellen. “How Hitler happened: 36 photos that explain the Nazis’ rise.” 36 Chilling Photos That Explain The Nazis’ Rise To Power (allthatsinteresting.com)
[6] Lewis Powell memo. The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy — Greenpeace USA
