germany and its ability to overtake the government. now, i m not suggesting we should go the way of germany, but i do want to note that criminal prosecution in the united states is a different matter, particularly in the context of a sitting president making public at the same times, which have to be linked to the possibility of a crime. so i just want to say that we do have legal distinctions as well as the fact that, to david s point, we had warning signs that had been building for a long time that our democracy required protection. and part of that was protecting people s right to vote and not giving into lies that really were being it was really right-wing conspiracy theorists were spreading, and donald trump decided to use to his advantage. yeah, and you re both documenting some of the structural contrast and then how embedded these, shall we say, coup adjacent movements are in the republican party in the united states. that s kind of a contrast.
of the leadership conference. and david rothkop, host of deep state radio podcast. david, i go to you first, because we are looking at the international perspective but how it applies here at home. i walked through some of the news. your thoughts? first of all, any american who studies what happens in germany will be struck by parallels. they followed some soft teachings of qanon. they thought a deep state was going to take over their government. they were believe in the covid conspiracy theories and had actually potted to go over the health minister. they were member of the military and judges involved, and i think those parallels are chilling, or should be for most americans, because it suggests they were part of the same movement ideologically as the one we saw
it sure does seem like they take it way more seriously than we do, and i think part of the reason for that could be they re wayless complacent about how resilient democracy, is how much of a threat someone like donald trump can be. david? absolutely right. navarro says it s punitive. damn right it s punitive. he broke the law. this was a coup attempt. one of the problems we have in the united states, and maya points to this, is that the republican party, the leader of this coup attempt, which was much bigger and much broader than either of the other two coup attempts you re talking about and involved both the false electors and the attack on january 6th, they ve said this is politics as usual. they have been able to make the case this is politics as usual when in fact it was a crime. and imagine for a moment just to go back to maya s point that our justice department says you can t prosecute a sitting president. that was not a hesitation for them in peru.
kind of mis and disinformation we have to fight against to say, if we re a democracy, we have a rule of law, it applies to everyone and applies to everyone equally but, don t get to say you re a powerful or had a position in government and remained immune from investigation merely once because you had power. he was on your show, ari, frankly admitting fact implicated him in a crime. democracy means he should have received the treatment he did or else the criminal justice system wouldn t have been working in a democratic way. david, the international lessons are here. many different folks looked at this. my colleague chris hayes was looking at this as well. here s the parallel he drew . other countries like germany and peru, like ours, recognize a threat to their constitution when they see one.
about that distinction, and let s just delve a little deeper. we know democracy is not a proposition, and it requires protection. and to david s point, protection means all of us. some of the most important danger signs we saw building up to what became a coup was also a refusal by republicans who for so long, since 1965, the voting rights act of 1965, had said we will stand up for protecting our democracy against discrimination. yeah. and became the party that even in the face of facts that said, look, there is no voter fraud. that s just made up. also, if you compare to germany, we have a very different legal system. and the difference is, in germany, there are actually laws on the book that distinguish hate speech and recognize a history of neo-naziism in