Trump's Big Lie and the Legacy of 1918 Germany

Donald Trump is following the playbook of the 1918 German Right with his big lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. Unfortunately, by saying it loud and saying it often a good chunk of his followers believes him and have sent him an astounding $175 million since election day.

 

Yesterday Jochen Bittner outlined the German history in an Op-Ed for the New York Times. (See Opinion | 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America - The New York Times (nytimes.com)  Bittner gets most of his history right with the German Army facing imminent defeat in World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates on November 9 leaving the Reichstag in charge of the new Weimar government. It is that government believing in Wilson’s “Peace without Victors” and his Fourteen Points that signs an armistice with the allies on November 11. Where Bittner gets it wrong is that he said that armistice was signed by the German military. The key signatory was Mathias Erzberger, a politician for the Catholic Center Party, a foreign office official and two military officers representing the army and the navy. Erzberger would be assassinated three years later by a rightwing hit squad.

 

Because Germany was never physically invaded a rightwing myth was propagated that defeat came from a “stab in the back” orchestrated by the social democrats, the communists and, of course, the Jews. Instead of quickly dying out the myth grew after the Allies imposed harsh terms on Germany at Versailles in June 1919 and it became part and parcel of the vocabulary of every rightwing party, especially the Nazis. My guess is that like 1918 Germany, Trump’s $175 million is to keep his “They stole it” myth alive.

 

Perhaps more insidious and not mentioned by Bittner, was the success of the German Right in naming the Weimar government as “the November criminals.” This I fear is what Trump will do to President-Elect Biden and the Democrats next year. Once someone is branded a criminal anything goes, including violence. You can already see it in the physical threats made against former Trump officials and the dedicated state and local officials involved in the vote counting and certification processes.

 

We live in scary times and it behooves the Democrats and clear-eyed Republicans to go all out in counteracting Trump’s big lie.