Carl Schmitt believed that constitutional democracy misunderstood the nature of politics.
The German political theorist—who would join the Nazi Party in 1933—argued that politics, at its core, comes down to a stark distinction between friend and enemy. A political community defines itself not only by what it loves, but also by what it believes threatens its very existence.
That idea deserves another look.
Because something remarkably similar is now appearing in American political and religious language.
Donald Trump increasingly speaks not simply of political opponents but of an “enemy from within.” He has described domestic adversaries as potentially more dangerous than foreign enemies. His political story is one of national decline followed by restoration: America was great, corrupt forces betrayed it, and a movement representing forgotten Americans must take the country back.
Then listen to Christian nationalism.
Pastor Mark Driscoll now openly calls himself a Christian nationalist. His formulation goes beyond patriotism: nationalism comes from God; globalism comes from Satan. Political disagreement has therefore been drawn into the spiritual realm.
Michael Flynn has said that if America is to remain “one nation under God,” it must have “one religion under God.”
Christian nationalist writer Stephen Wolfe envisions a Christian nation consciously acting as a Christian nation for its political and spiritual good.
Different people. Different propositions. But listen for the common chord.
Nation. Decline. Enemy. Restoration.
This is where Schmitt becomes unsettlingly relevant.
Constitutional democracy depends upon an extraordinary proposition: the person whose worldview I despise remains my political equal. We argue, organize, vote, win, lose—and begin again because neither of us owns the country.
But something changes when an opponent becomes an enemy.
And something changes again when that enemy becomes evil.
If globalism is satanic, compromise is no longer simple statesmanship. It risks becoming collaboration with evil. If domestic opponents are enemies threatening national survival, defeating them becomes more important than preserving the rules that govern our disagreement.
And if America possesses a divinely ordained identity that must be restored, another question follows:
Who gets to decide who authentically belongs to America?
History rarely repeats itself neatly. Ideas don’t need to.
They migrate. They acquire new vocabulary, new grievances, new technologies, and new leaders.
That is why Schmitt remains worth reading.
Not because America is Germany in 1933.
It isn’t.
But because Schmitt understood something dangerous about human beings:
Once we stop seeing our neighbors as opponents and begin seeing them as enemies, constitutional democracy has already surrendered some of the ground beneath its feet.
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