The limits of historical analogies

It’s easy to spot historical parallels between the stated Trump agenda and the agenda of Hitler when he was appointed chancellor in 1933. And while I don’t doubt that Trump and his supporters share Hitler’s vision (and in the case of Elon Musk, the sieg heil salute), there are many significant differences in context and circumstances that conspire against a repeat of the Nazi paradigm:

• When he came to power, Hitler was 44 years old; Trump begins his second term at the age of 78;


• In 1933, Germany had only been a country for 62 years (and a parliamentary democracy for only 15 years); the US has been a country for nearly 250 years;


• In 1933, Germany was just recovering from (a) punitive war reparations from a war it had helped instigate and lost, and (b) a world-wide depression and hyperinflation in Germany; the wars the US has lost didn’t result in punitive reparations and we haven’t had a depression since the 1930s;

• Hitler was appointed Chancellor, he didn’t win the position in an election and Hitler was the head of a minority party; Trump won the popular vote in 2024;

• Hitler was allowed to wield unlimited power by von Hindenburg; whether or not Trump is allowed to wield unlimited power will be up to the Roberts SCOTUS, and meanwhile, much of his agenda will be tied up in lower courts;

• Hitler was given four years under the Enabling Act; Trump has two years before midterms, when the party in power historically loses seats and the GOP majorities in Congress are very thin and vulnerable.

Look, Trump can and will do serious damage to American democracy, the American economy and American leadership in the world. He’s already started. But there’s still a lot of daylight between that and a Hitlerian dystopia. Let’s do what we can to limit that damage using the tools the Founding Fathers gave us.

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