from February 29, 2020--The Growing Threat of Nazis in Trump's America
Yes, there are Nazis in America now, as there were in the 1930's.
In the 1930's, there were several factors which enabled sympathies for Fascism to become a large movement, which was called not coincidentally, America First.
First some background. It was fronted by Radio Personality Father Charles Coughlin, the Rush Limbaugh of his day, and flier Charles Lindbergh. It was funded by anti-Semitic Industrialist Henry Ford. Banker J.P. Morgan was enamored of both Italian and German Fascism, and wanted to transplant their system here in response to the Depression.
America First masked their pro-Nazi sympathies by campaigning to stop immigration, and opposing US actions against the Fascist takeover of Europe. J.P. Morgan also funded a plot to use a march of disgruntled War Veterans under the auspices of the American Legion to organize a Coup plot to overthrow Franklin Roosevelt and install a Fascist Military Dictatorship under the leadership of Marine General Smedley Darlington Butler. Gen. Butler pretended to go along with the plan, until he went before Congress and exposed it, nipping it in the bud, and naming the principals.
Additionally, there was a movement among rich Oligarchs from famous wealthy families to promote Racial Eugenics, who promoted quack science, selective breeding and forced sterilization for the "unfit", and immigration restriction to " make race perfect". Hitlers Nazis studied the work of the American and British Eugenicists and used them to help write the Nuremberg Laws. Nazi Doctors on trial after the War claimed in their defense that they were just doing what the Americans were doing in a number of their States.
What allowed Fascism to grow in the US in the 1930s were two factors. One was the Great Depression, which caused mass dislocation, homelessness, hunger, and a National crime wave unlike anything ever seen then, or since. The "Faith" of the people in their institutions was shaken. This in the aftermath of WWI, the horrors of which literally broke a generation of young men.
Secondly, was that the US then was deeply divided, because of the legacy of the Slaveowners Rebellion, and the disgusting evil culture and system of the Confederacy, at a time where Jim Crow still ran the South, and this resonated the rage and race hatred of the Fascists as well.
My point, is that only the movement and leadership of Franklin Roosevelt stopped Fascism from taking over America during the Great Depression, and the World as well.
My point, is that only the movement and leadership of Franklin Roosevelt stopped Fascism from taking over America during the Great Depression, and the World as well.
In 1928, the Nazis in Germany were an obscure, disorganized fringe group with less than 2% of the vote. Then came the Worldwide Depression. Ask yourselves how the Nation of Poets, musicians, scientists and artists, could turn into a barbaric criminal murder machine which they became within 6 years.
And then look at the situation today. 19 years of War after 9-11. Large disparity in income between rich and poor, with people working low paying jobs to survive. A divided country that is turning against the vulnerable and weak, scapegoating immigrants and foreigners, and lapsing into religious fundamentalism. And, a new wave of violence which rivals the 1920's and 30's, with mass shootings carried out by mostly White Nationalists. And now, the phoney recovery blowing up as Trump's Stock Market bubble has finally popped.
Where is the FDR we need today? Who has their eyes open enough to see where things are leading to address it before it happens? Who has learned from History how these things happen, and recognizes the danger signs. These are the questions I ask every day, rather than wearing blinders.
