Australian democracy has enough structural weaknesses that it’s not hard to imagine what’s happening in the US happening here too
Among Donald Trump’s many achievements is the re-normalisation of actual Nazis as legitimised participants in the civic debate. There they are, marching, flag-waving, race-baiting and punching on. The irony — that a thing called Antifa even needs to exist today — was lost long ago.
Hitler, it is often noted, rose to power and completed all of his work without ever breaking a law. The Nazi Party participated in democratic elections, he was invited to become chancellor by president Hindenburg, the Reichstag passed an emergency decree and every Fuhrer Directive he made after that was, in strict legal terms, valid. His crimes against humanity weren’t even recognised by international law as such until after he’d lost the war.
Trump also acquired power democratically. He has no intention of surrendering it, and I’ve already explained one possible means by which he might lawfully keep it. The US constitution’s fatal flaw is its failure to deliver power in accordance with Lincoln’s command: America’s government is not, under the law, made by the people.
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