It came as little shock that Speaker Paul Ryan was a coward with only one goal: repealing the Affordable Care Act and moving to a privatized healthcare system. Less of a shock but more of a disappointment was that he would cower in front of renowned rapist and xenophobe Donald Trump, all for the sake of his one anti-single payer agenda.

It came as more of a shock, and more of a disappointment, that liberal western leaders would succumb to the appealing whims of the xenophobic vote so easily and so soon.

Et tu, Angela Merkel?

In the past few days, Merkel, supposedly the last hope for western liberal democracy, voiced her support for a racist, Islamophobic ban on burqas in Germany. One might suspect that Merkel, who was a champion of open borders in Germany in the early days of the Syrian refugee crisis, could be reversing course so quickly and callously in a ploy to win back votes from the “Alternative For Germany” Party (AfD), a far-right populist movement currently gunning for Merkel’s seat.

Two questions immediately spring to mind:

1. How could Merkel possibly believe that voters drawn to the beliefs of AfD would change their vote to somebody who is obviously parroting one of their key policies to win them over, especially when she will still inevitably be seen as the “Liberal Left?”
2. How could Merkel possibly believe that her own liberal voters (in her own party and otherwise) will not find this act of blatant xenophobia repulsive and thus refuse to support her? What is the plan for explaining this to the Left?

It is a common misconception that renowned genocidal coke addict Adolf Hitler was elected to power, as the Nazis never received enough of the vote to succeed taking power legally.

Instead, Hitler’s day would come at a time when anti-communist, anti-socialist feelings amongst the centrists and the conservative right was so strong, President Hindenburg of Weimar Germany decided he needed to appoint a chancellor who was staunchly anti-communist and would do whatever he could to crush the communist uprising. Hindenburg found his anti-communist populist in Adolf Hitler, and appointed him to the chancellory.

Hitler was able to change enough laws with or without the agreement of the conservative right or the centrists, who had given away their last sliver of power when they handed the reins to the Nazis. Then in 1933, Hitler, having smothered his political opponents with fear or having killed them already, signed the enabling act, ending the Weimar Republic and beginning his 13-year dictatorship. Needless to say, none of this ended well.

When politicians are willing to succumb to the whims of fascists in order to achieve their own personal political goals, whether it be winning an election or getting a piece of legislation passed, the consequences will always be harshest for the helpless.

We must be better.