The Decline of the West

I have watched the slow motion carcrash known as the US Senate impeachment hearings. It was not a pretty picture.

But if the truth be told the only surprises were that even the red-state Democrats and still somewhat surprisingly Mitt Romney showed that they have a moral compass and are willing to put their beliefs ahead of their personal gain.

If only that could be said of the shenanigans in the former East German State of Thuringia.

Since the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany the main conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)has been accused of being blind in their right eye ie could only see danger from the left and actually absorbed many ex-Nazi's into their ranks, as long as they had gone through the miracle of the Persilschein- the certificate which "washed" (ex)Nazis of their Nazi past. For those of you who are a little hazy on this I recommend Uli Edel's "Baader Meinhof Complex or Giulio Ricciarelli's "Labyrinth of Lies".

But I digress.

The State of Thuringia has 1.7mm inhabitants and has a history of being left of center. In 2014, Bodo Ramelow, a former West German who was investigated by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, (wouldn't it be great to have such a ministry in the USA) for alleged contacts in the 1980's with the German Communist Party who are outlawed in Germany, became Minister President for Thuringia.

This caused quite a stir as Ramelow had moved to Thuringia after the fall of the wall in 1989 to join the successor to the former East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) which then morphed into a new party called The Left.

Ramelow required the backing of the left of center Social Democrats (SPD) which caused quite the furore as the SED was the East German Communist Party and left many (former) West Germans wondering just what had they incorporated into their Federal Republic.

As it turned out, Ramelow was anything but a left wing radical and ran the government fairly well and was expected to be returned in the next election, again requiring support from the SPD. At the 2019 elections he won 31% of the vote. Because he did not achieve a majority there was something akin to the Iowa caucuses where Ramelow ran against the rightwing Alternative for Germany AfD who had garnered 23% of the vote. In the first two rounds of voting amongst the delegates no one achieved a majority so in the third round, Thomas Kemmerich, the one of the delegates for the Liberal Democrats of Germany (LDP) which had won 5% of the vote decided to stand for Minister President between the left, Bodo Ramelow, and the right, the faschist Bjoern Hoecke.

In a clever move, knowing that the CDU who had garnered 21% of the vote would vote for Kemmerich as they couldn't vote for that "left wing wacko" Ramelo, the AfD with their 23% of the vote switched over to Kemmerich thereby becoming the "kingmakers".

This smelled very much of how Hitler came through the backdoor during the Weimar Republic.

It has disgraced the FDP, called the CDU into even more question then they already were under their new party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), and demonstrated that even though they haven't yet become the largest party at the State or National level that the AfD if nothing else is definitely politically astute- aren't most authoritarian populists- and left Germany reeling.

Stop press. As I am writing this Thomas Kemmerich, the FDP Minister President for Thuringia (for a day) has just declared new elections.

Tune in tomorrow.