Nazis, Then and Now

In American politics it’s become popular for Democrats to say Republicans are Nazis and to denounce Donald Trump as the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. This all started when some “skinheads” were seen contending with radical leftists at street-demonstrations. Reporters, pundits, and leftist politicians are hammering the GOP=Nazi equivalence by accusing Mr. Trump as a racist who hates all minorities. They link this to his desire to control our porous borders. (After all, what decent person would want to do that? Obviously, he’s a Nazi.)

A PH-doctor in my acquaintance – who ought to know better – liked to crack wise about “that fascist in the White House.” He said it was “common knowledge.” Mr. Trump is (and has been) many things, including a hard-driving businessman; a popular TV-personality; a vigorous, outspoken president who took no guff from anyone and returned rhetorical fire at every slight; a respected family-man; and now a “comeback kid” who is ducking real bullets and trying to regain the White House. But a “fascist?” I don’t think so.

Americans under age 50 might not realize that fascism’s signature construct is “privately owned business under government control.” The Nazis were fascists, but not all fascists were Nazis. Is there any evidence that Mr. Trump operates that way? Or wants to? As president, Mr. Trump urged businesses to move their foreign-based plants and factories back to the USA. But he didn’t coerce anyone. Instead, he lowered their taxes to attract them back. (Not exactly the fascist method.) Mr. Trump wanted everybody to make money, but he always put America first.

If any recent president had fascist-leanings, it was Barack Hussein Obama, who stiffed the General Motors bondholders, saying they were just rich old guys who didn’t need the money. His interference reduced the bondholders’ cash-in value to just 33 cents on the dollar. The One put his own man in as GM’s CEO, and he signed legislation that put our entire health-care system – 1/6^th of the nation’s economy! – under government control. (Il Duce and Der Führer would have been so proud.)

Before Mr. Obama, the last president to make a game-try at fascism was Democrat Harry Truman, who nationalized the steel industry to prevent the United Steelworkers Union’s planned strike in April 1952. Mr. Truman cited national security as his motivation, as we were then engaged in a “police action” in Korea. (Mr. Truman described it thus because war hadn’t been declared.) In June of ’52, however, the U. S, Supreme Court ruled that the president lacked the authority to seize the steel mills. (Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579-1952.)

A waggish description of various forms of government goes like this:

• Socialism: you have two cows; the government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
• Communism: the government takes your two cows, makes you work to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
• Fascism: the government lets you keep your cows but controls the milk-market.
• Nazi-ism: the government kills you and takes your cows.
• Capitalism: you sell one of your cows and buy a bull.

Nazi-ism, of course, was about much more than cows, and there was nothing humorous about it. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei or NSDAP) – originally a patriotic political effort to restore order to a defeated and chaotic post-war nation – degenerated into the thuggish, crack-brained, master-race nightmare dreamed up by its visionary leader, Adolph Hitler. Der Führer denounced Jews as a “bacillus” that threatened the purity of the Aryan Race. He probably believed it, too. He planned to eliminate Jews:

• From the Fatherland, to achieve a purified nation;
• Then, following military conquests, to produce a purified Europe;
• Finally, globally, to create a purified world.

Seems unbelievable? Don’t take my word for it. It’s all in his seminal book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which is mostly forgotten and rarely read by students today. An English translation is still available. The literary Adolph wasn’t exactly Hemmingway, so it’s heavy going, but all the stinking details are written down, including Hitler’s Lebensraum plan to convert vast chunks of Russian territory to living space for Germans. The guy was certainly honest about his plans, but he was obviously nuts.

After serving a six-month sentence for trying to seize the Bavarian government via the 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch (riot) – a very light sentence for a treasonous act – Hitler solidified his control over the NSDAP and launched his world-conquest/racial purification plans. He wasn’t alone. He had willing help from like-minded Germans like World War air-ace Herman Göring, former chicken-farmer Heinrich Himmler, and Sturm Abteilung (SA) leader Ernst Röhm. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (a.k.a. “Poison Dwarf”) – architect of the Big Lie strategy – rounded out the team nicely.

When he wasn’t running the Luftwaffe, Göring participated in large-scale, systematic theft of art-work and other wealth from imprisoned and murdered Jews. As head of the Schutz Staffel (SS), Himmler implemented Hitler’s Final Solution to murder 6 million Jews, plus 5 million Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, mentally retarded people and other “undesirables.” Both Göring and Himmler cheated the hangman by poisoning themselves after Germany surrendered.

Ernst Röhm, who had joined the NSDAP before Hitler, wanted the 1.5 million street-toughs of his SA incorporated into the Wehrmacht, but the generals of the officer corps – whose support Hitler needed – were having none of it. When Röhm insisted, Hitler had him killed in the 1934 purge that became known as “The Night of the Hummingbird.”

Joseph Goebbels and his wife poisoned themselves and their five children to death on May 1, 1945, as the Red Army was taking Berlin. You can see why they called him Poison Dwarf. (Otherwise, very nice folks.) Hitler shot his mistress, Eva Braun, and himself in their underground Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.

One of Hitler’s models for achieving his “racial purity” goals was the work of early 20^th-century Eugenics pioneer Margaret Sanger – modern Democrats’ Patron Saint of Abortion – whose aim was eradication of the “weed races” in America. (You can look it up.) Other Eugenics advocates included Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.

Back in the glory-days of the Third Reich, Der Führer and his liege-Menschen operated ruthlessly, with no accountability. Does any of that really describe Republicans today? Which political faction in the USA is really lining up as the political descendant of Hitler’s evil gang? Wasn’t it the Democrats’ sainted Franklin Roosevelt who ignored reports of Nazi atrocities and had his State Department block Jewish refugees from entering the USA? Didn’t Hillary Clinton denounce working people who opposed her as “deplorables.” (Doesn’t that sound like “undesirables?”) Today, Democrats have become such outspoken opponents of Israel and Jewish interests that their representatives are delivering anti-Semitic speeches on the floor of the House. Their Hamas supporters are trashing Washington DC, even as I write this posting. (Do I hear a Sieg Heil?)

Today’s Democrats are returning to their 1930s heyday, when racist Southern Democrats, liberal Jews and northern blue-collar workers gathered in an inclusive “big tent.” The Great Depression made the strategy appear successful, but it was never an easy marriage. The white southerners and blue-collar voters are gone now, so Democrats are trying to fashion a new majority from an identity-coalition of black radicals, Hispanics, militant sexual deviants, climate-warriors, anti-Christians, atheists, Muslims, “educators,” and movie stars. Champions of unlimited abortion, infanticide and transgender-mutilation of children are the latest joiners in Dems’ new big tent.

Organizing this diverse constituency is like trying to herd cats. So, as they throw Jews under the bus, Democrats are praying that their former constituency won’t notice how the party’s policies are harming Jewish interests. (Who says Democrats aren’t religious?) But Jews today are quietly creeping out of the Dems’ radical big tent. I heard one Jewish commentator say that Jewish voters won’t admit it in person, “…but when they get in that voting booth, they’re going to pull the lever for Donald Trump. He’s the best friend they have right now, and they know it.”

To distract attention from this upheaval in their party, Democrats keep shouting that Donald Trump is Hitler II, that Republicans are white-supremacist Nazis, and that only the Party of FDR, Joe Biden and Kamela Harris can save democracy and the country. Psychologists call this “transference” – a construct in which individuals and groups accuse opponents of attitudes and practices that describe themselves. This inversion can sometimes become comical, but when it involves slanderous charges of racism and “Nazi-ism,” it’s no laughing matter.

Years ago, during his political heyday in Washington, DC, Marion Barry made a historical correction that has been captured by some collections of famous quotations:

“I heard a funny story about Abraham Lincoln being a Republican. Listen, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, and I can tell you he was not a Republican.”

Democrats and their media allies are enjoying great sport with this kind of foolishness, rolling Big Lie after Big Lie over us like tidal waves. But we’re heading into stormy political seas, and the country’s future is at stake. This makes it imperative for voters to understand what fascism is, and to know who is (or isn’t) a Nazi. Democrats and complicit media are spewing lies about these matters to confuse voters, so I urge all knowledgeable Americans to take every opportunity to correct misinformation, whenever they encounter it.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is a people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, and the distinction between true and false, no longer exist.” (German historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt)

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on.” (Winston Churchill)

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Courage!