Certain Things Just Can’t Be Said
Do you remember when it would have been unthinkable for a U.S. President to defend the morality of white supremacists, or to attack the legitimacy of a criminal investigation into his behavior, or to say that the free press is the “enemy of the American people,” or that the 3 – 5 million people voted illegally in the last election, or that illegal immigrants have murdered 63,000 Americans since 9/11? It really wasn’t that long ago.
One point of political incorrectness remain intact, however: the suggestion that the present-day U.S. has a resemblance to Germany in the years leading up to the Third Reich. I do this occasionally, and take flak for it every time (as if I care).
Take a look at the meme above; “appeasement of fascism is what led to everything.” Reflect on that; mull it around in your mouth for a while. Then stop appeasing fascism. What’s happening here is wrong.
This is an important moment in history, and you’re an important part of it.
Craig,
I took your advice, mulled it over, reflected, did some careful objective research in respect of your claims, and still came to the obvious conclusion that your claims have not only no substance, but do terrible disservice to all those who suffered from the policies and actions of of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).
Let’s look at your claims, even by the reporting of rabidly anti-Trump NYT, what the President said in an exchange with a very combative press pack during a “door stop” interview,
“ From what I saw, you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants that in America. Nobody wants to say that. I’ll say it right now, all violent demonstrators are equally bad ”.
Several versions of his statement are reported since in the hubbub of the press scrub the President repeated several versions ,several times.
While it’s true the President didn’t single out any particular group for sole condemnation, he quite rightly believed all violent demonstrators were equally wrong and deserving of condemnation.
His condemnation was not reserved for any political or ideological consideration, but against violent actions and employing violence in civic disputes.
How that makes him a racist, a fascist, Hitler, escapes me !
So far this President has made a determined effort to end the previous administrations reliance on government by Executive degree or edict, instead insisting on referring Presidential power back to Congress by insisting on the rule of law by legislation, not executive authority.
Hardly the action of a crypto-fascist ! In fact, the exact opposite.
Yelling, fascist, Nazi, etc at anyone you disagree with, is something usually reserved for the puerile politics of the student left, and those old lefties still yearning for the days of campus activism.
What’s not funny is trivializing the agony of real victims of oppression, by claiming comparison of the Trump administration with the unimaginable cruelty and brutality of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and equally murderous Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).
Both ideologies, advocated the befits of Dictatorship. Both claimed to be ‘socialist”.
The CPSU a Dictatorship of the proletariat, while the NSDAP advocated a Dictatorship by the “Fuehrerpricipe” or “great leader principle” served by an elite drawn from all ranks of society, but with the added twist of racial, and social ‘purity’.
Neither Doctrine adhered to the principles of fascist ideology, although both adopted selected aspects.
Comparing an American President bound by a strong constitution, limited term, powerful legislature, and active press, with the conditions of the 1920’s and thirties, would be ludicrous if it weren’t so hurtful to those who suffered during that era !
The ultra-right including all the tiny splinter groups of white supremacists,would be Neo-Nazi followers and other assorted riff-raff, nut cases and just plain confused malcontents, probably number less than 10-15,000 in a nation of 330 million !
Members of the extreme left, when not swollen by excitable students, are probably about the same.
Afro-American extremist groups have also nearly disappeared.
My advice is to stop dramatizing and inventing a spectre that doesn’t exist. (You never know what you might awaken).