Today’s political culture can seem fragmented and chaotic in ways that echo the turmoil of Weimar’s final months. Trump and the GOP warn their side that Democrats want "to destroy our country,” with Trump repeatedly calling Harris a “Marxist, communist, fascist person.” His billionaire ally Elon Musk warned in a podcast interview released Monday that if Trump loses, it will be the "last election" and Trump's campaign shared it on social media. Meanwhile, those backing Harris and the Democrats point out that Trump has not promised to accept the results of the election, and watch with trepidation as some of his right-wing supporters seem to be preparing for post-election violence.
While comparing any modern political figure to those of this era is fraught, Weimar Germany remains one of modern history's most infamous examples of the collapse of a democracy and the rise of authoritarianism. Donald Trump's attitude toward the peaceful transfer of power—demonstrated most notoriously on Jan. 6, 2021, and again on Sunday, when he stated at a rally in Pennsylvania that he "shouldn’t have left” office—and other elements of his platform do raise the specter of systemic collapse. But this close look at the events of the early 1930s suggests the U.S. is much better positioned than Germany was to avoid the slide into authoritarianism for one critical reason.
Americans of the political left, center, and even parts of the right who see an existential threat in a Trump victory have pulled together in a way that parties in the Weimar Republic did not. Former GOP stalwarts like Liz and Dick Cheney and leftists like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have all spoken up against Trump and pledged their support to Harris. Republicans for Harris are likewise out in force, muting their policy disagreements for the time being.
Under Weimar, political infighting made it impossible to present a united front against rising authoritarianism. Today, the center right and center left are unified in their efforts to prevent that shift. They may yet fail, but it won’t be because they resigned themselves to defeat.