Where to begin?

James Clyburn, the House Minority Whip and perhaps the man most responsible for saving Joe Biden’s career and getting him to the White House, has gone full Godwin.

Never go full Godwin.

For those of you unfamiliar with Godwin’s Law, it refers to an observation by Mike Godwin made in 1990 that “the longer an internet argument goes on, the higher the probability becomes that something or someone will be compared to Adolf Hitler.” In other words, impassioned discussions inevitably end in the assertion that your opponent is utterly evil.

Fox News has the exclusive report:

“This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany when it was the greatest democracy going, when it elected a chancellor that then co-opted the media,” Clyburn told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “This past president called the press the enemy of the people. That is a bunch of crap. And that is what’s going on in this country.”

Clyburn is obviously echoing and amplifying the closing message the Democrats have been selling and that the public has not been buying. And in the belief that people tuning out your message must not be listening hard enough, Clyburn, the Democrats, and the MSM have decided to scream the same BS even louder hoping that sheer volume will make you relent.

House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn: "This country is on track to repeat what happened in Germany in the 1930s [if Republicans win]." pic.twitter.com/lbkdPXVCMQ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 4, 2022

Of course the opposite is true. People just get angrier at you because you are screaming the same BS they know is false, and their ears are beginning to hurt.

Clyburn unsurprisingly rejects the idea that Democrats demonizing their opponents is bad or wrong, because reasons…

The president’s harsh rhetoric of Trump supporters is entirely different, according to Clyburn, because Biden is directing his attacks at a “philosophy” and not an individual.

When asked why Americans should vote to keep Democrats in control of Congress, despite record-high inflation and rising gas prices, Clyburn downplayed economic concerns.

“I think that people should be voting in their own self-interest. And their self-interest is much more than what you may or may not be paying for gas or a loaf of bread.”

Clyburn went on to suggest that the choice between Democrats and Republicans is whether to vote for democracy or autocracy, echoing President Biden’s Wednesday night speech.

What struck me about Clyburn’s statements was not his once again proving Godwin right. Nazi analogies are frequent; mostly from the Left these days, but conservatives do it too. I have done it, although I am hardly proud of it. It is just so easy. It also always fails to persuade. Even if the literal Nazis came back tomorrow it would take a while for people to take a description of them as Nazis seriously because the reference is so overused.

What struck me instead was the praising of the Weimar Republic as “the greatest democracy going.” Wait? What? Huh? Where did he get that?

The Weimar Republic is remembered as utterly failed. Hyperinflation, the complete collapse during the Depression, moral depravity.

I guess we have one (moral depravity), are headed toward two (hyperinflation), and by God I hope to avoid the third, but fear we may not.

Is that what Clyburn actually believes was the greatest democracy going? Better than the United States? A Republic that collapsed after a bit more than a decade, and one that wound up with Hitler being appointed dictator by the president,, due to the utter failure of the government and collapse of support?

I am not certain what to think of Clyburn’s bizarre take on history. Is he merely ignorant? That is by far the best explanation, or at least most comforting. Does he see in Biden a Hindenburg figure–a doddering and incompetent leader whose mental faculties were fading and whose grasp on politics was never great and at the end was clearly beyond awful? After all, as president he appointed Hitler.

We have all gotten so used to the hyperbole in politics that nobody is going to look twice at what Clyburn said except to either echo or ridicule it.

But I actually think it matters that the 2nd most powerful member of the House of Representatives has such a bizarre take on political history. How and why the Nazis took power in Germany actually matters,  because the lesson from history matters.

That Clyburn doesn’t actually understand that it is his party–through Biden– that presents the very real threat that our Republic could become destabilized. That is kinda scary.

Destroying the economy, undermining the family, churches, and the educational system does have serious consequences. It is the Democrats who are attacking the very foundations of our social and political stability. Not the Republicans.

Republicans have their own failings, but we don’t spend all our time trying to rewrite the constitution without going through the legal process; we aren’t talking about packing the courts; we don’t declare something unconstitutional and then do it anyway. We don’t force churches to violate their moral principles by funding things they consider immoral. We aren’t putting drag queens and groomers in schools. We didn’t cause the inflation, energy prices to soar, the formula shortage. We opposed COVID fascism.

That’s on Democrats. That’s Weimar Republic-level stupidity. If we are in the Weimar Republic phase of politics, then Joe Biden is Paul von Hindenburg. The elected president who actually appointed Hitler. Hitler was not elected to be dictator. A doddering fool appointed him.

Let’s hope Clyburn is as wrong about America’s fate as he is about the desirability of the Weimar Republic. Because if America is like the Weimar Republic, which Clyburn apparently admire, we are actually screwed.