History Repeating Itself or Recurring History Denied?

August 2026 Update/Author’s Notes:

In 2022, I posted this on my website. I posed a question that intrigued me then and is even more relevant now – was the January 6^th insurrection analogous to Germany’s experience with the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch (unsuccessful, but laid the groundwork for political success), or to the 1933 Reichstag Arson fire (ultimately successful in Hitler attaining the status of dictator). I speculated that if analogous to the Reichstag fire, we may be ok, as the failure of insurrection resulted in hundreds of convictions and, with more time, would likely have resulted in the indictment and conviction of Trump (prompting the riot with his lies, and stealing, retaining, and hiding government property). If this happened, historical recurrence would have been denied.

But what if January 6^th was more analogous to the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and even though unsuccessful, it prepared the country for Trump’s political resurgence? Looking back a little more than four years, there are many other signs that 2024 and its election aftermath, is likely history repeating itself.

Here are just a few examples:

Though gaining support, the Nazi party was broke in 1932. In February of 1933 there was a secret meeting between Hitler, other Nazi leaders and top executives from I.G.Farben and Krupp. In return for promising to destroy the trade unions and communists, Hitler raised the equivalent of about thirty million dollars.

He made a deal and was financially rewarded. Trump has been doing and continues to make such deals every day, some in secret and some in the open. Trump is not only raising political funds, but also getting personally rich in the process.

Hitler had his Brown Shirts. Trump has his own federal militia in ICE. After declaring an emergency in 1933 (after the fire), Hitler began to write his own legislation, outlawed the Communist Party, took over important institutions, and generally consolidated his authority. Trump, since his first day in office, has used Executive Orders as legislation, began to take over institutions, dictated operational and staffing mandates to media and other companies, taken equity interests and selective control over many private corporations with federal funding, and more. Hitler had extravagant and beloved plans (he was trained as an architect) to modernize Berlin but the war put those plans on hold. Trump is radically changing the built environment of Washington D.C. in his own perceived image. But instead of putting these plans on hold during a war, he has (as of August 2026) put the war with Iran on hold.

Hitler had an enemies list; Trump has one too. Hitler dehumanized Jews (portrayed as not even being human); Trump dehumanizes immigrants and people of color generally, referring to them as animals, murderers, rapists, garbage, and generally people who “poison the blood of America.” Mein Kampf, Chapter 11: “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.”

There are more comparisons to be made, but my point here is it appears, at least as of now, that the January 6^th insurrection, just like the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, was a warmup for the resurgence of fascism to come.

Original Post:

“I’ve got news for Mr. Santayana: we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive.” Kurt Vonnegut.

I cannot bring myself to agree with Mr. Vonnegut.  I have to believe, I want to believe, that we, as humans, are capable of learning from the past.  But human nature is pliable and prone to respond and react in a similar manner when circumstances provide fertile ground for a repeat of history.  Go back a couple of decades and it would be unimaginable that a human atrocity like the Holocaust would ever be dismissed, let alone repeated.  But as holocaust survivor Victor Frankl reminds us “no nation is immune…and in this respect every nation is in principle capable of a Holocaust!”  For many in this country, the first step in this process has already begun – denying its very occurrence!  And as Hannah Arendt reminds us, it does not take a majority to overturn a democracy and install a totalitarian regime.  Elites and mobs are drawn to totalitarianism by the nature of their circumstances and self-interest.  What is needed is propaganda and the appropriation of public space with that propaganda to bring along the masses.  In the meantime, it is indifference of the masses while tragic events unfold that germinates the thorny emergence of fascism.

What might we learn from history that has relevance in our current (2021) post-Trumpian political reality?  As a reminder, Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election.  But in so doing, he received the second highest popular vote count in history, second only to the winner of the 2020 election, Joseph Biden.  This impressive accomplishment came in spite of decades of racial animosity, misogyny, con games, fraud, tax evasion, failed and bankrupted enterprises and a practice of stiffing contractors and workers who could not compete in a judicial arena to press their rights – and this is prior to his Presidency.  As President, he never placed his assets in trust; he used his position to enhance earnings at his hotels and golf resorts; he and his children were enriched on account of his position; he failed to protect our military when Russia placed bounties on the lives of our troops; he demeaned a former POW, the late Senator John McCain, for getting captured, while Trump avoided the draft based upon “bone spurs.”  He abandoned allies and praised dictators.  He dismissed science and, through a mixture of incompetence and indifference, caused the COVID pandemic unnecessarily to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.  He separated children, including infants from their mothers seeking asylum; he worked to undermine democratic institutions, including the judiciary, to further his personal agenda, and he promoted the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was rigged.  He told the White Nationalist group, the Proud Boys to “stand down and stand by,” as part of a seditionist campaign that culminated in the January 6, 2021 siege and despoilment of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. as members of congress met to validate the 2020 election but first had to flee in panic fearing for their very lives.  And at the rally preceding the January 6^th riot, Trump showed a film with an uber-nationalist theme and it is beyond doubt that the image used of Chuck Schumer, the new Democratic majority leader, speaking with what appeared to be a Jewish prayer shawl, was meant to signal to the audience that they are being replaced, echoing the chants in 2017 of White nationalists in Charlottesville that “Jews will not replace us.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters. January 27, 2021

What I am pondering is how these events resonate, if at all, with events that occurred in Germany in the run-up to the Second World War.  More specifically, if there is a parallel. If so, would it be more appropriate to view our recent history and current events as a replay of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch or the1933 arson attack of the Reichstag?  If the latter, then there may be a case that democratic institutions held firm and we can work towards accountability and reconciliation.  But if the former, we need to ask whether or not the January 6^th attempted coup is a prelude for what lies ahead.

“If you want to save your heritage, you want to save that beautiful heritage of ours, we have a great heritage, we’re a great country,” he said to cheers, using a phrase often used to defend Confederate statues and regalia.  Trump quoted at a Tulsa rally.
June 21, 2020 article in the Washington Post by Jose A. Del Real

We can start with the events leading up to November, 1923.  Adolf Hitler fought in World War I (actually as a messenger, though such an assignment was not without danger). He came out of that experience disgusted with the defeat, with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and with the democratic government established as the Weimer Republic in 1919.  The post-war period was not a time for internal political peace.  Many political parties operated in the republic, and this caused vote-splitting and regular parliamentary dissolutions and new elections.  The Communist Party and the Social Democratic party competed for political dominance and worker allegiance.  For the period leading up to the 1930s, the Social Democratic party held power in coalition with other smaller parties, keeping the Communist Party from controlling the country. 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.  It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”  Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich

After the war, Hitler was hired as a spy for the police, who were intent on infiltrating and destroying the Communist Party.  As an assignment, Hitler attended meetings of the German Workers Party.  Intrigued by the party’s nationalism and anti-Semitism he joined the party in 1919.  Impressed with his oratory skills, by 1921 Hitler was leading the party that was renamed the Nazi party.  Thousands attended his rallies to hear him speak about German pride and anti-Semitism, tapping into grievances mostly concerning treatment of Germans due to Jews, government leadership and the prevailing European powers from the First World War.  Reverting to recent history, consider the grievances fed to MAGA Republicans in the second decade of the 21^st Century. There were constant appeals to White Nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-Semitism, anti-Black and anti-Brown sentiments, along with far out conspiracy theories.  When it became clear that Trump lost the 2020 election, Trump used the levers of government to try and undo the will of the people.  He pushed his Department of Justice to investigate fraud.  They found none.  He pushed Republican Attorneys General to advocate on his behalf.  They did, with one suing in Supreme Court to overturn the election of a separate state.  He pushed lawyers to file scores of frivolous lawsuits on his behalf, with all being thrown out of court.  But still he pushed the “Big Lie” and maintained a majority of Republicans believing him.

On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrests of 13 men suspected of orchestrating a domestic terror plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, and otherwise violently overthrow the state government. The suspects were tied to a paramilitary militia group that called themselves the Wolverine Watchmen…Wikpedia

In 1923, Hitler plotted with a Bavarian general and Nazi Party members to overthrow the government of Bavaria.  They plotted to kidnap a state commissioner and other conservative politicians.  They did this in an attempt to start a revolution in Germany and overthrow the Weimar Republic. 

Without military assistance as planned and in the temporary absence of Hitler due to problems arising elsewhere in Bavaria, the coup failed.  Hitler was caught, tried and sentenced to five years in jail for insurrection.  He spent only one year in jail, dictated Mein Kampf, and became a national hero, a martyr for the cause of Aryan nationalism. 

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene reportedly received a standing ovation from her GOP colleagues following revelations of her apparent support for “false flag” school shootings and QAnon conspiracy theories as well as a legacy of antisemitic and racist comments.
2/2/21 Independent article by Alex Woodward

The 1920s was a period that began with Germany straining with the oppressive debt imposed upon it by the Treaty of Versailles. This misery was compounded by oppressive tariffs that stifled German trade, further reducing its economic output. But after the debt was restructured in 1924, there was a brief period of relative prosperity in Germany. During this period, the Nazi Party did gain adherents.  But by 1928, there was a sense that perhaps the Nazi Party would not long maintain its political relevance.  In that year, it received less than 3% of the vote.  But things were going to change, and this brings us to the arson attack on the Reichstag in 1933.

In a country where gun ownership and firearms training are seen by the far right as inalienable, all-American freedoms, the military is a ripe breeding ground for disaffected men looking for individual empowerment, a sense of belonging, and just such training. In fact, a recent New York  Times investigation claims that veterans and active-duty military members make up more than a fifth of the membership of America’s 300 anti-government, pro-Trump “militia”groups. According to a 2019 survey by the Military Times about a quarter of active-duty service members reported witnessing signs of white nationalist ideology among their fellow soldiers, including racist and anti-Semitic slurs and homemade explosives shaped like swastikas.
10/29/20 article by Andrea Mazzarino in the Nation

Background and circumstances paved the way for Hilter’s rise to power, along with monetary support from the corporate sector.  Relative prosperity in Germany came to an abrupt end soon after the 1929 Stock Market crash in the U.S.  By 1930, unemployment in Germany rose to about 30%.  There was hardship, misery, and the ground was laid for a vengeful resurgence of grievances. 

The German constitution had some very interesting provisions.  There was a democratically elected President and legislative chamber.  But the 1919 Constitution provided for a number of things that would be the republic’s undoing, including:

• Presidential power to dismiss the cabinet,
• Presidential power to dissolve the Reichstag,
• Under Article 48, assumption of dictatorial power by the President in cases of emergency.

In 1930, two years after only receiving 3% of the vote, the Nazi party received over 18% of the vote, seeing its seats in the Reichstag increase from 12 to 107 seats.  In 1932, the Nazis became the largest party, with 37% of the votes, giving them 230 seats, but still not a majority.  Largely with the support of the Nazi Party, Paul von Hindenburg, the World War I general, was re-elected President and, despite misgivings, felt compelled to name Hitler as Chancellor in 1933.  As Chancellor, Hitler began to fill government posts with Nazis, expanded the Gestapo, and empowered citizen law enforcement/security groups under his control to engage in mob violence against enemies.  Given continued problems with forming a government, new elections were scheduled for 1933.

Far-right group Proud Boys claim they will attend January 6 rally ‘incognito’ and wear all black to blend in with antifa protestors.  Headline of article.
Joshua Zitser, 1/3/21, Business Insider

Prior to the elections, Hitler enrolled 50,000 Nazi SA men as police and began raiding communist headquarters under the pretense that they were engaged in seditionist activity to attack government officials and buildings.  On the 27^th of February, 1933 the Reichstag was firebombed.  Hitler (who was probably behind the arson, but this was never proved) accuses the Communists of trying to take over the government.  In this charge that was probably 1933’s version of the “Big Lie,” Hindenburg invokes Article 48, outlawing assembly, free speech, privacy, press.  He legalized phone taps, intercepted mail and federalized all government authority under him.  After elections in March, the Reichstag consolidated all legislative power in the Chancellor.  In August of 1934 Hindenburg died.  Using that legislative authority, Hitler merged the positions of President and Chancellor, outlawed all parties except the Nazi Party, proceeded to infuse Naziism into all government agencies and private social groups, continued and increased his campaign of Aryan nationalism, while further demonizing and de-humanizing Jews.  The rest is history.

“As this was unfolding on television, Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building. That was happening. He was delighted.”
1/8/21 Lexi Lonas, The Hill quoting Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb).

All this is to say, that we may be in a 1923 Beer Hall or a 1933 Reichstag moment in this country.  But if it is the former, then look to Trump’s base, and look to people like Majorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Josh Hawley as the possible heirs to Trumpism.  Is it possible to say that what lies behind the actions on January 6^th was our equivalent to the1923 Beer Hall Putsch and thus a prelude to the rise of fascism in this country?  Or, is the January 6^th riotous act more equivalent to the 1933 firebombing of the Reichstag, only that in our case the act failed, thus marking the beginning of the end of MAGA fascist relevance.  In the years ahead, look to ongoing propaganda, the relentless fueling of grievances and the continued absorption of public space by frivolous distractions, lies, conspiracy theories, and intrigue.  If Trump had won a second term, think of the damage he would have done to existing democratic institutions, including the Department of Justice, our judiciary, border patrol, the military, local law enforcement agencies, to name just a few.  Think of the support self-proclaimed militia groups would have had, facilitating further growth in membership due to a belief that the next Civil War was just around the corner.  Regardless, these social forces remain with us and will continue to fester if not addressed.  From there, it could only take another major national crisis to be our undoing.  A resurgence of our own unique brand of Nazism is not so far-fetched.