Tonight, Donald whatshisface will hold a rally in Madison Square Garden. He knows what he’s doing-emulating another infamous rally; in February 1939, the pro-nazi movement the German-American Bund held a rally at the Garden, calling itself a “pro-America” event. There is a documentary film out, A Night At The Garden, which takes news footage of the rally, and has no narration. It shows the Bund members marching to the stage, with a mammoth picture of George Washington; people in the audience, in and out of the Bund uniform, giving the fascist salute; the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, and the Bund’s leader, Fritz Kuhn, giving his version of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Then Kuhn gets up to speak, griping about the “Jewish-controlled” news media and labor unions, and praising the work of Father Charles Coughlin, another notorious anti-Semite of that era. Then, Isadore Greenbaum, a plumber’s apprentice, gets up on the stage, angered by Kuhn’s Jew-bashing, and Kuhn’s thugs-the Ordnungsdienst, the Bund’s copy of Hitler’s SA-attacked him, tore his pants off, gave him a black eye and a broken nose, and pushed him off stage. (Greenbaum enlisted in the Navy during the Second World War, and again fought Nazis.)
In that era, racism and anti-Semitism were acceptable attitudes, but the Second World War changed that. But with trump, fascism is rearing its ugly head-and yes it IS fascism, and trump-MAGA have all the earmarks of fascism-the glorification of a fictionalized past for the nation; the massive rallies with the raving and hate-making about the alien menace inside and outside the country, by some entity who really is NOT part of the nation; the BIG STRONG Leader who will save the nation from these evil forces and bring “order” and “security”; the enforcement of some or another pseudo-religious ideas codified into law, and everybody is forced to obey them; the demeaning of education and intellect, and with it the banning of news media and reading material opposing the regime; and the glorification of violence and scorn for those the regime considers “weak” (but which the regime still fears).
So, don’t tell me that trump-MAGA-ism isn’t fascism! So, let us use our votes on November 5 to elect Kamala Harris, and vote blue all the way through; and drive another nail into the coffin of fascism. Our ancestors fought and died to destroy fascism, and we CAN’T let them down.
https://anightatthegarden.com/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-american-bund
https://eguides.barry.edu/c.php?g=663570&p=4663523
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/695941323/when-nazis-took-manhattan
http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/americans-for-hitler/
My Novel, “Soldier Of The Cross.”
Hemperiffic Card
thegtsf.org
