Over the last few days I've come to recognize the urgent need to distinguish between white supremacism and Nazism.
The GOP is the party of white supremacists. Some blow the dog whistle. Others traffic in biological notions of race and nativism. And others are unapologetically anti-black. Despite these differences, the entire party believes in elite white rule.
Of course, Nazism, like all fascists regimes, is predicated on white/aryan rule. But it's increasingly clear that we are not only facing white supremacists thugs and thuglicans, but also a would-be Hitler backed by Nazis. What's the connection?
- Peep the material connection in the form of donations from Neo-Nazis (
IATT
).
- Check the symbolic regalia at last week's RNC: the innumerable eagles atop the American flag was eerily similar to the Reichsadler of the Nazi Party in Germany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsadler#Modern_history).
- Rhetoric. Do you Hear echoes of the 'Big Lie'? How the president and his enablers can say, with a straight face, that the division he has sown and that is happening RIGHT NOW, portends a Biden presidency. The 'little lies' are petulant and may have enabled such bold-faced lies regarding the economy, covid-19, and civil unrest. But more than that, the 'Big Lie' they're telling is a Nazi move: to blame the other side for that which they have created, to insist that only they can fix it, and to deploy their ministers of propaganda, state power, and law enforcement to bury the truth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie).
So the GOP is a party of white supremacists, with different factions battling over
just how far to take its logical conclusion. Some factions want to hold onto white supremacy through the Nixonian/1970s plan of law and order, continued incarceration, gerrymandering, and
select incorporation of racial 'others.' For 30+ years, that was the plan to stomp out black radicalism and Third World solidarity movements by offering black capitalism and representation within existing institutions. It is what helps explain the rise of the 'lonely' Black republican and ovetures to Hispanics. That project of assimilation and emasculation is basically dead.
Another faction wants to maintain white racial dominance while still performing the rituals of constitutionalism and democracy (about which they ultimately care little). This is the John Roberts Ted Cruz contingent.
Then there's the ascendant faction--the Trump faction, the Nazi faction--that wants to destroy non-pliable institutions and purge all alternative political projects (BLM, Occupy, Democratic Socialism, etc). As a rule, that means eliminating the majority of black folks, POC, white allies, and others who oppose Nazism.
We are in danger.