Donald Trump, Jr. just demonstrated that the Twitter Presidency is subject to Godwin’s Law. “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” (web.archive.org) It doesn’t say that the comparisons are always incorrect, just that the likelihood that they will be invoked rises corresponding to the length of the discussion. (Remember that, the next time someone tries to tell you that whoever brings up Hitler or the Nazis first automatically loses the argument. Godwin himself refuted that.) (Washington Post)
So, Trump Jr. decided to invoke the Nazis.
So the left spends the last 3 years falsely calling my entire family NAZI’s, but the second I point out the similarities between the economic platform of the National Socialists and the Democrat Party, they scream bloody murder. Here’s what I was referring to. #facts pic.twitter.com/kTmwG1NDO8
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 2, 2018
The question must be asked: is he correct? Or is he merely shilling for D’Souza’s new movie?
Let’s look at the actual party platform of the Nazis of that time. Not the policy they pushed to try to get people onto their side, but the joining principles that they were working toward, taken from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Nazi Party Platform
We demand the following:
- A union of all Germans to form a great Germany on the basis of the right to self-determination of peoples.
- Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles.
- Return lands lost in World War I and colonies to give German adequate living space.
- German blood as a requirement for German citizenship. No Jew can be a member of the nation.
- Non-citizens can live in Germany only as foreigners, subject to the law of aliens.
- Only citizens can vote or hold public office.
- The state insures that every citizen live decently and earn his livelihood. If it is impossible to provide food for the whole population, then aliens must be expelled.
- Guarantee for jobs and benefits for workers.
- No further immigration of non-Germans. Any non-German who entered Germany after August 2, 1914, shall leave immediately.
- A thorough reconstruction of our national system of education. The science of citizenship shall be taught from the beginning.
- That German citizens and owners must publish all newspapers in the German language.
- Eliminate the Marxist threat.
“Guarantee for jobs and benefits for workers” sounds a lot like the current National Socialist strain of the Democrat party. The rest of it? If there are shadows of anything, it is, in fact, the Trump administration and the current iteration of the Republican party. It is all about citizenship, immigration, and regaining a perceived national strength.
The Republicans have been attacked as Nazis for as long as I’ve been alive. It’s almost always been false. Those comparisons are still overwrought, but for the first time the attackers have a leg to stand on, because of the recent actions of Republicans.
One example, from Haaretz, from the recent analysis that proved Trump 2020 has knowingly taken money from neo-Nazis:
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters, “I think there is blame on both sides,” after the white nationalist-planned Aug. 12, 2017 protest turned violent.
Now campaign filings reviewed by the Forward show that a participant in that event has donated to President Trump’s reelection campaign, as have two neo-Nazis. The filings show that the campaign is aware of the contributions, as they have redirected them — but not returned them. Experts say fundraising committees have a responsibility to vet donors.
Other examples are provided in the article.
It’s also not helpful when the Republicans have an actual neo-Nazi running, and they claim they are unable to disassociate with him. Arthur Jones is an avowed Nazi from Illinois, on the November for Congress as a Republican. He is currently anti-Trump, because of Trump’s support for Israel… and only because of that support.
If one defines the Nazis only by their hatred of Jews, then the Democrats, many of whom have courted the muslim vote by siding with the “Palestinians” in the Israeli conflict, bear a closer similarity on that party plank. If, however, you extrapolate it into hatred of a subgroup, “Illegals” quickly fills the void.
The simple truth is that the Democrats don’t resemble the Nazis… or at least, they don’t resemble them as much as the Republicans do at the moment.
The Democrats bear a closer resemblance to the Social Democrat party of 1930s Germany, again from the Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Social Democratic Party Platform
We are committed to maintaining the Republic and a policy that will allow Germany to take its rightful place among the free governments of Europe.
We will support the present German Republic so that freedom, democracy, and justice will live in the hearts of our German countrymen.
We will honor all of Germany’s obligations, political and financial, in order that Germany’s honor and respect will not be decreased in the eyes of the world.
We plan to create more jobs by undertaking an extensive program of public works.
We will cut government expenditures to lower taxes.
We believe in the right of those who disagree with the party to speak and write on those issues without interference.
The modern Democrat party doesn’t even hold to this level of tolerance; the speech codes on campuses and ouster of CEOs for using words – not even as perjoratives, but merely voicing those words – demonstrates that they’re drifting away from the Social Democrat platform. Combine that with their abhorrence toward lowering taxes and there is a case to be made that they are moving toward the German Communist party of the 1930s.
Embracing parts of either Nazism or Communism is not a good strategy to move America forward toward its founding ideals. The Nazi state and related fascist states failed. The Communist experiments have resulted in poverty and starvation in every place where they were tried, and full Socialism has led to economic and cultural stagnation in the areas where homogeneous societies and regulated borders have only prevented economic devastation in a handful of countries that have attempted it.
