How right-wing insurgencies win

Our democratic institutions remain vulnerable to the machinations of populist outsiders

Nazi soldiers, 1938.
(Image credit: AP Photo)

Political reality can change with alacrity — and radically so.

Consider what happened in Germany between 1928 and 1933. In the elections of May 20, 1928, the National Socialist Party received a miniscule 2.6 percent of the popular vote, winning just 12 out of 491 seats in the Reichstag. By March 5, 1933, the date of the fifth national election in as many years, the Nazis' share of the vote had swelled to 43.9 percent, giving the party 288 seats out of 647.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.