In a previous diary I wrote about the Nazi march in Charlottesville, and the predictable violence that ensued:
Nazis in full daylight. No one should be surprised where conservatism and the GOP have brought us. (Aug. 13, 2017)
The white nationalists that gathered in Charlottesville, VA did so to incite and cause violence. That people would be injured or killed wasn’t the result of things ‘spiraling out of control’, it is very much their intention to engage in violence against those that oppose them, and to create the conditions for violence to occur on a large scale.
That they feel they can operate openly, and with the feeling of impunity, is because they have received tacit (and at times overt) support from officials at the highest levels of government, and encouragement from one of the two major political parties— the GOP.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks white nationalist groups and hate crimes in the US, provides a detailed summary of the the emergence of white nationalist groups (such as Nazis, like the Aryan Brotherhood, or the Klan) and their supporters, as prominent members of mainstream conservative politics (while consistently characterized by the media as ‘fringe’), culminating in the election of Trump as the GOP standard-bearer…
But this did not begin with Trump.
He is not the cause or creator of anything, he is the end-product of a decades long effort by the most conservative elements of the GOP, as detailed by Michael Joseph Roberto in his article, The Origins of American Fascism, in Monthly Review…
The GOP has been the home of the far-right, and has espoused overtly fascist views, for the past eighty years, since the days of FDR (see this, and this for additional examples).
There’s no need to use a term like crypto-fascist. The GOP, as an organization, is a vehicle for fascists to wield power, and I describe conservative voters as proto-fascists, cultivated to be receptive to the messages of a bigoted autocrat.
The GOP continues to normalize Nazis and other white supremacists (one need look no further than senior staff in the oval office and cabinet members), and so there is no surprise when Candace Butera reports this at Pacific Standard:
The number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent, almost doubling on K-12 schools and college campuses, according to an annual report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The 2017 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, released on Tuesday, analyzed 1,986 incidents reported in 2017, compared with 1,267 in 2016. This is the highest number of incidents the organization has recorded since the 2,066 incidents recorded in 1994, and the second highest number recorded since the league began tracking the reports in 1979.
In 2013, the number of incidents was as low as 751, but the ADL reported seeing an uptick in reported incidents starting in 2016. (emphasis added)
2016?
What might have prompted an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents, starting in 2016, after decades of decline? I wonder:
Trump and White Supremacists: Not a Coincidence. (July 5, 2016)
With Donald Trump’s latest foray into the world of White Supremacist/neo-Nazi symbolism— a Star of David affixed to an image of Hillary Clinton— we are past the point of debating whether Trump is merely giving playful winks to the racist core of the GOP. The frequency of these symbolic references in his tweets and campaign rallies (which have included supporters raising their right hands to pledge loyalty to him, and his use of the slogan ‘America First’, as perhaps the most notorious reminders of the heyday of American fascism, circa 1938) reflect something quite purposeful, and which Mr. Trump himself is obviously comfortable with. (As a side note, it seems apparent that he also has made it clear to his staff that he, and they, are able to voice any view, make any claim, no matter how transparently false or odious, and no worries, tomorrow you simply say: 1) we didn’t say it, 2) it’s the left-wing media’s fault, 3) because political correctness, 4) some combination of 1-3.)
Chauncey Devega, in a chilling interview with sociologist Dr. James Scaminaci III at Salon, provides invaluable insight into the psychology, motives and operational framework of the alliance between fundamentalists, so-called ‘cultural conservatives’, anti-government conservatives (which run the gamut from suburban libertarians to all out secessionists) the big money backers of the GOP, and White Supremacists…
It’s certainly correct to say that Trump is stultifyingly ignorant, a narcissist, bigoted, and misogynistic. He not only lacks the most basic knowledge of history, but apparently lacks the capacity to learn and understand material above the grade school level.
However, it would be an easy, and grievous, mistake to confuse his sheer clownishness for an absence of ideology. He subscribes to the ideology that is (and has always been) premised on the dominance of heterosexual White males— White Supremacist. His re-tweeting of memes, images, quotations and symbols that are used by the alt-right, White Supremacists, and neo-Nazis are markers of where Trump and his staff get their information, and with whom they prefer to associate. (At this point, every Trump tweet should come with a standard disclosure: “I’m Donald J. Trump, and I approved this use of anti-Semitic symbolism lifted from 8chan”.)
It’s also a mistake for progressives to downplay how pervasive throughout the country, and how determined White Supremacists and neo-Nazis, are; it’s equally a mistake to ignore the sophistication of their political and media operations. ‘Conservative think-tanks’ (like Heritage and American Enterprise Institute) are funded by billionaires, and exist to desensitize the media and populous to White Supremacist messages. The Southern Poverty Law Center traces these connections...
There should be no mystery why this is occurring. The GOP has no issues with Nazis:
A neo-Nazi Holocaust denier is set to become the Republican nominee for a congressional seat in Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Sunday.
Of course, they never have.