@Strandjunker
And the Nazis received a lot of money from German industrialists before the decisive elections because they promised them exactly that.

"...no more elections for the next few years or even a hundred years"

@Strandjunker

Trump is trying to make not voting seem like a relief from an onerous burden.

"Freedom from democracy" is a GOP selling point. But to whom?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/30/donald-trump-wont-have-to-vote-anymore-fox-interview

Yes, voting is an onerous burden to the billionaires financing massive public corruption.
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-2-2-trillion-richer-since-2017-trump-gop-tax-law/

They're having to spend a tiny percentage of their net wealth to buy an oligarchy & immunity from taxation.
https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-irs-files-reveal-how-much-the-ultrawealthy-gained-by-shaping-trumps-big-beautiful-tax-cut

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver

@Strandjunker

And Canadians should remember that Austrians didn't get a chance either.

Because the Austrian right wing held the door open for Hitler's army.

@Strandjunker *West Germans, East Germans had to wait to vote in free elections until 1990

Those sham elections where only one party was on the ballot with candidates approved by communist party don’t count.

@Strandjunker Just a casual reminder that Hitler DID NOT WIN that election! He only got a third of the vote, and not even a plurality. He was appointed Chancellor, which was supposed to be a Prime Minister-like position, answerable to the legislature and the President. Seemed harmless.

He had supporters in key positions. They carried out an initially bloodless coup, and then started killing people the same year. People he had grudges against back to the Beer Hall Putsch era were summarily shot.

@Strandjunker

Those who support trump will be the ones who scream and complain the loudest when their rights and freedoms are taken away.

@Strandjunker
And a casual reminder that thanks to the way the Weimar Republic was structured and fundamentally flawed, it is not the democratic process that failed. It's the autocratic reign of Paul von Hindenburg, complete with Franz von Papen's persuasion that they'd sideline Hitler within a year. The Nazis never gained a majority of the seats in the Reichstag and in 1932 the German people were starting to reject them - the share declined due to the improving economic situation and NSDAP was bankrupt. As usual, it's the rich assholes manipulating the system who gave the worst among us power.

It's a pet peeve, but I really wish people stopped using anti-democratic canards like "Germans didn't vote hard enough and we got Hitler".
@redyoshi49q