In a Civil War you’re at least fighting for something. The worst case is losing without a fight, which is precisely where America is heading now.

Dr. William Horne expands on this in his ‘White Backlash’ graduate course. I expand on his argument referencing Eric D. Weitz’s book Weimar Germanyhere. But it’s really common sense. As the kids book goes, if you give a mouse a coupie, pretty soon he’s going to overthrow your government.

Pre-Nazi Germany

Americans keep harking back to their own Civil War, but the real parallel is pre-Nazi Germany, and their lack thereof. Germany never rebelled against Nazi rule. Remember that. Germany’s political parties let the Nazis into the Reichstag without a fight, then Nazis burned that motherfucker down and cemented minority rule for 12 years. This is precisely what’s happening in America today.

Fascists have already lobotomized the Republican Party and the Democrats have lobotomized themselves. The only people organized are the Far-Reich, and the most organized people win. While Democrats control two branches of government, the judiciary is completely corrupted. This means that right wing mobs have a license to kill, run over protesters, and coup if they want to.

Courting Disaster

As Eric D. Weitz wrote about pre-Nazi Germany, “The courts were notorious bastions of conservatism that barely prosecuted acts of terror committed by the Right, while they assiduously pursued the Left.”

In case you hadn’t noticed, the American Supreme Court is stuffed by Trump, lower courts have been stuffed by Republicans for decades. In Wisconsin they set a precedent for just shooting protestors, state legislators have legalized running them over, and the police have military equipment and a license to kill. America’s border Gestapo is allowed to be Gestapo within 100 miles of a border, ie everywhere. The law won’t protect you from shit. The fix is in.

A Congress With Fools

At the same time, Republicans and corrupt Democrats (the ‘center’ of American politics is actual corporate corruption) have completely gummed up their Congress to the point that people would welcome knocking it down. Which is precisely what the Nazis did to the Reichstag.

Like Weimar Germany, America has become “ungovernable through normal parliamentary mechanisms.” The majority party can’t even pass legislation by majority vote. As Weitz said, “The Nazis never had any intention of working productively within the system. They simply used all the legislatures in Germany, from the Reichstag to the Landtage to city councils, as arenas of propaganda.”