"What a difference 80 years makes. In an astonishing role reversal, German leaders, along with those of Denmark, the Baltics, Poland, and other European allies, have become the global defenders of liberal democracy meaning free elections, free press and free speech. Meantime, the White House embraces extremist far right parties across Europe, including in Great Britain and France. Yet nowhere is this mind-bending shift as stunning as in the continuing White House slander against the democratic government of Germany, long one of America's closest allies."
"The Trump administration is demanding that Germany's governing parties welcome the unapologetically neofascist Alternative fur Deutschland party (known as the AfD) into their coalition government. The new U.S. National Security Strategy labels the German government's refusal to do this as a subversion of democratic processes. This Trumpian newspeak about Germany to use George Orwell's term for the distorted terminology of authoritarians reveals an indifference to (or ignorance of) history that endangers not only Europe but the United States."
After World War II Allied occupation focused on rebuilding West Germany's economy and democratic institutions with returning opponents of Hitler. Over recent decades Germany and many European allies became staunch defenders of liberal democracy, including free elections, free press and free speech. The U.S. White House under Trump has embraced extremist far‑right parties across Europe and pressured Germany to welcome the unapologetically neofascist Alternative fur Deutschland into coalition government, while labeling German refusal a subversion of democratic processes. Germany maintains legal measures and a domestic intelligence agency to monitor and resist neofascist and right‑wing extremist threats to the constitution.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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