Who’s the Nazi?
The 2024 presidential campaigns are becoming more like schoolyard arguments than political debates. “You’re a liar! No, you’re the liar! You’re a Nazi! No, You’re a Nazi.” Joe Biden kicked off his 2024 campaign by accusing Donald Trump of echoing Adolph Hitler: "He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany" [Link 1.] Trump and his supporters have shot back with the schoolyard response: “No, the Democrats are Nazis and Biden is like Hitler.”
Trump has repeatedly referred to “radical left Democrats” as “fascists.” He has posted on social media that the persecution he is experiencing from the “Biden Crime Family” is “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.” [Links 2 & 3] In a recent speech to a Georgia rally, Margarie Taylor Greene accused the media of spending four years “calling Republicans Nazis,” and likening Trump to Hitler. She said “You know Nazis were the National Socialist Party. Just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.” [link 4.]
So, who is lying, and who is telling the truth?
Regarding Green’s statement about Democrats being Nazis, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, was formed in 1919 to support issues of the working class during the political turmoil following World War I. Hitler joined the party shortly after it was formed, and by 1921, he had gained control of the Nazi political and paramilitary operations. Hitler made extensive and effective use of propaganda (alternative facts) in his rise to power. He paid lip service to the socialists’ and workers' roots of the party, but instead, he used the party to gain power for himself, with no regard for the consequences for the party or anyone else.
Hitler used a racist, anti-Semitic agenda to appeal to those who felt neglected and alienated from the post-war German government. After a failed attempt to take over the government by force in November 1923, Hitler decided to work within the democratic processes of the largely dysfunctional post-war German government to achieve what he had failed to achieve by force.
By the late 1920s, the German economy had fallen into a deep economic depression. Hitler gained the support of wealthy industrialists by promising to fix the economy. The industrialists were strongly opposed to any form of socialist or pro-worker policies. By the early 1930s, the agenda of the Nazi party was neither socialist nor pro-worker. The ideology of the Nazi party had become solely Hitler’s ideology.
Hitler used the Nazi party to gain power within the government, and by January 1933 he had manipulated German President, Paul von Hindenburg, into appointing him as Chancellor. In March 1933, the German Reichstag Hitler voted to give Hitler the full powers of a dictator. In April 1933, communists, socialists, democrats, and Jews were all purged from the German civil service, and labor unions were outlawed in May. In July, Hitler banned all political parties other than the Nazi party, and leaders of opposing parties were arrested and imprisoned. Nothing remotely resembling socialism remained in the Nazi Party. The Nazi Party was Hitler’s party.
So, who sounds more like Hitler? Joe Biden or Donald Trump? Both presidential candidates have been president before and have made it clear how they intend to govern if reelected. Which party sounds more like the Nazi party? The Democratic party of Joe Biden or the Republican party of Donald Trump?
The answer to these questions is not a trivial matter. There will be accusations thrown back and forth between now and November 4 that sound far less like rational political debates than angry schoolyard arguments. It’s important that voters cut through the noise and anger, examine the facts behind the accusations, and face the harsh realities of history.
An advanced well-educated society can and did elect a dictator. That possibility has never been more real in the U.S. during my lifetime than it is today. Dictators, once elected, cannot be unelected, because there will be no more real elections. In the case of Hitler, it took World War II. We can’t afford to let the schoolyard arguments distract us from this reality.
John Ikerd
--------------------------
Link 1. https://www.lemonde.fr/.../biden-launches-2024-campaign...#
Link 2. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../house-republicans-embark...
Link 3. at https://time.com/6306945/donald-trump-democrats-fascists/
Link 4. https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-us-lawmaker.../