Mitch McConnell, The Gravedigger of American Democrac

[Milchshake]

A provocative essay by an acclaimed historian of Genocide and the Third Reich. Christopher Browning writes about 21st Century American democracy and its enemies, including the most important one:

"If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell."

A second aspect of the interwar period with all too many similarities to our current situation is the waning of the Weimar Republic. Paul von Hindenburg, elected president of Germany in 1925, was endowed by the Weimar Constitution with various emergency powers to defend German democracy should it be in dire peril. Instead of defending it, Hindenburg became its gravedigger, using these powers first to destroy democratic norms and then to ally with the Nazis to replace parliamentary government with authoritarian rule. Hindenburg began using his emergency powers in 1930, appointing a sequence of chancellors who ruled by decree rather than through parliamentary majorities, which had become increasingly impossible to obtain as a result of the Great Depression and the hyperpolarization of German politics.

Because an ever-shrinking base of support for traditional conservatism made it impossible to carry out their authoritarian revision of the constitution, Hindenburg and the old right ultimately made their deal with Hitler and installed him as chancellor. Thinking that they could ultimately control Hitler while enjoying the benefits of his popular support, the conservatives were initially gratified by the fulfillment of their agenda: intensified rearmament, the outlawing of the Communist Party, the suspension first of freedom of speech, the press, and assembly and then of parliamentary government itself, a purge of the civil service, and the abolition of independent labor unions. Needless to say, the Nazis then proceeded far beyond the goals they shared with their conservative allies, who were powerless to hinder them in any significant way.
If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more.


Wonder when the pundits will catch on to his outwardly anti-democratic behavior. Even with current shutdown, it took 2 weeks and two canceled votes for the media to start casting blame on him. Maybe we'll finally see them put McConnell's name in, "Whose to blame for the shut down?" public polls.

When governing to spite the public good, is graded on a curve.

[Wyrt]

Bitch is blocking voting from happening until the President gives him permission. That's just thoroughly undemocratic and a betrayal of his oath of office.

[Lollis]

As if it wasn't obvious with this shit

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

Fucking disgusting.

[LaserSharkDFB]

Mitch McConnell is casting a bright light on all the internal disfunctions of US Democracy. His actions should be seen as an opportunity for broad reform on how the Senate works.

Reform it with a crowbar, as far as I'm concerned. States are bullshit and arbitrary; we don't need 'em, and we certainly don't need to give them all equal power. Wipe out all state borders, abolish the senate, burn Mitch McConnell to the ground, or at least assign AOC to verbally drag him on a weekly basis.

[Reaper0329]

Reform it with a crowbar, as far as I'm concerned. States are bullshit and arbitrary; we don't need 'em, and we certainly don't need to give them all equal power. Wipe out all state borders, abolish the senate, burn Mitch McConnell to the ground, or at least assign AOC to verbally drag him on a weekly basis.

Why would we not give them equal power? I don't understand your reasoning on that point alone, to say nothing of the "burn it and start over" approach.

Also:
@GeneralissimoGreymane Hoooooly shit I love your avatar.

[Greyvax]

What's with the left's obsession with comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany? Are your lives that bad right now that you have to blame all of your shortcomings in life on the "orange man"

[Felya]

Reform it with a crowbar, as far as I'm concerned. States are bullshit and arbitrary; we don't need 'em, and we certainly don't need to give them all equal power. Wipe out all state borders, abolish the senate, burn Mitch McConnell to the ground, or at least assign AOC to verbally drag him on a weekly basis.

Actually, Congress is losing quite a bit of power under Trump. It’s pretty much the warning crazy liberals had, when the Patriot Act passed. Trump is the first to take it to the point where even trade is a national security threat. McConnell is just a tool that refuses to challenge Trump’s centralizing government. He is a national emergency announcement from just going... “I am the law!”

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What's with the left's obsession with comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany? Are your lives that bad right now that you have to blame all of your shortcomings in life on the "orange man"

Yes, we should all be very careful how we talk about Trump... “orange man” has feelings and cannot afford a safe space.

[Draco-Onis]

What's with the left's obsession with comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany? Are your lives that bad right now that you have to blame all of your shortcomings in life on the "orange man"

The first line of the article tells you why /facepalm.

[Felya]

The first line of the article tells you why /facepalm.

I love the tweet from Godwin, saying his law doesn’t apply to Trump. Calling it a legitimate comparison... Then again, must defend “Orange man”, since he is the only one willing to reveal that Obama founded ISIS and has Obama’s real birth cirtificate.

You got to love the cognitive dissonance of an argument comparing Trump’s state of government to Hitler’s as flawed, to defend a guy that ran on Obama founding ISIS. lol

[Independent voter]

A provocative essay by an acclaimed historian of Genocide and the Third Reich. Christopher Browning writes about 21st Century American democracy and its enemies, including the most important one:

"If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell."

The US is immune to fascism, communism too. I'll give you one chance to figure out why.

[Daelak]

Why would we not give them equal power? I don't understand your reasoning on that point alone, to say nothing of the "burn it and start over" approach.

Also:
@GeneralissimoGreymane Hoooooly shit I love your avatar.

Because states are a relic of the past. A more precise method of showing shared economic infrastructure and tax base would be similar to the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) used by the Census Bureau, OMB, and indirectly by local governments when planning out infrastructure and development.

Abolishing the senate and increasing the number of representatives in the House of Representatives ten fold would bring the representative per capita ratio down from 730,000 per 1 representative to 73,000 per 1 representative, a lot closer than the constitutionally-bound lower limit of 30,000.

This type of congressional reform would dilute the relative power of each representative, giving way to part-time representatives who travel to DC for 4-6 months a year for their committee work and floor voting, making it nigh impossible for special interests to lobby them effectively, and creating a new form of governance that represents the interests of your local community rather than Rorschach congressional districts spanning hundreds of miles.

[Reaper0329]

Because states are a relic of the past. A more precise method of showing shared economic infrastructure and tax base would be similar to the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) used by the Census Bureau, OMB, and indirectly by local governments when planning out infrastructure and development.

Abolishing the senate and increasing the number of representatives in the House of Representatives ten fold would bring the representative per capita ratio down from 730,000 per 1 representative to 73,000 per 1 representative, a lot closer than the constitutionally-bound lower limit of 30,000.

This type of congressional reform would dilute the relative power of each representative, giving way to part-time representatives who travel to DC for 4-6 months a year for their committee work and floor voting, making it nigh impossible for special interests to lobby them effectively, and creating a new form of governance that represents the interests of your local community rather than Rorschach congressional districts spanning hundreds of miles.

Well, credit where it's due. That's a solidly put together argument. I don't agree with it, per se; I would much rather fix the current system than start over. But that's at least well articulated.

[Ripster42]

Why would we not give them equal power? I don't understand your reasoning on that point alone, to say nothing of the "burn it and start over" approach.

As a concept of a nation, we're well beyond states being truly independent countries that came together to form a republic. While I understand the historical reason for giving states equal representation (to reach any sort of concord on the formation of the US between small/large pop states [and really, the people in charge of those states not wanting to lose comparative power after the revolution]), it's led to a gross discrepancy in the power of a single vote between different states. It doesn't help that the senate, whose members started off being chosen by state legislatures, has moved to popular vote in a two party system which intensifies its polarity.

So why not give them equal power? Because a citizen living in wyoming shouldn't have 70x the voting power someone living in california does for national office.

[Belize]

The US is immune to fascism, communism too. I'll give you one chance to figure out why.

Oh oh, I know, is it because illiterate idiots living in trailers in the desert don't know what either of those words mean, and thus wouldn't know if they hit them in the face?

[Drutt]

What's with the left's obsession with comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany?

This isn't "the left" comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany.

This is a prominent, multi-published US holocaust historian comparing the current state of the affairs to Nazi Germany.

That's a whole world of difference.

[Felya]

Oh oh, I know, is it because illiterate idiots living in trailers in the desert don't know what either of those words mean, and thus wouldn't know if they hit them in the face?

A set of brass knuckles, with capitalism on the right hand and socialism on the left hand. Then give your balls a proper beating... until you scream for moderation. Shit... new law when Felya rules the world.

[Adam Jensen]

What's with the left's obsession with comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany? Are your lives that bad right now that you have to blame all of your shortcomings in life on the "orange man"

Maybe if there weren't so many parallels between the "orange man" and the "toothbrush mustached man" we wouldn't be making these comparisons.

Both of these men complained about fake news and the press.
Both of these men claimed specific minorities were the cause of all of their nation's problems.
Both of these men claimed an existential crisis for their own people.
Both of these men employed blatant lies and propaganda (in the form of Goebbels and Huckabee Sanders) to deceive the public.
Both of these men had a cult following that defended everything he did or say.

[DocSavageFan]

This isn't "the left" comparing the current state of affairs with Nazi Germany.

This is a prominent, multi-published US holocaust historian comparing the current state of the affairs to Nazi Germany.

That's a whole world of difference.

Keeping telling yourself that. These constant comparisons to Nazi Germany are fucking insane and highly indicative off just how mentally depraved the left has become.

[Adam Jensen]

The US is immune to fascism, communism too. I'll give you one chance to figure out why.

No we are not. Democracy only works if people are willing to protect it. We have an entire political party that is now only dedicated to its own power and self preservation, not democracy's.

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Keeping telling yourself that. These constant comparisons to Nazi Germany are fucking insane and highly indicative off just how mentally depraved the left has become.

The worship of Donald Trump is highly indicative of how mentally depraved the right has become.

[Independent voter]

No we are not. Democracy only works if people are willing to protect it. We have an entire political party that is now only dedicated to its own power and self preservation, not democracy's.

Yes we are.

In our system only democrats and republicans have any chance at success. If a Nazi or communist were to run, our system is against them.

The system is against all third parties, not just Nazis or communists.

In Europe with their parliamentary system, this isn't the case. Nazis and communists can win part of the government.