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In reply to the discussion: Mitch McConnell's support in Kentucky has cratered... [View all]Kid Berwyn
(14,863 posts)24. Weird, how the winners so often do all they can to hurt the United States.
The "gravedigger of American democracy": Holocaust historian says Mitch McConnell broke politics
Historian Christopher Browning compares the GOP senate leader to Germany's Paul von Hindenburg
by CODY FENWICK, AlterNet, OCTOBER 5, 2018 8:54PM (UTC)
In a new piece for the "New York Review of Books," historian Christopher Browning warns that there are troubling parallels between the present-day United States and the days of fascism's rise in Europe.
Browning, a specialist in the areas of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and world war-era Europe, isn't arguing that President Donald Trump is a modern Adolf Hitler or that Trumpism is akin to Nazism. But he does argue that certain stress fractures in the society and the international order appear to be re-emerging and that these patterns portend troubling trends for the United States and the rest of the world.
And there is one figure in American politics that Browning does see as a relatively direct and troubling analog to a crucial world war-era figure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, is becoming "the gravedigger of American democracy," Browning wrote, a role played for Germany beginning in the 1930s by President Paul von Hindenburg.
Hindenburg didn't defend democracy in Germany. Instead, he unleashed emergency powers in 1930 to appoint chancellors to skirt over political divisions in parliament. Eventually, Hitler became chancellor, when Hindenburg erroneously thought he could be controlled.
Now, McConnell shows a similar disregard for democracy and likewise opens up the country to serious risk, Browning explained:
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. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obamas first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnells unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the steal of Antonin Scalias seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.
Continues...
https://www.salon.com/2018/10/05/historian-of-nazism-explains-why-gop-senate-leader-mitch-mcconnell-is-the-gravedigger-of-american-democracy_partner/
Moscow Mitch, the Gravedigger of Democracy sums up whats at stake.
Historian Christopher Browning compares the GOP senate leader to Germany's Paul von Hindenburg
by CODY FENWICK, AlterNet, OCTOBER 5, 2018 8:54PM (UTC)
In a new piece for the "New York Review of Books," historian Christopher Browning warns that there are troubling parallels between the present-day United States and the days of fascism's rise in Europe.
Browning, a specialist in the areas of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and world war-era Europe, isn't arguing that President Donald Trump is a modern Adolf Hitler or that Trumpism is akin to Nazism. But he does argue that certain stress fractures in the society and the international order appear to be re-emerging and that these patterns portend troubling trends for the United States and the rest of the world.
And there is one figure in American politics that Browning does see as a relatively direct and troubling analog to a crucial world war-era figure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, is becoming "the gravedigger of American democracy," Browning wrote, a role played for Germany beginning in the 1930s by President Paul von Hindenburg.
Hindenburg didn't defend democracy in Germany. Instead, he unleashed emergency powers in 1930 to appoint chancellors to skirt over political divisions in parliament. Eventually, Hitler became chancellor, when Hindenburg erroneously thought he could be controlled.
Now, McConnell shows a similar disregard for democracy and likewise opens up the country to serious risk, Browning explained:
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. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obamas first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnells unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the steal of Antonin Scalias seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.
Continues...
https://www.salon.com/2018/10/05/historian-of-nazism-explains-why-gop-senate-leader-mitch-mcconnell-is-the-gravedigger-of-american-democracy_partner/
Moscow Mitch, the Gravedigger of Democracy sums up whats at stake.
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Mitch won't release his records, including the reference to a Courts Martial.
Kid Berwyn
Oct 2019
#40
If we keep the House & win the WH & McConnell is still Majority Leader, we're still fucked.
CrispyQ
Oct 2019
#8
Except that the DOJ will once again work for the people. That's pretty big. n/t
Whiskeytide
Oct 2019
#11
Seeing McConnell go down hard, will be just as satisfying as seeing Trump go down hard. nt.
Stuart G
Oct 2019
#15
Moscow Mitch will have many Russian speaking backers to get his numbers back up to 25% and
uponit7771
Oct 2019
#17
mcCONnell will throw tRump under the bus rather than lose his election. . . . nt
Bernardo de La Paz
Oct 2019
#20
And probably his best avenue to save the GOP, by getting Trump out asap. That gives him 9 months or
OnDoutside
Oct 2019
#45
McConnell's actual vote total is always much higher than the polls show. Don't celebrate yet.
Midnight Writer
Oct 2019
#34