The winter of America's discontent Dissatisfaction with both political parties runs deep by Tim Rutten February 5, 2010
which concluded:
"In one of his magisterial explorations of German politics between the wars, the historian Ian Kershaw mused that 'there are times -- they mark the danger point for a political system -- when politicians can no longer communicate, when they stop understanding the language of the people they are supposed to be representing.'
It would be reckless not to insist that this country and its politics remain, in crucial ways, far distant from Weimar. It would be rash, though, to pretend that the distance remains as great as it once was."
Another comment I saw the other day in the latest Economist reminded me of, in particular, the German bourgeoisie's growing frustration with Weimar's parliamentary institutions:
"...a “Beijing consensus” has been gaining ground, extolling the virtues of decisive authoritarianism over shilly-shallying democratic debate. In the margins of international conferences such as the recent Davos forum, even American officials mutter despairingly about their own “dysfunctional” political system."