this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
1902 points (90.2% liked)

Political Memes

5615 readers
1530 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure you gathered that this demonstrates that simply being a proportional representation parliament didn't stop far right parties from gaining power, it perhaps even enabled it, as in first past they may have had far less seats.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

simply being a proportional representation parliament didn’t stop far right parties from gaining power

No. Because the power that the far right party accrued came - first and foremost - from the German military officers' corpse and their allies in private industry. The original Beer Hall Putsch wasn't the result of an election, it was a straight coup. And the leader of that insurrection got turned into a national martyr by propagandists and right-wing agitators thanks to good old fashioned jackboots-on-the-ground rabble rousing.

The German populace was ripe for this kind of agitprop because so many of them - not unfairly - considered their dire economic condition the consequence of foreign government officials who were siphoning off national wealth to profit private industry abroad. This, combined with the White Terror of the 30s to suppress union organizing and the enormous outside investment by American and British Fascists, gave the German movement the legs it needed to compete politically on a national stage.

in first past they may have had far less seats

Largely dependent on the distribution of voters across districts. Historically, FPTP combined with an aggressive gerrymandering of districts, creates seats that are safer for incumbents. But, as we saw in the States, these "safe" seats are still vulnerable to intra-party insurrection.

But all this is secondary to the rapid incorporation of the German Friekorps into the Nazi movement. This gave the party the kind of military muscle that made the election a secondary concern. Even if the Nazis hadn't won a plurality of seats, they could have just as easily used the organized violence of the state militia to extract concessions through another coup (or at least the threat of one).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is all true....and irrelevant to the point being made.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

"People who refused to vote for Biden" meme is skittering by the innumerable instances in which elections are simply stolen or the results overturned in coups.