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First as tragedy, then as farce: Stab in the back, derp version

Some very well-meaning people, like this, have a warning for America: Trump will do to us what right wing Germans did to the feeble Weimar Republic, and aver that he was defeated only by a "stab in the back", and usher in a right wing insurgency until he's returned to the White House as perpetual dictator.

However, of course, Germany in 1918 isn't America in 2020/2021.

I tire of these comparisons, that we're just one act away from dictatorship. This trope has been peddled for the past four years. I'm not saying don't be vigilant. However, do have an appreciation that one state's history is not like another's, and that what obtained a century ago doesn't auger current events. At best, history rhymes, and often in an off-rhyme.

For example:
Germany had never been a republic, a democracy. It didn't have centuries of democratic governance behind it. It had no one of stature defending the republic. There was a vacuum, and it was filled by totalitarians of the right and left.

But, moreover: The German right was laser-focused in who it was targeting for it's "stab in the back" narrative. The Left. Jews. "Cosmopolitans". It didn't attack fellow travelers, even if they were not as locked into the narrative.

One look at the tweet highlighting this piece tells you all you need to know about whom Trumpists are targeting. Evil Democrats are a second thought. The main culprits are weak-kneed Republican governors who won't intervene to award Trump the election. This is a combination of the stab-in-the-back and "the call is coming from inside the house".

What Trump is doing is a stab in the back from other Republicans. They were too weak to do what needed to be done to preserve freedom via coup and dictatorship, which is the opposite of that German rightists did.

Trump is nothing but a ball of animus and grievance. And he's turned that animus and grievance not against the Americans who voted against him, but at those in his party who didn't secure him re-election. Those who didn't vote for him don't matter; it's those that did, and who didn't do so in large enough numbers, who have betrayed him. They stabbed him in the back. And they must now suffer perdition and despoilment. He will destroy the party which has marched in lockstep with him because it was not fit for his purposes.

And then there's this:
"Yeah, sure, we dodged the bullet this time, but next time some smarter fascist will come along, and we'll be Nazi Germany!!!"

Sigh. History teaches me not to preclude anything. But history also teaches me that to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Instead of fretting, how about organizing? That's what that community organizer who served as president for eight years tried to teach us. Doomscrolling does nothing but dispirit people. What that community organizer tried to teach us, and still tries to teach us, is that the power is in our hands, if we do the work.

The "stab in the back" is a circular firing squad, and may net us two Senate seats in Georgia. These are not smart people, and things got out of hand.
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