Return of the German Volk

by Roger Cohen, NYT, SEPT. 29, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/opinion/german-election-afd.html?comments#permid=24251428

I find it very interesting that this right-ward shift is happening world-wide. Yes, the German swing to "Volk" and "völkisch" is especially worrisome, but it has startling similarities with Trump's "Make America Great Again" and the Brexit emphasis on "taking back control". The trends in Poland, Hungary and Turkey are much more overtly aimed at destroying democratic institutions, but with the same nationalist fervor.

This phenomenon will hopefully run its course without world-wide conflagration, but only if the societal and especially democratic institutions remain up to the task. In Germany this means in the short run forming a stable government which learns to deal "democratically" with the anti-democratic AfD. In the longer run the outcome will be determined by how well Germany deals with "integration", both the integration of the old East Germany (there are huge cultural and social differences, as demonstrated by the relative popularity of the AfD in East and West), and the integration of the new refugees, as well as the better integration of the previous waves of "guest workers".

In the US it will mean surviving the incompetence and idiocy of two of the three democratic pillars - the Presidency and Congress, both currently completely dysfunctional. The judicial system is the only one, which still seems to be partially functional. The current Constitution, with its artificial two-party system, where radical strains can co-opt an entire party, may not be up to the task.