Hitler was not elected Chancellor. Or Fuhrer. FIFY.

Jul 1, 2024, 11:59 AM

Response to this thread:

https://www.tigernet.com/clemson-forum/thread/can-we-discuss-the-defending-of-democracy-2360241?tstart=0

Hitler of course in the early '20s became the face of NSDAP (the Nazi party).

He and his crew tried to overthrow the failing Weimar Republic in '23 (Beerhall Putsch). It failed.
He got a few years for treason and served about a year. This is when he wrote Mein Kampf, which of course formed the basis of all of his messaging, his persona. It organized his thoughts, and laid them out for all to see.

When he got out of the clink in late '24, he was the face of NSDAP. It's alter-ego.
And though he was famously shiftless and lazy (read Hanfstaengl's "Hitler"), he wasn't a moron.
He knew he couldn't steal power.(Read Speer's "Inside the Third Reich.")

He set out to gain it constitutionally.

Which he did by slowly coalescing a crap ton of political power on the planks of a sort of quasi-populist nationalist/prosperity political gospel -- the "Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer." message.

And it worked.

By the early 30s, the Nazis were a legit power and, together with a coalition of other, conservative parties, pressured tired old President Hindenburg (who famously called Hilter "that Bohemian corporal") to name Hitler Chancellor...and that's exactly what he did.

He was not elected. He was appointed.

Then someone set fire to the Capitol building (the Reichstag). Most historians think the Nazis torched it. But it doesn't matter. In that moment, Hitler seized the opportunity to go from Chancellor to Fuhrer, famously saying that anyone who stood in the Nazis way would be "cut down."

A little while later, they passed a law allowing Hitler (who by now thought of himself as the spiritual embodiment of the will of the people, their father, their fuhrer) to do anything he (and the Nazis) and wanted.

And just like that, a dictatorship was born ... entirely through democratic means.

So for those who think Jan. 06 was Trump's attempt to overthrow the government, think again. That was a clumsy populist demonstration, not a failed coup d'etat.

HOWEVER, TRUMP has assumed to himself the spirit of that very poignant moment. He now embodies it. He's been convicted of a felony. He's in many ways the face of what tens of millions of Americans feel is wrong with America. And in many ways, he's their revenge.

What he does with it that power -- and how Project 2025 manifests it -- is what a lot of folks are closely watching. Including myself.

I am not a historian, so forgive any errors here.