Jon Huer’s guest column (“Why there will be no more elections,” Gazette, July 29) makes an elegant and historically informed case for an impending Trump dictatorship. The central argument is that, as was the case with the Third Reich, there is for him, having set fire to the federal government, no going back. Hence, “there will be no more elections,” just as there were none during the 12 years of the Reich.
Fortunately, I think there are several flaws in the argument. The first is that the U.S. in 2025 is far different from Germany in 1933. True, we have had the recent shocks of the 2008-09 financial crisis and COVID pandemic. But both were skillfully managed by Democratic presidents so that no lasting harm was done to the government. But in 1933 in the depths of the Depression, the unemployment rate in Germany was around 30%. And Germany was still chafing under the draconian sanctions imposed on it by the Allies, principally France, in the Versailles Treaty after World War I. The country was desperate and ready to try a desperate solution.
Our unemployment rate is around 4%, and although MAGA-world is aggrieved about many things, and a lot is wrong in America, none of it can match what befell Germany after 1918. Furthermore, Germany had only become a democracy in 1918, and the Weimar Republic was hated by many in the civil service, the army, the schools and universities, etc. They hoped for a return to a more authoritarian political and social order. Our situation is of course very different. So if Trump were to declare martial law and try to suspend elections in 2026, I believe the great majority of our fellow citizens would refuse to support him. (His approval rating has already dropped to 37% in the latest Gallup poll.)
A second flaw in the argument by Huer is that Hitler, unlike Trump, was a fanatic ideologue. Fired by hatred of the Jews and the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty, he was devoted to the Nazi cause. Trump, by contrast, has no discernible principles whatsoever, aside from personal power and financial gain. He is what is known as a “malignant narcissist.” The minute the markets begin to plummet because of one or another of his outrages, he pulls back. Hence the nickname “TACO” (Trump always chickens out). The markets would crater were he to declare martial law, so he will not try it.
Indeed, such an attempt would make his brand so toxic that even (some of) the cowed Republicans in Congress would refuse to follow his lead. After all, the Supreme Court has bestowed “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution on the president, not on members of Congress. The Republican leadership would have to worry about being tried for treason. So although Huer is right that things are dire right now in the U.S. and democracy itself is under seige, he goes several steps too far in claiming “there will be no more elections.” I hope I am right!
John M. Connolly is Sophia Smith Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Smith College and lives in Haydenville.