The ghosts of the 1930s are no longer mere shadows in history books. They walk among us, wearing suits instead of brown shirts, speaking of “immigration control” rather than racial purity, but their message remains fundamentally unchanged. In Germany, where the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) now commands support from one in five voters, we see one of the most chilling examples of fascism’s resurgence in the heart of Europe.

The AfD’s rise mirrors a broader pattern across the Western world – a pattern that liberal democracy seems powerless to stop, or worse, actively enables. Just as the Weimar Republic’s center-left SPD compromised with conservative forces in a misguided attempt to maintain stability, today’s liberal parties across Europe and America are legitimizing far-right discourse under the guise of “pragmatic politics.”

Liberals Prefer Nazism over Anti-Capitalism

What remains unspoken in polite society, yet becomes glaringly obvious through historical analysis, is liberalism’s consistent preference for fascism over genuine social and racial equality. When faced with a choice between Nazi collaboration and communist resistance during World War II, many liberal democracies chose the former. Today, this pattern repeats itself with chilling precision.

Consider how quickly liberal media accommodate far-right talking points in the name of “balance,” while consistently demonizing even modest left-wing proposals for economic justice. The New York Times will run sympathetic profiles of neo-Nazis to “understand their perspective,” while dismissing socialists as dangerous radicals. This is not accident or oversight – it is policy.

The liberal establishment’s response to the AfD in Germany epitomizes a broader European pattern. While publicly denouncing the party’s most extreme statements, mainstream parties have steadily absorbed and legitimized its anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. This phenomenon stretches across the continent – from the Netherlands, where mainstream parties echo Wilders’ anti-Muslim sentiment, to France, where Macron’s government increasingly mirrors Le Pen’s harsh stance on immigration. In Britain, the Conservative Party has embraced Brexit’s nativist undertones, while Belgium’s traditional parties adopt ever-stricter immigration policies to compete with the far-right Vlaams Belang.

Yet these same liberal establishments react with unified horror at any serious proposal for wealth redistribution or challenge to corporate power, dismissing such ideas as dangerous radicalism. The asymmetry is stark: while far-right movements have been allowed to fester and grow, even within police forces, for the past decades liberal governments have expended enormous resources and energy to systematically dismantle left-wing movements and unions, criminalize anti-capitalist thought, and marginalize voices calling for economic justice.