Young people overseas are paying close attention to American politics, and they are concerned — not only about us but about the impact on them as well.
We are a bipartisan group of former members of Congress, having just left office last year, and we traveled together to Germany where we met with university and high school students in Hamburg, Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden. This program is a part of an organization called Former Members of Congress (FMC) and its Congress to Campus initiative. The trip abroad is supported by the German government. The young people we met have grown up recognizing the United States as a beacon of democracy. They now wonder if our system will survive.
Given the turmoil in the Middle East and Germany’s own history, we expected many questions on Israel and Gaza. Instead, we were peppered with questions about Donald Trump and the rise of authoritarianism in the United States. Students in Germany are well informed about American politics, and they probed us on issues ranging from guns and funding of the Ukraine war to Trump’s criminal trials and the state of our election system. But it was the health of our democracy they kept wanting to discuss.
During our time, it became evident that the overarching perception among Germans of all ages is that the United States political system is mired in chaos and careening toward a fate they have seen in their own history. Germans watch American news and social media with trepidation and some confusion, as they see a former president and reality television star using rhetoric that, to them, echoes Germany’s past.
Even young Germans who did not directly experience war or a communist East Germany seemed to feel an acute concern about how and why, in a country meant to uphold democratic values around the world, Americans are falling susceptible to messages that, to these students’ ears, stoke fears and breed an “us versus them” mentality.
Grappling with hate speech meant to divide rather than unite isn’t just an issue in Germany’s distant past. During the course of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, Germany has taken the commendable step to house millions of Ukrainian women and children displaced by bombing and destruction. But a ripple effect from this has been that fringe anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric has risen, inflaming and igniting parts of German society to coalesce around its own far-right populism.
As a result, Germany is facing the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political wing — with recent reports suggesting that the AfD has financial ties with none other than Russia. Other Western European countries are experiencing something similar. The students we met are worried that the erosion of democracy in the United States will undermine confidence in free institutions and create a permission structure for their own extremists to threaten their democratic institutions.
Because of their history, Germans are especially sensitive to the dynamics of what can happen when carefully worded rhetoric meant to activate our emotions is used and how psychologically manipulative disinformation — especially in the era of social media — can distort reality and enable authoritarian interests to align against a free and democratic state.
As we took the translucent elevator up to the German Parliament — in a building designed to symbolize transparency — members of the Bundestag reminded us that they have always seen the United States as a leader in fighting forces that try to clamp down on our freedom. In one of our conversations, a participant described the United States as Germany’s “big brother,” in the sense that Germans still look to America and our democratic values as a North Star.
As colleagues in Congress, we did not always agree on issues and often disagreed quite passionately — on immigration, the economy, the size and role of government. We come from congressional districts with their own unique characteristics and histories, and our constituents have many conflicting needs, priorities and perspectives on how to shape our great American experiment.
But at our core, as legislators, we were always determined to come to the table willing to compromise, to stop fiery conflict-ridden ideas meant to grab headlines from devolving into partisan wars that ultimately do nothing to help people. As elected officials, we should be pushed to detoxify these strains, even if doing so is unpopular among some in our party’s base. And not because it is the politically pragmatic thing to do, but because it is the moral thing to do in the public interest.
We all were heartened to see House Speaker Mike Johnson and our former colleagues from both sides of the aisle step up to provide critical financial aid to Ukraine in its defense against a totalitarian force that every day is trying to strip away the values we hold dear. While in Germany, we reassured our friends that there are many checks and balances embedded in our governing process to prevent one branch from assuming complete dictatorship and control.
But even if this is the case, as we look ahead, the United States cannot forget the critically important role that we have served for the rest of the world as a proponent of freedom. German teenagers should not be the only ones reminding us of this.
Cheri Bustos, a Democrat, represented Illinois’ 17th Congressional District from 2013 to 2023. Ron Kind, a Democrat, represented Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District from 1997 to 2023. Fred Upton, a Republican, represented Michigan’s 6th Congressional District from 1987 to 2023.
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