It is getting very scary.
Over the past several years–aided and abetted by Trump’s normalization of racism and anti-Semitism–the GOP has become less and less distinguishable from its Neo-Nazi fringe, and less embarrassed by the relationship.
Just a few of the many available examples:
In Washington State, the Republican Party is paying a pro-Nazi blogger.
Arnold runs the far-right Telegram account “Pure Politics,” which traffics in Jan. 6 conspiracy theories, praise of controversial lawmakers, and anti-COVID-containment sentiments. It also has more than 12,000 followers who frequently comment with racist and antisemitic language.
But Arnold himself has said plenty of distressing things. As CNN reported last year, Arnold has advocated shooting refugees, killing undocumented immigrants, and has posted praise for Nazi Germany. He actually once said Adolf Hitler was “a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand.”
In a statement shared last week with The Daily Beast, the communications director for the Washington Republican Party, Ben Gonzalez, didn’t deny Arnold’s employment but claimed his tenure was short-lived.
The paid tenure may have been “short lived,” but the party’s relationship with Arnold isn’t. The GOP congressional candidate who won this year’s Republican primary was photographed alongside Arnold, “a move praised by his followers.”
Other media outlets have reported on Arnold’s strong ties to white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes. Fuentes leads a group of “college-aged, far-right activists that refer to themselves as “groypers”—a rebranding of the racist alt-right movement”–and within the far-right “America First” movement, Arnold is a lieutenant.
The embrace of Nazi ideology isn’t limited to Washington State, nor to organized far-right groups. Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has endorsed an “out and proud” Oklahoma anti-Semite. Doug Mastriano, running for Governor of Pennsylvania, has a long history of anti-Semitism and has made anti-Jewish attacks on his Jewish opponent.
From Dr. Oz in front of Hitler’s car to Marjorie Taylor Greene spouting the Great Replacement Theory to the GOP supporting Kanye West—the message is clear.
GOP officials have praised figures like Hungary’s Victor Orban, and Americans have been treated to a stream of pro-Putin, pro-Orban, anti-Semitic propaganda by Fox News figure Tucker Carlson.
Even though Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s interview with Kanye West was so expansive that it ran during both his Thursday and Friday night broadcasts, it appears the far-right cable host left out plenty of newsworthy footage, Motherboard reported on Tuesday.
These segments of the interview omitted from the final broadcasts showed the rap superstar, now known as Ye, casually peddling antisemitism while making strange claims about “fake children” used to manipulate his own kids.
Last week, before West went on an antisemitic tantrum on social media, he was welcomed on Carlson’s show to discuss the backlash he faced for donning a “White Lives Matter” shirt alongside right-wing provocateur Candace Owens at Paris Fashion Week.
In the interview that aired on Fox News, Carlson presented West as a conservative folk hero, praising his “interesting, deep, provocative” observations on politics and social issues, even shrugging off concerns about West’s mental-health issues and documented struggles with bipolar disorder.
Carlson has been a major apologist for the so-called “replacement theory”–the fear expressed by far-right White Christian Males that they will be “replaced” (displaced from their perceived status as “real” Americans) by Jews and people of color. The men who rioted in Charlottesville chanted “Jews shall not replace us.”
Almost immediately after his appearance on Carlson’s show, West used social media to issue antisemitic threats against Jewish people and was locked out of both his Instagram and Twitter accounts. Carlson has ignored the controversy and has continued to laud his “standing up for oppressed white people., as have most Congressional Republicans
Kanye West –now “Ye”–is currently a Republican celebrity, one of a small number of Blacks being used by the GOP to rebut charges of racism. (“I can’t be racist. Some of my best friends/current candidates are…”) Hershel Walker is another. As several pundits have commented, the issue for these cynical Republicans is how to handle personalities like West and Walker, both of whom have publicly struggled with mental health issues and seem unaware of their status as pawns.
As one observer put it, “I am not personally worried that Kanye is going to bomb a synagogue or something like that. I’m more concerned that there is a huge political movement that’s holding him up as this figure.”
Members of disfavored minorities used to worry about rightwing “dog whistles.” These days, the GOP isn’t bothering to whistle–instead, the party (now fully captured by its one-time fringe) is enthusiastically embracing its inner bigot.
The parallels with Germany in the 30s are too obvious to miss.
“The parallels with Germany in the 30s are too obvious to miss.”
Is it too late to stop them this time? The 2022 elections will tell us a lot
I don’t understand why the GOP loves *these* Nazis, but yet blasts Ukraine and Zelensky as being Nazis (real or imagined). And have all the old WWII veterans died? Where is their outrage over this? Or were they all “fighting the Japs”, as my late stepfather was? Maybe Nazis are OK, since they are at least white.
I guess that’s just another item for their hypocrisy list. I can hardly keep up anymore.
patmcc, I believe it is too late to stop them as shown by the assault on the US Capitol on Jan 6th. They will not be satisfied until & unless they capture the US government and turn it into a shell of its former self.
Well, when you have unhinged running for public servants in one slot, then you don’t have to offer too much up on the other side, do you?
If you play out the Oligarchy’s Political Party Duopoly game, can you see where this is going?
It’s rather apparent to me.
When I post real news on social media, the Democratic Party team ignores it because there is a January 6th Committee hearing. If anybody is still glued to their TVs for two years that has happened on either side of the political aisle, you need your head examined.
It’s a con game cooked up by our media and the oligarchy that controls it. Including Rupert Murdoch & Family.
Ah, the stupidity!
As I recall discussions with Marv on this blog, and other participants, it was brought up about Jews during the rise of Nazism, joining up with the Nazis against their Jewish brethren.
They’re actually were a fairly significant number of Nazi soldiers, even in the SS, who were at least Part Jewish. There were quite a few commanding officers also.
What happened? Toward the end, many of those Jews who were Nazi sympathizers or attached to the Nazi government, were arrested and dispatched by their Nazi comrades!
What was so alluring about the Nazi message to individuals who made up the ethnic groups the Nazis roiled against?
Some folks who are mentally Disturbed like the ones Sheila mentions in the blog today, wish they were something other than black. Candice Owens and Kanye West are two peas in a pod but they seek attention! In Nazi germany, that was a novel thing, you’re a Jew hunting Jews and fighting for the right to exterminate the Jewish race. I would call that self-hatred! The white supremacists are not going to welcome any so-called mongrel into their ranks for long, because, race mixing or mixing with lesser ones goes against being a supremacist especially a white supremacist. And if you’re a supremacist that is not white, you’re a mongrel! Mongrels are either slaves or dispatched to the gas chamber.
The sad thing is, there are many parallels that you can draw from 1931 all the way till today. White supremacists don’t like hispanics, but many Hispanics like to think they’re white! They don’t like black people, but like Trump says he had his own African-American!
They don’t like Asians, back in the early days in the United states, Chinese immigrants had bounties on their heads, just like Native Americans!
Wow, how history cycles! The Nazis got much of their ideas from america, now America taps the the neo-Nazi pipeline to reinvigorate American racism. No closet racists here, be out and be proud.
Unfortunately for the racists, not all racists flock together as a family, of course the head of the snake needs numbers, but if they reach their goal, they will turn on their lesser compatriots at least lesser in their eyes, and eliminate that issue.
Fact, the Nazis loved the idea of slavery, they also loved the idea of Mass executions.
I can see it now, “didn’t we riot in your name? Didn’t we cause Anarchy for your cause? Didn’t we sell out our brethren for you? Didn’t I disavow my ethnicity for you? And they will tell them, you’re not like us, you’re inferior, you’re a mongrel, you have no rights, the best you’re going to get are our table scraps or death.
I always go back to Rudyard Kipling, and his Diddy “The White Man’s Burden.” And let’s not forget, Manifest Destiny, American Exceptionalism, and American Romanticism! All of it glorified racist leanings, and racist ideals, including land theft for a worldwide, white controlled, Agrarian power, like a Hegemony.
If you listen very closely, when white folks start talking about the good old days, they’re not talking about ice cream sodas and 57 chevys, it’s segregating themselves from the mongrels!
Who was it that said, “the whole damned world is going nuts”?
Well, at least, half of us. And all of our dad’s after watching Walter Cronkite every night.
I’ve been watching the 2019 documentary “Rise of the Nazis” on PBS again this month. Its a reminder of what can go wrong when you sell your soul, and your democracy for power and greed.
I’m also doing a venn diagram to help me wrap my head around the similarities between how it progressed and how we are doing the same as a country.
My parents, survived the Depression and WWll (including scares of V-2 rockets) but thankfully didn’t live to see how we’ve forgotten our lessons of history.
Everyone was afraid of Hitler and his thugs just as the Rs are afraid of tfg and his thugs.
Bottle line take away- eventually the Nazis came for you too.
Jane, WWII ended in 1945. After 73 years, should we still expect those few remaining veterans of that war to lead the fight against this newer version of Nazis? We have all of the evidence we need from their accounts of what they found at Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Dauchau, or any of the other camps. We also have film and pictures taken in the camps after liberation.
Have we forgotten the lessons of history or did we just never learn enough history to make sense of what’s happening today? I think it just might be the latter. Ask Ken Burns. If you’ve watched “America and the Holocaust,” you might’ve found an answer.
Clearly, the “oppressed” white people who are so damned lazy, intellectually, that they cling to the most basic instincts. Some run away to foreign lands and turn around to laugh at those who remain in their homelands. Some merely cling to the easy hate-mongering. And more still try to fight back against this abject ignorance. Where do YOU fall in these choices?
The Nazis never went away. They may have taken different forms, but remember, the KKK was founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, an ex-Confederate. Their operating philosophy was indeed part of Germany’s Nazi operating schemes, so John’s comment about “learning” bigotry and hate from us is true. We were also the last “modern” nation on Earth to institutionalize slavery thus creating the cultural imperative of institutionalized racism. So, why is anyone surprised that the GOP embraces the Nazi tenets? They’ve been there all along and, as John also says, “they’re out and they’re proud.
How the hell can anyone be proud of hatred? How the hell can someone claiming to be a proud, educated patriot be so cowardly as to run away from their nation when they are needed the most? How the hell can anyone with a patriotic spirit remain somnolent and not ready to defeat the bastards trying to turn the clock back to the 19th century? Who will stand up to ignorance, moronic tribalism, cowardice, hate, greed and bigotry in order to regain at least some of the ideals of our American idea?
Will we, as a democratic republic, survive this onslaught of corporate-funded fascism?
Just reading the NY Times and the poll showing that independent are going to vote GOP ” In September, they favored Democrats by 14 points. Now, independent women backed Republicans by 18 points — a striking swing given the polarization of the American electorate and how intensely Democrats have focused on that group and on the threat Republicans posed to abortion rights.”
This is not just about forgetting HItler. It is about ME – ME and my 401K – ME and my identity groups – ME and my screen world I live in – ME without a religion – no US. I don’t trust corporations; I don’t trust government; I don’t trust science: I don’t trust news. I’m pathetically scared and confused to I am going to vote for change and hope for something different.
No civics education, no values from church and home, minimal history education, no reading beyond the screen…what can you expect?
I’ve commented before about stopping bullies by playing their game. Threatening the safety of hate-mongers like Carlson and all the others that publicly degrade and threaten people via their blogs, etc. can change their minds when they are informed that their behavior is also threatening the safety of their family members.
It is easily done by sending a clear message to them that their spouse, children or other family members are in danger if they don’t stop. A PI can provide details about the daily activities and timing of their family members. Then a message is delivered containing all of those details, along with a veiled threat to their safety if the hate-mongering doesn’t stop. If they choose not to take it seriously then action is taken that makes their family members feel threatened. Their lives change dramatically due to fear for their safety and the family members have the power to stop it all by demanding that the horrible behavior be stopped by the person that started it all, even if it involves giving up the source of their comfortable lifestyle.
This is what organized crime uses to control people and it works very well. Why would I suggest this? Because my uncle, my father and even I had to resort to this to stop threats. It was used to stop threats to my uncle’s and my father’s livelihoods that were many years apart and I had to use it many years later to stop unnecessary bullying. It worked in all three situations because bullies are not used to nor are they prepared for being at the receiving end of threats.
The only way I have found to successfully stop bullies is to treat them the same way they treat others.
When I enlisted at age 17 during WW II I did so for the stated purpose of “killing Hitler,” but after some six weeks’ training in California was sent to the South Pacific to take on Tojo, a fascist mate of Hitler. In retrospect, I now understand that it was not Hitler I wanted to kill; it was the package he brought to the table that I wished to slay. The Nazis used communists and Jews as their favorite whipping boys to justify their strongman dictatorship, enslaved them and killed them via unspeakable horrors. I objected to such inhuman conduct both then and now.
Nuremburg did not end Nazism; it concealed it from positive political discourse, and Trump and others have now made it fashionable again as we can see with political candidates these days, some openly endorsing Nazism without using the forbidden word through the use of such substitutes as racism, anti-semitism, anti-communism etc., all while at work destroying our institutions (the press, school boards, First and Second Amendment interpretations etc.), all rough parallels to the Germany of the thirties, when the Good Germans who considered Hitler to be a passing slept.
I am not a Good German. I am not asleep and here note that 1/6 is continuing, but without the drama. Let’s have a prewar Nuremburg and end this menace to humanity.
“Neighbors” turned in Jews for cash and looted their homes in Nazi Germany. “Neighbors” turned in neighbors in East Germany. “Neighbors” have tortured, raped and killed neighbors in multiple genocides since WWII.
No masses are striking, marching against Texas laws encouraging neighbors to turn in (for cash) neighbors for seeking abortions. No masses are striking, marching in Florida against relaxed voting in hurricane stricken GOP counties, but not in the DEM one.
First they came for neighbors…
Yes, those in my family who fought the Nazis in Europe, one who took part in the liberation of a death camp, and found
amazingly, his own cousin incarcerated there, and another , who fought with Patton, and went to Japan, are dead now.
Soon the last of them like the last of those who fought in the Civil War, will pass out of life, The WWII veteran who is
featured in Ken Burns’ film is no youngster, himself.
We can not depend on these folks to stir up a revolt against the revolting American Nazis.
“Ye,” Owens, and Walker are going to be very surprised, I believe, when they are finally told that they are not “really” part
of the “proper” tribe.
As per my comment of yesterday, wherein I proposed that one roll of religion is to help people avoid the fear that when
they die, they end, as opposed to going to some imaginary heaven, it may be that the fear of being “replaced” is another
version of that same fear. And so Nazism could be a “replacement” religion, in and of itself; dispensing of thought, while relying
on “faith?” Could it be that “If we, special, and entitled white folk are not in charge, we might as well be dead?”
A weird idea? Maybe.
Yes, it is very scary, and history has a tendency to repeat itself every 80, or so years, I have read.
Mitch, it would be interesting to review the rise/fall of CULTS every 80 years. Humans are so attracted to cults and we’re seeing them arise all over the world in this decade. A dictator wanna-be (such as the PUSTULAR one we all know and loathe) has fertile fields to sow his hatred.
No Nancy…just NO.
Gerald Stinson, thank you for imparting your lived wisdom to us today. US Democracy is struggling with the evil mo.’s of Supremists and their hold on the Republican Party. The tactics used in Nazi Germany are being used in concert today, backed by dark money to buy out our Constitution & Bill of Rights. A ray of hope is the light from the 1/6 committee’s findings and a Justice Department willing to operate by the letter of the law. Is the power of the law going to be enough and hold?
Vern, and Lester,
Right on!
Eugenics, White Supremacy, Christian fascism, were all hallmarks of what? America! Way before Nazi germany, America was Nazi Germany.
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany? How about native American reservations in America?
Eugenics, the genetic superiority of the white race in Nazi Germany? How about Eugenics which was actually started in Britain and the United States from 1901 to 1910? Indiana, by the way, was a big fan of Eugenics early on.
Slave labor and conscripted labor in Nazi Germany? The mass use of slave labor in the southern United States!
The Nazis admired Jim Crow, the Germans also admired American Manifest Destiny, (a Hegemonic Agrarian Society controlled by Whites) they called it Liebensrom or the right to grow and expand, perfectly mirroring manifest destiny!
The American Bund party, became affiliated with the German Nazi party. Their beliefs were identical! During the war, there were a lot of Nazi sympathizers in the United States because of course, the Germans were white unlike Asians. Asians which were rounded up and put in concentration camps in the United states. They definitely didn’t do that with the Germans.
How about the the ships carrying Jewish refugees were turned around from American ports until America became involved in the war. Those Jewish transport ships brought those passengers back to certain death in Germany.
During the war, the Italians, especially the Mafi, went after Bund groups and KKK. The Bund and KKK could not match the firepower the Mafi brought to the party.
The Bund went underground and used white supremacy to infiltrate the KKK. And also, starting the white religious nationalistic movement. The KKK were the useful idiots for the real brains behind the movement, the Bund.
The good old US of A was a role model for the Nazi Germans. They readily admitted it and actually hope the United States would join the war on their side.
Remember, the Nazi Germans had their own Protestant church, and they used that Christian or Christian like organization to promote white superiority and pacify those who maybe had some sort of a conscience. But if they could convince them that God was on their side, well, no problem with conscience anymore! America did the same exact thing with the slave trade and use of slaves.
You can’t salvage a piece of rotten fruit, and, you can always tell the type of tree you have by the fruit it bears. A good tree does not bear rotten fruit and a rotten tree does not bear good fruit! Does tree of ours bear good fruit? Only to a select few, the rest can dig through the trash!
Society is on a trajectory of self-destruction, nothing good can rise out of anything bad.
America had the opportunity to clean up its house, basically to mop its floor and dispose of the trash. Now the entire structure is contaminated from top to bottom.
And Lester,
There was no Love your neighbor as you Love yourself in Nazi Germany, and there was definitely no Love your enemy either. What happened to that Society? Even people with a conscience turned evil.
My uncle Rodger went through Dachau, and talked about how horrific that was. When they went to town which was not far away, they took all of the residents and made them come and bury the piles of bodies.
The Town residents complained and cried that it wasn’t their fault, but, all of those residents had corrupted consciences. They became used to the cruelty and evil. Those prisoners were sent to the town to repair buildings and whatever else they would need slaves for. And the town’s folk were very non-repentant. Uncle Rog said that some of the people complaining loudly and arguing were shot by American soldiers and told the other Town residents to bury them with the murdered concentration camp prisoners.
To everyone else,
You think it’s bad now? You ain’t seen bad yet.
John – catch up on eugenics history….
“North Carolina was one of the few states that established an official Eugenics Board, in charge of determining who should be sterilized. This Eugenics Board approved over 7,000 sterilizations and North Carolina had one of the longest running programs, ordering sterilizations into the 1970s” – mostly Blacks.”
https://lls.illinois.edu/news/2020-06-05/behind-board-eugenic-sterilizations-north-carolina#:
Anthony – you’ve obviously never been on the receiving end of threats from organized crime. Neither I, nor my father and uncle ever made any threats – all we had to do was to let them know we knew all about their family members’ daily schedules and activities. We learned that turning the tables on them was very effective at stopping them from following through on their threats.
Unimpressed by the declining quality of comments here.
Lester,
Yeah I’m not talking about the Latter Day Eugenics so to speak, but the beginnings of Eugenics which was started in Britain and almost simultaneously in the United States. Of course , it was adopted by the Germans Or I should say the Nazi Germans, That’s why If you really look at The early histories of Both movements, they mirror each other.
As far as the quality of comments goes, I would say Many of them are right on and the realm of the person making them. If one wants to write about an opinion to be liked, then they probably shouldn’t make comments on a public published blog. Because plenty of people are not going to like their comments. The Apostle Paul said that people love to have their ears tickled, and , that was A very truthful statement! Roll up in that cocoon with everyone who has the same opinion! That must be as comforting as a slice of apple pie ala mode.
Todd, you are absolutely correct in your evaluation and it is a prime reason I have departed the US for a more stable democracy.
Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” is her podcast divided into episodes. Episodes 1-3 are now available where’ve you get your podcasts. A new episode is added each Monday. It’s gripping! Journalist Maddow is truly digging deep into the late-‘30s and early-‘40s. Nothing in today’s crazy world is new. In the current terminology, we would call it a rerun…a very scary rerun.
*wherever* you get your podcasts
Dr Stan, that now more stable democracy can turn unstable in a flash. This is the one thing the tenure of trump taught me. Settled law can be dismissed. Stable democracies can be tipped.
Better to stay and help keep level the field.