The white supremacist right is penetrating the mainstream right with increasing ease.
The white supremacist right is penetrating the mainstream right with increasing ease.
The Conservative Political Action Conference is the premier gathering of right-wing activists and politicians in America every year, and it serves as a bellwether for the direction of the conservative movement. This year Nazis showed up.
According to an NBC News report, “a group of Nazis who openly identified as national socialists mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed ‘race science’ and antisemitic conspiracy theories.” (Hitler’s Nazi Party was officially called the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”) The reporter of the article has video of one of them giving a “heil Hitler”-style salute in the lobby of the hotel where the conference took place and of other members of the group reportedly used the N-word.
This is a critical frog-in-boiling-water moment for the right: The mainstream organs of American conservatism are apparently acclimating to Nazis in their pot. That this group was able to mingle with participants at a high-profile conference, wasn't kicked out of CPAC, and wasn't appropriately condemned is a sign of how contiguous mainstream conservatism has become with white supremacist politics today.
I'm old enough to remember when Republicans and Democrats weren't that different... There were always key issues that they disagreed on but at the end of the day the majority of both parties just wanted what was best for the country, and they would even WORK TOGETHER from time to time when it was for the common good... How did the GOP go from that to this white trash hillbilly Nazi bullshit? Are they ever going to recognize that the enemies of democracy have taken over their party? When did they become so complacent?
I remember a clip from a McCain rally and he was going around, asking people questions, letting them talk to the microphone, etc. One lady said she didn't like Obama because he was Muslim. McCain shut her down and said something to the effect of "he's a good man, we just have different opinions on how to run the country". That stands out a lot to me in hindsight.
McCain is one of the old guard Republicans that went down fighting. His final vote thumbs down for the repeal of the ACA was legendary. I didn't vote for him but I do have great respect for him.
Contrast that against all the limp dicks who are silently retiring instead of speaking out and trying to right the ship.
Watch just the first minute of McCain’s concession speech. (Watch the whole thing if you like. It’s pretty good.)
I watched him shut down the boos about Obama at the beginning. He took this very seriously and wouldn’t allow the crowd to get out of line. It was well done, and a great example of statesmanship and fair play.
For just a moment then, I wondered if I had voted for the wrong man in voting for Obama, who was more of an unknown for me at the time. McCain acted very differently in the middle of good campaign, compared to the beginning and the end. I couldn’t support the policies, the attitude, or the man that I saw during the national campaign. Listening to John McCain’s concession speech that night, I remember thinking, "where was this person—this attitude—for the last few months? I might have voted for this person.” The party and the campaign forced him to become something that he wasn’t. If he had been allowed to be more authentic, I think that Obama would have had a narrower victory, if he had won at all.
It's always been there, Harlan Crowe has been a supporter of Clarence Thomas since the early 90's, and the difference between Confederates and Nazis is only razor thin, so those types have always quasi gotten along, or even where the Klan meetings were on w
Wednesday and the Nazi meetings were on Thursdays for some of these people, meaning that there's a lot of crossover, especially when you factor in that Hitler was heavily influenced by the American Confederacy.
Where the Nazis really started showing up in public more was during the energence of the Tea Party, where the Alt-Right basically came out of the closet to join the Republican party.
Yep. The Confederates and the Jim Crow policies of the South were a huge inspiration for the Nazis specifically. If not, our own homegrown fascists. To make a recess analogy. Bigots have always been the peanut butter to the fascist's chocolate. They like them both on their own. But they love them together.
....and the teabaggers were just a rebranding of the hatriots from the 90s. And they were a rebranding of the Birchers....this stuff goes wayyyyy back.
Facism and race "science" has always been the backbone of American conservatism. We are just in a period of time where they are more open about it. And honestly, they might not even be any more open about it, it's just that social media makes it easier to see; legacy media has always been hesitant to call out the right's racism, when when it overt.
The modern Republican party was literally founded on anti-black racism. We've all heard of the Southern Strategy by now, but it was in 1957 that the RNC started "Operation Dixie" which was aimed at recruiting white southern voters (Dixiecrats) away from the Democrats.
By 1970, you have Nixon's GOP strategist saying this,
From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10-20% of the negro vote... the more negroes that register as Democrats... The more the negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes lie.
It goes back even further. Look up Frederick Ludwick Hoffman. 3 US Presidents proposed a national healthcare system. The answer was “no”. There are racist roots to why we don’t have healthcare for all.
this is why I don't take seriously anyone who says that both parties are the same or two side of the same coin. maybe you could make that argument 40 years ago. but these days saying that is a shorthand to me that "I don't pay attention to what's going on in the news." clearly one party's mainstream has gone extreme and you have to be willfully ignorant to not see it.
This was true only ~15 years ago. My how things have changed. The Tea Party replaced the old progressives, where like GW Bush even provided government funding to feed the homeless, teach kids, etc. Then even before that finished happening the Alt Right took over from the inside. Now I don't even know what to call the latest movement, although it seems to no longer matter if it is already over and the Alt Right is back in power with Trump at the helm again.
I have heard that the person most single-handedly responsible for the rift before all that was Newt Gingrich, who proposed the hard-line stance of obstructionism, where after that cooperation was seen as weak while before that it was a strength.
9/11 deeply affected alot of emotion-first thinkers. It bothered the rest of us quite a bit too, but it hurt them in a way that permanently changed them. It was a major turning point in the GOPs course, since they primarily court emotion-first thinkers votes.
There's a very good (and very long) article about all the ways Gingrich screwed over American politics. Not just the obstructionism, but the dirty tricks, gaslighting, nonsense propaganda, as well as the shift from actually governing to constantly campaigning during your term, can be laid at his feet.
Not to discredit any of what you said, but to add to this I think a big piece of this that often gets glossed over is that since then the parties have become more ideologically sorted. Back in the day, conservative Democrats often worked with conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats often worked with progressive Republicans, and that isn't really an option anymore.
Parties sorted between conservative and liberal, ideologies sorted between urban and rural, and social media sorted all of us into echo chambers. There is no longer any kind of crossover in any part of American society.
Not that different in the sense that the Democrats were the home for bigoted, racist Dixiecrats. And the Republicans had always been home for American fascism.
However, they've been wildly different since the late '60s early '70s. When the fascist courted The racists.
I'm old enough to remember when Republicans and Democrats weren't that different...
Same.
There were always key issues that they disagreed on but at the end of the day the majority of both parties just wanted what was best for the country[...]
Literally never been true a day in your life. Politicians all want the same thing: money and power (they use each one to acquire the other). Exceptions exist, but are exceedingly rare; Bernie Sanders is an exception. In the days you're talking about, Democrats and Republicans agreed on critical points like "We need to tax the absolute shit out of Americans"; what they disagreed on was where and how exactly to spend those dollars. It's never been the case that the majority of Congress had a real interest in helping you or me out.
How did the GOP go from that to this white trash hillbilly Nazi bullshit?
All the "real" Republicans quit the party to stay clear of Trump. Only the worst remained, so now it's the party of the worst.
Having two of the most charismatic Presidents in American history be democrats only separated by 8 years of the unmitigated failure that was GWB broke the GOP.
Clinton was a southern boy popular with blacks and racist whites alike. The GOP felt they had to go total scorched earth on him they were so frightened.
GWB was so bad he killed an entire ideology. His own brother couldn't even run under his last name he was so toxic.
Obama was black, and the white people in the suburbs loved him. That subversive of 'that natural order' further drove the GOP into insanity.
I can't even get into Trump, who is maybe the perfect reflection of what everyday conservatives have become, ignorant, stupid, and incredibly well off while whining about how they're not well off enough.
who is maybe the perfect reflection of what everyday conservatives have become, ignorant, stupid, and incredibly well off while whining about how they’re not well off enough.
I wouldn't say they're that representative of a lot of everyday conservatives. A lot of them are doing pretty poorly, but they're ignorant and get pissed off at the idea that anyone else might benefit from a program they personally don't qualify for or disagree with. My father is absolutely convinced that if the Democrats had the political will and ability to implement a wealth tax, that he would somehow be absolutely murdered by taxes on his $10 or $11 an hour he's making at a Winn Dixie in Florida. He's also the sort convinced that welfare queens living it up with brand new cars and designer clothes are not just a real thing, but a common thing that happens that Democrats just don't want people to know about. He'd probably also chalk up his retirement sucking due to what limited social safety net we have in the US, rather than him draining his retirement accounts while he was unemployed before hitting retirement age so he could play golf and go hang at the bar with his buddies even though he was broke. Medicare is his right, though, he worked for that and earned it, but screw these poors under 65 trying to get healthcare with Medicaid. About the only thing he's missing for your average, everyday conservative is an unhealthy dose of religion.
He's also the sort convinced that welfare queens living it up with brand new cars and designer clothes are not just a real thing, but a common thing that happens
So where's his new phone and fancy car then? If it's that easy, go out and get your free money, king. Stick it to the Dems or whatever. If Winn-Dixie pays shit then go get on that wonderful welfare. After he buys his new car he should have some money left over to buy some drugs, too, right? That's how they think this works, correct?
Sorry, I guess YOU in particular aren't really the person who needs to hear my scathing sarcasm, but I'm getting really really extremely tired of this viewpoint.
Having two of the most charismatic Presidents in American history
Lincoln and JFK? No, wait, the two Roosevelts? No, Reagan and Lyndon Johnson? Jefferson and Washington?
If you're talking about Obama and Clinton, sure they were relatively charismatic compared to boring presidents like Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. But, US history is filled with very charismatic presidents. Even Bush Jr. was fairly charismatic, that's how he managed to rile up the country to take part in the "War on Terra", and how showing up at ground zero and putting on a hard hat was so important for so many people.
The problem with Jeb Bush wasn't George Bush Jr., it was Jeb Bush. He wasn't very charismatic, wasn't a deep thinker, wasn't a leader, etc. The Bush name isn't toxic among Republicans, it's just that Jeb has even less charisma than Hillary Clinton.
As for what killed the GOP, it's much more complicated than just two somewhat charismatic Democratic presidents:
The financial crisis, and how the US focused on stabilizing the banking system without also helping the little people
A black president, driving racists to the GOP and making them determined to vote
Centrist presidents taking fairly moderate economic policies, destroyed the GOP's image as the party of fiscal responsibility
Clinton and Obama not shying away from military solutions to problems made the GOP's image of the hawkish party weak
So, when the GOP was at a period where it was trying to figure out how to define itself, Trump arrived and defined it as the anti-establishment, dog-whistle racist, christian theocratic party.
JFK was pretty charismatic in the same way Clinton was. Lincoln was not charismatic, he had a high pitched voice that sounded like a screaming kettle according to sources.
There's obviously many factors in the GOP's decline, I'm just saying that a big part of it was the psychological effect of seeing voters from demographics who they thought were locked in republicans being willing and enthusiastic to vote for democrats
We never actually de-Nazified after 1945. Between Operation Paperclip, Operation GLADIO, and the rat-lines to Latin America, we just shuffled the Nazi deck chairs on the Nazi Titanic.
This failure to de-Nazify post-war Europe, combined with the need to engage mercenaries and scientists in the ramp up to Truman's war in Korea and the coups in Greece, Albania, and Iran, led to a kind-of global re-Nazification. Former Nazis took power in South Africa, in Brazil, in the newly reconstituted West Germany, and became influence brokers in Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.
From the Prescott Bush and Thomas J. Watson days of outright collaboration with Fascist Governments to the United Fruit Company rampaging through Latin America to Reagan's Iran-Contra deal, we've been working hand-in-glove with Nazis practically since their inception.
I know the son of a paperclip. He is one of the best guys you'd know; the kind of guy who doesn't come from asshole parents.
Maybe the scientists and many others weren't true believers? Maybe leave the regular victims out when their only crime was being unable to leave until their science degree gave them a way to escape?
MSNBC thinks we’re gonna buy the bullshit framing that this is just now something that needs to be addressed?
Fuckers you’ve been watching this go by for over a decade, and you still want to act indignant. The failure of corporate news to fight trump will not be forgotten. Take your pathetic opinion piece and shove it up your earnings ratio.
I get the point of analyzing fascism in logical circles but to discuss the issue with the adherents sounds a bit "lost ball in tall grass" to me.
Who cares what Republicans think of the origins and prior applications of the ideology while they are exclusively leaning into it in the present moment? Frankly it seems like a strange jumping off point to change people's minds or engage in any kind of fruitful conversation.
My two pennies (by way of Ecco I suppose.)
That has been the goal of that movement for at least the last 7 years, to use the chaos of the Trump administration to slowly infiltrate the Republican right. Clearly they have been successful, and CPAC the last few years have been a bellwether of that (e.g. the message: We are All Domestic Terrorists)
Trump did very publicly tell members of the Proud Boys, which is a recognized hate group, to "stand back and stand by". So in allowing Trump to run the party they must also allow in all these wannabe Nazis, as these are his people, his "muscle". He very much sees himself as the mob boss he has always wanted to be, but becoming president allowed him to create this cult that also has no issue answering his calls for violence.
Trump also has no loyalty to anyone, which is irony lost on a man that demands it from everyone else. And I think most in the party know by now that unless you want the cult putting the crosshairs on your back, you better stay in line.
Trump is really looking forward to the time he has enough power to celebrate his first "accidental" defenestration of a political opponent. That's how you know you've finally made it as a dictator.
Correct the right is an ignorant thug in a white hood wishing we could have a redo of concentration camps domestically so he can apply to be an SS guard
Didn't say it in public. Let's be honest. They definitely have been saying it in private since forever. Anyone who has these people in their family knows this from personal experience.
Unfortunately there aren't alot of rational Christians left. Secularism has been on the rise for a long time, and unsurprisingly, the people who decide religion is no longer the way to go tend to overwhelmingly be rational people. Most of the current remaining Christians are emotional thinkers, easy to manipulate with "scary" words. Their version of being religious has nothing to do with what their super important book says anymore, most of them have no idea what it says, even if they have tried reading it. They listen to what people say, not books. They follow their local shephard, and all do whatever he tells them to do. You'll know them when you see them, they'll be the ones calling you a sheep.
Feels like none of the Christians know who they’re getting into bed with.
They very much do know. Christian Nationalists are the biggest segment of fascists in the US, and it's not even close.
You know what the inciting incident for their movement was? The racial integration of schools back in the 1950s. They decided to make a wedge issue out of abortion so that they could get more Christians to vote for racist policies.
The KKK is a conservative Christian organization. The United Daughters of the Confederacy espouses "Christian values." Nick Fuentes, an out-and-proud antisemitic fascist is loud about imposing Catholicism on the rest of the country.
I think this was not the boiling frog moment, but when cpac exported itself to european venues.
as for fever pitch, if I'm not mistaken for the last few years they've had TWO cpac conferences a year.
and I'm fully convinced that the christians know who they are getting involved with, and that is an indictment on that flavor of christianity than anything else. I'm reading tim alberta's new book "the kingdom, the power, and the glory" and he goes into in part how that version of christianity got tied into republican politics. in short, I'm less surprised that nazis showed up to cpac and more surprised that cpac actually let them in the door.
Hey, here's a Fun Fact: MSNBC is literally a corporate entity trying to grift liberals into defending the wealthy. Now the Nazis they overlooked might cost them money.