Instead of letting Germany rebuild from former structures, as the Russians did in their sector, while realizing we couldn’t eradicate all former Nazis, we kept a firm steady hand on how West Germany was rebuilt, and remade it into a British style parliamentary democracy, and built in structures that inhibited a rebirth of the old strongman-at-the-top National Socialist/Socialist/Imperial structures of the past that led to repression and war. The coalitions of the recent past have been unwieldy, but at the same time proof that democracy is holding. Merkel’s four terms as Chancellor proved that a calm, reasonable steady hand at the top works better than either an uncompromising party-leader-for-life, or a let’s-do-nothing bureaucrat.
The postwar anti-militarist sentiment remains strong in western Germany-even much of the east is catching on-and religious dominance is low. That’s the way the people like it here, and that’s why Germany has immigration issues. People LIKE the stability here, despite the crowding and high costs, and inevitable inefficiencies. When top politicians in the USA start mouthing sentiments that remind Germans of what started their worst episode a century ago, they start to get very nervous, and rightly so.
I realize that Johnson and Trump couldn’t care less what their rantings sound like in European ears, but there are 500 million Europeans (and Canadians) who do care, and hope they won’t be forced by the American Extremist Right to do anything drastic about it.
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