Traditional conservatives had played a dangerous game for years, using political "dog whistles" to appeal to citizens' bigoted views of foreigners and ethnic minorities. As the economy worsened, this approach became more effective. Conservatives doubled down, setting the stage for what came next.
What the old guard didn't understand was, that given a choice between half-hearted racism and the genuine article, the electorate would choose the authentic candidate. "He tells it like it is, and we need that now in a president," 44% of voters told a major newspaper.
The conservative establishment faced a choice too: support a candidate of the left, or forsake true conservatism in favor of a fascist. To a man, they went with the fascist.
A tone of increasing violence accompanied the demagogue's rise in the polls. Not only did he personally condone violence against his movement's political opponents, his party offered its lawyers to defend partisans arrested for beatings in its name. Even his close associates were implicated in violent assaults; when they were, the Leader stood by them. "I think it's a very very sad day in this country when a man could be destroyed over something like that," he said.
The aging president was reluctant to issue an outright condemnation. "Troubling," he called the gathering storm clouds.
The Leader's authoritarian movement attracted a plurality of the vote -- yet he wasn't popular enough to consolidate a simple majority. Had his opponents set aside their personal ambitions and ideological biases, and united in favor of the national good, he could have been denied the chancellorship.
Alas, twelve years later, all would be ruins.
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