Several recent events in Germany ought to be profoundly troubling to our community. The first is the rise of the far right party AfD, which challenges Germany’s long standing policy of excluding far right parties, as a firewall to prevent Neo-nazis and the like from coming to power. Some members of our community may feel like the party’s stance of being anti immigration and anti Muslim resonate with them, but I think we should not let temporary alignments of values blind us to the dangers that the policies of exclusion were meant to protect us from.
Second, and perhaps much more troubling, is Germany’s recent endeavors to invest billions into “super charging” their army. Our community can justifiably feel that the European nations of NATO have been taking advantage of America and not paying their share for the common defense. However, to leave Germany feeling like it is “on its own” and therefore believing that they have to protect themselves from the threat of Putin looking to expand his territory is creating an outcome we should dread. When East and West Germany wanted to reunite, the Western world was wary of Germany coming back to power militarily and took steps to prevent exactly what is happening today.
The confluence of Germany having a far right party come to power, while vastly building up its army, is a tearing down of guardrails that history should teach us to endeavor to leave intact and certainly not to applaud.
