The Growing Danger Of American Reactionary Fascism
This was first published in August of 2014.
Elements of fascism have been around for a long, long time, before there was a general term for them. Generally speaking, it was Benito Mussolini, a former socialist, and some other Italians, who combined some of these elements into a true political movement after World War One. Mussolini took power in Italy quite quickly, as he became Prime Minister (also known by some as "Premier") of Italy in October of 1922. Mussolini's rise to power and the overall postwar situation in various parts of the world, especially in Germany, Austria and Hungary,* brought copycat fascist political movements elsewhere, although with national variations from the Italian brand.
The defeat of major fascist led countries Germany (which then included Austria) and Italy in World War Two undoubtedly led many to believe fascism was no longer a big threat to the world, although fascist governments remained in power, notably in Spain and Portugal, and another notable fascist-like leader would take over in Argentina, Juan Perón. In the United States, the Great Depression had seen the increased popularity of radio broadcasts by a Michigan Roman Catholic priest named Father Charles Coughlin, who gradually incorporated many fascist ideas, including anti-Jewish rants and hatred, into his speeches and talks, as he became a major critic of President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.** The beginning of World War Two in Europe in 1939 seemingly shook Americans back to their senses, and Coughlin's overall popularity declined. The 1950s saw the rise of one George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American military officer, who latched onto Hitlerian hatreds of Jews and non-white people. He eventually founded the American Nazi Party, complete with all of the hatred and nonsense espoused by Nazism's former nutcase-in-chief, Hitler.
Back in the 1960s my father was an auditor for an auto parts company (supplier). This brought him some extra work, as parts' dealers would occasionally hire him to take inventories for them, and a couple of times, he took me with him to help. I don't recall the exact year this happened, but I'll guess like 1967 or 1968. While we were on one of these inventory jobs, someone had placed Nazi pamphlets on the windshields of the cars in the area where my father's car was parked. It's been so long ago I can't recall everything, but I believe the pamphlet was all in black and white (no racial reference intended), with several crude cartoon like drawings depicting Jews and Black Americans in derogatory caricatures. While I don't remember the exact content, there was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" quote, followed by a picture of George Lincoln Rockwell and words something like, "But he has [or had] a dream too." *** The whole thing was quite appalling and after all of these years, I still remember that night.
The Great Depression had brought about a major political realignment in the United States, with Democrats "generally" becoming the governing majority for several decades, although Republicans did break the Democratic dominance on occasion, especially at the presidential level. Gradually voters seen as progressives shifted more and more into the Democratic Party, while voters seen as conservatives shifted into the Republican Party, until we arrived at where we are today. Increasingly conservative elements began to gain control of the GOP, where they were often seen, even by other Republicans, as "extremists." Arch conservative Republican and libertarian Barry Goldwater, the GOP presidential nominee in 1964, addressed the extremist tag by saying, "...extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Senator Thomas Kuchel, a moderate Republican from California, expressed concern and outright dismay in the mid 1960s about the extremist conservative infiltration of the GOP, and he called these elements "a neo fascist political cult ... driven by ... corrosive hatred and sickening fear ..." **** Again, this was in the mid 1960s, well before the major influx of former conservative Democrats, which gradually accelerated during the 1980s up until about a decade or so ago, which only concentrated and intensified the right wing fascist ideas of the GOP. The election of Barack Obama brought fascist racial, ethnic and religious hatred to something of a fever pitch, as former moderate and traditional conservative Republican officeholders shifted rightward, fearing their defeat in primaries by right wing candidates, who would have been laughed off the political stage less than a couple of decades ago.
Moderate and progressive Americans need to sit up and take notice of what's been going on, as right wing extremism has spread from the far right into the periphery of the mainstream, sold to the American public by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and others, including an organization hiding behind the cover of being a "news" organization, but which was founded with the direct purpose of supporting a political point of view, an organization headed by former Republican operative Roger Ailes; that organization being Fox News. I see comments posted online by those seemingly complacent individuals predicting the "demise of the Republican Party" (see book title in note **** below), this is nonsense, and it is very dangerous folks! In my lifetime I've heard such predictions about the demise of both parties. Remember, underestimating your enemy can be devastating, and these are not just political opponents, they are enemies, as they see anyone who does not toe their line as "the enemy," as can be seen by their attempts to force Republicans further to the political right, although some Republicans have begun fighting back. In the 1920s and early 1930s many Germans, including German Jews, thought it would never be possible for the ranting, far out, sort of crazy and almost comical looking Hitler and his Nazis to gain power; that educated Germans would never let it happen, but it did. After the Nazis took power, the anti-Nazis deluded themselves into thinking the Nazis could be held in check and that the nightmare would soon pass, but it didn't, and it got much, much worse, including war, mass murder and genocide. I see our own modern American reactionary nutcases for what they are .... FASCISTS!
* Germany, Austria and Hungary were all defeated in World War One, thus bringing attempts to place blame for their defeat elsewhere, like on leftist and communist elements of their respective nations. Adolf Hitler came to add an especially virulent racist element to his form of fascism, with an illogical obsession with Jews being its foremost principle. The Bolshevik takeover in Russia in late 1917 had added a particular sense of fear to wealthy (and definitely to the nobility) and middle class people in many European countries, and in the United States, especially during the Great Depression. This fear drove some, perhaps many, toward the various fascist movements in Europe, as fascist paramilitary forces and thugs, like Mussolini's Blackshirt units and Hitler's Stormtroopers, were likely seen as protectors against communist thugs (they had thugs too).
** Remember, there was no television in those times, so radio was a fast, direct and major way to reach large numbers of people. Coughlin also published a weekly newspaper/magazine to disseminate and promote his ideas.
*** If my memory serves me right, Rockwell's picture showed him with a corncob pipe, something he had adopted from General Douglas MacArthur, who was famous for such, and whom Rockwell deeply admired. I am not sure of the exact line used following Dr. King's quote, because Rockwell was assassinated in 1967 by a former American Nazi Party member, so whether it was in the present or past tense ("has" or "had"), I don't remember.
**** See: "Rule and Ruin (the Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party)," by Geoffrey M. Kabaservice, Oxford University Press, New York 2012, page 220.
WORD HISTORY:
Danger-The history of this fairly common word is a bit involved. It goes back to Indo European "domo/doma," which meant "house." This gave its Latin (Italic) offspring "domus," meaning "home," and then the derived "dominium," which meant "property," and then the derived "dominus," which meant "lord of the estate." This then produced "dominarium," which meant "the authority or power of the lord." This gave French, a Latin-based language, first "dongier, and then "dangier," meaning "power, authority." This was carried to England by the Normans, where it was altered to "daunger," with the same meaning, and it was borrowed into English in the 1200s. The idea of "power or authority over others," also had come to mean "power to punish, do harm to," and this gradually became "the risk or fear of harm," the meaning it still carries today.
Elements of fascism have been around for a long, long time, before there was a general term for them. Generally speaking, it was Benito Mussolini, a former socialist, and some other Italians, who combined some of these elements into a true political movement after World War One. Mussolini took power in Italy quite quickly, as he became Prime Minister (also known by some as "Premier") of Italy in October of 1922. Mussolini's rise to power and the overall postwar situation in various parts of the world, especially in Germany, Austria and Hungary,* brought copycat fascist political movements elsewhere, although with national variations from the Italian brand.
The defeat of major fascist led countries Germany (which then included Austria) and Italy in World War Two undoubtedly led many to believe fascism was no longer a big threat to the world, although fascist governments remained in power, notably in Spain and Portugal, and another notable fascist-like leader would take over in Argentina, Juan Perón. In the United States, the Great Depression had seen the increased popularity of radio broadcasts by a Michigan Roman Catholic priest named Father Charles Coughlin, who gradually incorporated many fascist ideas, including anti-Jewish rants and hatred, into his speeches and talks, as he became a major critic of President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.** The beginning of World War Two in Europe in 1939 seemingly shook Americans back to their senses, and Coughlin's overall popularity declined. The 1950s saw the rise of one George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American military officer, who latched onto Hitlerian hatreds of Jews and non-white people. He eventually founded the American Nazi Party, complete with all of the hatred and nonsense espoused by Nazism's former nutcase-in-chief, Hitler.
Back in the 1960s my father was an auditor for an auto parts company (supplier). This brought him some extra work, as parts' dealers would occasionally hire him to take inventories for them, and a couple of times, he took me with him to help. I don't recall the exact year this happened, but I'll guess like 1967 or 1968. While we were on one of these inventory jobs, someone had placed Nazi pamphlets on the windshields of the cars in the area where my father's car was parked. It's been so long ago I can't recall everything, but I believe the pamphlet was all in black and white (no racial reference intended), with several crude cartoon like drawings depicting Jews and Black Americans in derogatory caricatures. While I don't remember the exact content, there was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" quote, followed by a picture of George Lincoln Rockwell and words something like, "But he has [or had] a dream too." *** The whole thing was quite appalling and after all of these years, I still remember that night.
The Great Depression had brought about a major political realignment in the United States, with Democrats "generally" becoming the governing majority for several decades, although Republicans did break the Democratic dominance on occasion, especially at the presidential level. Gradually voters seen as progressives shifted more and more into the Democratic Party, while voters seen as conservatives shifted into the Republican Party, until we arrived at where we are today. Increasingly conservative elements began to gain control of the GOP, where they were often seen, even by other Republicans, as "extremists." Arch conservative Republican and libertarian Barry Goldwater, the GOP presidential nominee in 1964, addressed the extremist tag by saying, "...extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Senator Thomas Kuchel, a moderate Republican from California, expressed concern and outright dismay in the mid 1960s about the extremist conservative infiltration of the GOP, and he called these elements "a neo fascist political cult ... driven by ... corrosive hatred and sickening fear ..." **** Again, this was in the mid 1960s, well before the major influx of former conservative Democrats, which gradually accelerated during the 1980s up until about a decade or so ago, which only concentrated and intensified the right wing fascist ideas of the GOP. The election of Barack Obama brought fascist racial, ethnic and religious hatred to something of a fever pitch, as former moderate and traditional conservative Republican officeholders shifted rightward, fearing their defeat in primaries by right wing candidates, who would have been laughed off the political stage less than a couple of decades ago.
Moderate and progressive Americans need to sit up and take notice of what's been going on, as right wing extremism has spread from the far right into the periphery of the mainstream, sold to the American public by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and others, including an organization hiding behind the cover of being a "news" organization, but which was founded with the direct purpose of supporting a political point of view, an organization headed by former Republican operative Roger Ailes; that organization being Fox News. I see comments posted online by those seemingly complacent individuals predicting the "demise of the Republican Party" (see book title in note **** below), this is nonsense, and it is very dangerous folks! In my lifetime I've heard such predictions about the demise of both parties. Remember, underestimating your enemy can be devastating, and these are not just political opponents, they are enemies, as they see anyone who does not toe their line as "the enemy," as can be seen by their attempts to force Republicans further to the political right, although some Republicans have begun fighting back. In the 1920s and early 1930s many Germans, including German Jews, thought it would never be possible for the ranting, far out, sort of crazy and almost comical looking Hitler and his Nazis to gain power; that educated Germans would never let it happen, but it did. After the Nazis took power, the anti-Nazis deluded themselves into thinking the Nazis could be held in check and that the nightmare would soon pass, but it didn't, and it got much, much worse, including war, mass murder and genocide. I see our own modern American reactionary nutcases for what they are .... FASCISTS!
* Germany, Austria and Hungary were all defeated in World War One, thus bringing attempts to place blame for their defeat elsewhere, like on leftist and communist elements of their respective nations. Adolf Hitler came to add an especially virulent racist element to his form of fascism, with an illogical obsession with Jews being its foremost principle. The Bolshevik takeover in Russia in late 1917 had added a particular sense of fear to wealthy (and definitely to the nobility) and middle class people in many European countries, and in the United States, especially during the Great Depression. This fear drove some, perhaps many, toward the various fascist movements in Europe, as fascist paramilitary forces and thugs, like Mussolini's Blackshirt units and Hitler's Stormtroopers, were likely seen as protectors against communist thugs (they had thugs too).
** Remember, there was no television in those times, so radio was a fast, direct and major way to reach large numbers of people. Coughlin also published a weekly newspaper/magazine to disseminate and promote his ideas.
*** If my memory serves me right, Rockwell's picture showed him with a corncob pipe, something he had adopted from General Douglas MacArthur, who was famous for such, and whom Rockwell deeply admired. I am not sure of the exact line used following Dr. King's quote, because Rockwell was assassinated in 1967 by a former American Nazi Party member, so whether it was in the present or past tense ("has" or "had"), I don't remember.
**** See: "Rule and Ruin (the Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party)," by Geoffrey M. Kabaservice, Oxford University Press, New York 2012, page 220.
WORD HISTORY:
Danger-The history of this fairly common word is a bit involved. It goes back to Indo European "domo/doma," which meant "house." This gave its Latin (Italic) offspring "domus," meaning "home," and then the derived "dominium," which meant "property," and then the derived "dominus," which meant "lord of the estate." This then produced "dominarium," which meant "the authority or power of the lord." This gave French, a Latin-based language, first "dongier, and then "dangier," meaning "power, authority." This was carried to England by the Normans, where it was altered to "daunger," with the same meaning, and it was borrowed into English in the 1200s. The idea of "power or authority over others," also had come to mean "power to punish, do harm to," and this gradually became "the risk or fear of harm," the meaning it still carries today.
Labels: Barry Goldwater, Benito Mussolini, English, etymology, Fascism, Father Coughlin, Fox News, French, George Lincoln Rockwell, German Jews, Germany, Latin, Nazis, Republicans, Roger Ailes
posted by Randy at 5:37 PM
4 Comments:
I don't remember this Rockwell you mention, but I am a Democrat, and I agree many Americans have let their guard down about the reactionary elements that have such a strong presence in the Republican Party. Shame on us! Writing about these things is really your strong suit and I enjoy these articles, and I pay heed to what you say. Others should too. Your word history is appropriate for this.
Right wing extremism drove me out of the GOP, first as an independent, but now as a Democrat. I don't think I remember that Rockwell either, not that Id want to.
they nuts like u said about nutcase hitler! Republicans wanted them now they got them and we have to put up with them.
I am 63, and Jewish, and I remember George Lincoln Rockwell. He was a nut, and not a major figure, sort of the David Duke of the 1950s and 60s. What is concerning is the fact that the Republican majority in Congress is now dominated by people who 50 years ago would have been considered right wing John Bircher types. It is not a big leap from their ideas to a new type of fascism, not dominated by anti-Semitism, but a class warfare against the poor, using the lower middle class or what used to be the lower middle class as the weapon. These folks who come from blue collar backgrounds who used to vote Democratic and now vote Republican have been convinced their plot in life can be blamed on liberals, and minorities, and that message is not new. Joseph Goebbels used it advantageously. Today, the use of code words is more subtle than just blaming the Jews. But the idea is the same.
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