How Tough Times Breed Radicalism

Many people are perplexed as to how someone like Adolf Hitler could rise to power and commit so many atrocities virtually unchecked during his rule over Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler was an evil man most certainly but he was not the cause of Germany's problems, he was a symptom. The social and governmental problems that eventually culminated in the Second World War and the Holocaust had been festering for years; from the time when young Adolf was still doing paintings for spare change on the streets of Vienna. Sudden and catastrophic economic collapse opened the door for the relatively obscure political to take the German nation by the horns and drag it into its pit of destruction. The risk for democracies becomes apparent when all other mainstream sources have been exhausted, as happened when the country experienced its own devastating recessions through Hyper Inflation in the 1920s and later the Great Depression of the 30s. Hitler did what he had promised. He pulled Germany out of the depression before any other nation, but the consequences were dire. It's important to note though that Germany was still a relatively young and inexperienced democracy in 1933 and that Hitler's NSDAP never received a majority in the Reichstag. He was handed power by the country's incompetent president.
There are more recent examples though that should serve as a warning. Take Venezuela into consideration. It is a relatively old and stable democracy. It was one of only two nations within Latin America that never underwent a period of dictatorship, military or otherwise, during the turbulent second half of the 20th century. (The other being Costa Rica) Then in 1992, a radical young military officer named Hugo Chavez Frias attempted to launch a coup against the democratic government. The coup failed but Chavez was legitimately elected president of Venezuela in 1998. The switch to his radical Fifth Republic movement had been brought on by failures of the Liberal and Conservative parties in regards to stopping corruption and alleviating the countries long festering poverty and other social issues. Since his term in office, Chavez has steadily removed democratic freedoms including stifling opposition press such as RCTV and reforming the constitution to allow him to run indefinitely. As the continuing recession plummeted oil prices, he began to curb private property rights after loosing funding from the country's only viable export. Chavez is not a dictator, not yet anyway, but one cannot help make parallels between him and other radicals such as Hitler.

Most first world countries have managed to escape the scourges of home grown fascism and radical socialism during tough economic times. However, to think that Canada and the United States are immune to it is foolish. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to power, he had a set plan for fixing the economy. He was charismatic and gave people hope. Barack Obama ran his campaign on similar themes but lacked that set plan that was FDR's New Deal. It has become painfully obvious that Obama does not know what to do and has spent more time on other issues. In Canada, Steven Harper's Conservatives are following pretty much the same path, waiting for the US to react before making any decisions. The United States had said a resounding no to the Republicans' plans and the Liberals within Canada also lack anything concrete. With voter turnouts reaching historical lows in Canada, there is a serious risk of a crisis of legitimacy among the major parties. When people believe the mainstream parties are not acting to help them, they will seek out alternative means to vent their frustrations. This is evident with the strong support British RESPECT MP George Galloway has received. He is a raving antisemite and communist but people line up to hear him speak. For these kinds of people, the chances have never been better to gobble up seats within the House of Commons. Britons are hugely dissatisfied with Brown's Labour government and don't seem too keen on the Conservatives either. Britain has been on the decline for some time now. London is currently holding the G20 summit and the usual communist/anarchist groups have appeared to protest. However, police and officials have admitted they're surprised by the how violent the crowd is this time and sheer number of people who have showed up.
You will also see the increasing popularity of nationalist and fundamentalist movements. Radical Islam has been growing at a steady rate and a weakening America, in their eyes, confirms their belief that the "empire" has been destined by Allah to collapse. B'nai Brith is claiming that they have also seen a rise in antisemitism since the start of the recession. The hey day of the second Ku Klux Klan was during the depression of the 1930s. Although Islamic-supremacy movements have largely replaced white supremacists as the dominant racist organizations, skin head movements, particularly in Alberta, also seem to be making a comeback. These groups obtained notoriety in the 1980s during another particularly bad recession. Last month, they were involved in violent clashes with anti-racist groups and were sespected in the senseless random beating of a Japanese woman in Calgary. For many if not most, it's easier to point fingers than attempt to tackle the issues, or admit fault for your own problems.

A great man, Benjamin Franklin, once said that those who trade essential liberty for a little security deserve neither liberty nor security. I'm not going to make some prophetic predictions regarding all this. In all likelihood, this recession will not collapse our world order and will not send us into World War Three, or put us under the thumb of dictatorship. However, it is possible and it is a risk that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. There already is a growing threat from radical fringe groups who have been waiting for an event like this to present their cases as being viable alternatives. Democratic governments and mainstream politicians need to act now to regain the confidence of their people, or else this nightmare scenario could indeed become reality.