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COMMENTARY


HOW DONALD TRUMP REDUCED THE GOP TO GROVELING SYCOPHANTS


THE GOP MADE THE SAME BARGAIN THE PRUSSIAN GENERALS MADE IN 1933 — AND THE
CONSEQUENCE IS THEIR TOTAL DESTRUCTION


BY MIKE LOFGREN

Contributing Writer


PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 4, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mitch McConnell (Photo illustration by
Salon/Getty Images)
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> Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion.
> — George Orwell, 1939, reviewing Bertrand Russell’s "Power: A New Social
> Analysis"

It was said that Prussia, the nucleus of the German state, was not a country
with an army but an army with a country. The army achieved an exalted status as
the engine of German unification during the 19th century; officers became an
elite to which civilians were expected to defer. 

When World War I went bad — a war the German army had largely provoked through
its hair-trigger invasion plans — the Prussian officer corps called for an
armistice, forced the abdication of the Kaiser (to whom they had sworn
obedience) and blamed civilian politicians for the defeat. They intrigued
throughout the Weimar Republic period, unseating governments, conspiring with
enemies of the republic and, in 1933, helping to give the final shove that
toppled democracy.

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The army tacitly understood Adolf Hitler, the new chancellor, as a pliable
figurehead whom they and the monied classes could control. Yet within a year,
they were lined up and forced to swear an oath of “unconditional loyalty,” not
to Germany, but to Hitler personally. The rest, as they say, is history: The
fabled general staff were reduced to the level of office boys as Hitler
unleashed a war that destroyed them as a warrior caste and destroyed Germany as
a state. Most of the generals knew he was leading them to destruction, but they
could not break the habit of obedience — in the aftermath, some of them
pathetically claimed that they could not betray their oath to Hitler.

Related

Donald Trump: Not exactly Hitler! But his "Nazi Germany" comments conceal a dark
parallel pattern

The fate of the German army is a serviceable analogy for the Republican Party.
Since the 1980s, the GOP has been able to “wire” the Boston-Washington axis and
other American power centers like the Texas oil patch, while taming the media
and creating an immersive right-wing counterculture of think tanks, alternative
media, educational institutions (such as Hillsdale College and Liberty
University) and “experts” for hire. The massive financialization and
deindustrialization of the economy that has transformed the country followed the
Republican blueprint to the letter. They control much of the national agenda,
whether they are formally in power or not.

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The lazy view of the history of the last four decades (that is, how it is
commonly perceived) is largely delivered through Republican optics: Reagan won
the Cold War and conquered inflation, Clinton’s two terms are barely remembered
save for his philandering, 9/11 remains a symbol of righteous victimhood,
Obamacare is a bureaucratic tangle — and then we have Hillary’s emails. 

The Republican Party, remarkably, has been the default governing party, at least
in psychological terms, during this whole period, despite losing the popular
vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. (We might observe that
the vaunted German general staff went 0-for-2 when the guns started firing.)

Like the German army in the 1930s, Republicans bet on what they thought was a
malleable figurehead who would shower money on the plutocracy, shovel resources
to the military and bust the unions.

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The GOP’s grandees, capable of implementing their agenda in season and out,
determined that when an interloper named Donald Trump captured the party’s
nomination in 2016, they would know how to control him. Then-Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell claimed to know the score: “He’s not going to change the
platform of the Republican Party, the views of the Republican Party. I think
we’re much more likely to change him because if he is president, he’s going to
have to deal with sort of the right-of-center world, which is where most of us
are.”

Republican wise guy and coat-holder for billionaires Grover Norquist wasn’t
fazed either. He had already pronounced on the kind of pliable ATM machine he
envisioned as chief executive: “Pick a Republican with enough working digits to
handle a pen to become president of the United States,” presumably to sign bills
that further cut taxes for Norquist’s masters.

Just as the German army did, Republicans bet on what they thought was a
malleable figurehead who would shower money on the plutocracy, shovel resources
to the military and bust the unions. In both cases, they mostly got what they
wanted. But in both cases, they also failed to foresee that their intended
stooge would not only break free of their control but exert such total
domination as to reduce them to cringing toadies forever protesting their
loyalty.

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It is a rule of human behavior that those who kick down will always kiss up,
that bullies are the most fawning bully-worshippers. Sociologist and historian
Richard Hofstadter described this behavior as “a disorder in relation to
authority, characterized by an inability to find other modes for human
relationship than those of more or less complete domination or submission.”

What of the powerless nobodies several rungs below the McConnells and Norquists,
people without status or the privilege to kick down, who are a necessary part of
the machinery that raises a bully to power and keeps him there? They are
essentially mob-men (and women) who likewise have a disturbed relationship to
authority. Forever demanding freedom, they really seek servility. Varying
somewhat by era, country and circumstance, the mob invents its chosen oppressor
in its own image. 

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In post-World War I Germany, mob-man elevated a nobody, a corporal wounded on
the Western Front, an enlisted soldier like millions of others — someone with no
qualities or achievements other than the trick of inflaming dormant resentment
and promising vengeance for humiliation. 

In present-day America, there is nothing like the mass trauma and poverty of
defeated Germany, and in any case, those now at the bottom of the social heap
are too busy looking for their next meal or a place to stay to give much thought
to politics, never mind the fact that they usually constitute the bogeymen,
rather than the followers, of demagogic populist cults. 

Given the inordinate status-seeking and social-climbing that permeate American
life, it was inevitable that the foot soldiers of America’s authoritarian
populism would be the middling sort: well enough off by traditional standards,
but aggrieved at their perceived lack of influence and alienated from the very
country they claim to be theirs. They never cease to be jealous of those people,
the demon-figures of conservative propaganda who haunt their dreams.

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Naturally they would form a cult around a self-described successful businessman
whose own elitism is camouflaged by his vulgar tastes in food, décor and
lifestyle, replicating the mob’s kitsch fantasies about the lifestyles of the
rich and famous. Compared to the tacky glitz of Mar-a-Lago, the Parthenon would
no doubt offend them. So weak is their sense of self that any perceived
criticism of their chosen billionaire-deity sets off a flood of hysterical
denunciation, harassment and death threats. Our experience with the last decade
suggests we must invert Hannah Arendt’s dictum and acknowledge the evil of
banality.

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Having such manipulable human material at its disposal explains why populist
authoritarian regimes display a peculiar mix of drive, menace and spectacular
incompetence. The showy displays of sycophancy seen at rallies and staged
pseudo-events (like Sen. Tim Scott’s cringeworthy public declaration of love for
Trump) create the illusion of unchallengeable power and authority.

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Unquestioned leaders and servile followers tell us why the German army marched
into Russia without overcoats — the leader had decreed that the campaign would
be victorious by autumn, and that was that. It explains why the Obama
administration’s comprehensive plan for countering a viral pandemic was thrown
in the trash can by Trump’s lackeys when the worst pandemic in a century struck.
As he explained to Bob Woodward, Trump valued pumping the stock market with
false optimism over saving human life. 

Inevitably, the foot soldiers of America’s authoritarian populism were the
middling sort: well enough off by traditional standards, but aggrieved at their
perceived lack of influence and alienated from the country they claim to be
theirs.

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Writing in the wake of the most destructive war in history, Arendt explained
this symbiotic relationship between despotism and incompetence: “Totalitarianism
in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their
sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and
creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

So much for the myth of American individualism; those who bray about it the
loudest are the most ardent conformists, always adjusting their opinions to the
party line and forever on the lookout for heresy among their peers. Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a petty mob mentality par excellence, exemplifies this
behavior: "Not only do we support President Trump, we support his policies, and
any Republican that isn't willing to adapt [sic] these policies we are
completely eradicating from the party."

At the height of Joseph Stalin's personality cult, his speeches became a
time-consuming chore. Choice lines were followed by the obligatory prolonged
applause. The clapping wasn’t just enthusiastic; it was frantic — no one wanted
to be the first to cease applauding, not with the secret police monitoring the
crowd. Even the Soviet dictator became annoyed by ovations that could last more
than 10 minutes, so he hit on a solution. He had a buzzer installed in his
lectern, so that when the adulation lasted long enough for his ego, he would
ring it so the attending cult would know when to cease clapping.

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History may not repeat itself, at least not exactly, but Tim Scott and Marjorie
Taylor Greene, like good Soviet apparatchiks, are doing their best to make it
rhyme. 

Read more

about Donald Trump and history

 * How they made Germany great again: The Nazi social media campaign of 1932
 * America's fate looks bleak: Will it be oligarchy or autocracy?
 * Right-wing fake history is making a big comeback — but it never went away



BY MIKE LOFGREN



Mike Lofgren is a historian and writer, and a former national security staff
member for the House and Senate. He is the author of the New York Times
bestseller "The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became
Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted."

MORE FROM Mike Lofgren

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RELATED TOPICS ------------------------------------------

Adolf Hitler Authoritarianism Commentary Donald Trump Fascism Marjorie Taylor
Greene Mitch Mcconnell Nazi Germany Republicans Tim Scott


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