Fascism in America

Many years ago there were Nazi sympathizers in the US. They planned to start a race war. But Rachel Maddow believes another iteration of a startlingly similar ultra-right movement is taking hold.

What I watched: “Rachel Maddow on "Prequel" and fascism in America” by CBS Sunday Morning. Posted October 8, 2023.

A while back, I was driving from San Francisco to Palm Springs, California. I’d been streaming some music to pass the time. Then I somehow stumbled on a podcast amid the music offerings as I was tapping the app’s screen. It was Rachel Maddow’s new MSNBC podcast, Ultra.

I rarely watch television news anymore. It’s become a constant regurgitation of the same news, light analysis, and often unhelpful bothsideism over and over all day long. I’d rather read my news. I read a lot of news.

But Rachel Maddow’s show is one of the few I will take the time to sit down and watch. She’s brilliant. Her analysis of issues is sharp and robust. When she interviews someone, her questions are intelligent and thoughtfully probing. She doesn’t do puff pieces or lob easy-to-dodge questions at her guests. So, I decided to listen to the first episode of her eight-episode podcast.

Wow. Just wow. The podcast was riveting from the start. I finished the entire podcast during my drive. I arrived in Palm Springs a bit stunned at what I had learned.

If you ever shake your head in disbelief that Americans, including members of Congress, could support right-wing extremism including Nazi-style fascism, it's happened before, in significant numbers.

Sadly, I contend the ultra-right elements within the Republican party are the modern enemy of democracy that would gladly employ such tactics to meet their white supremacist and other extreme objectives. I believe they would throw people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and any “others” who aren’t white Christian heterosexual men under the proverbial bus to further their hateful agenda and grab and maintain power. Cynical? One has to only clearly observe what’s been happening lately to see the evidence.

The interview by correspondent Rita Braver is short and is an introduction not just to the story in Ultra, but also to Maddow’s forthcoming book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, set to be published October 17, 2023 and available now for preorder.

I await Rachel Maddow's book. I know it will be superb. I encourage you to listen to her Ultra podcast. No podcast has moved me so strongly as that one. To learn that so many Nazi sympathizers were active in the United States during the time of Hitler is alarming, but perhaps it's a cautionary tale we should all take in and make sure we vote out every single extremist in the Republican party who is a danger to our democracy, which is now sadly many of them.

Here's where I’ll insert a recommendation to register to vote if you’re not already. If you’re already registered, check your information to make sure it’s active and accurate. Then commit to voting in 2024 to vote out those who would gladly destroy our democracy to elevate themselves, their power, and their agenda of hate.

Here’s just a few snippets of the video interview that should make every decent American’s hair stand on end in horror.

Interviewer: It may be hard to fathom than some 20,000 Americans would gather under an image of George Washington for a pro-Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939.

...

Maddow: Not only were there lots of Americans who didn't want us to fight, but there was a lot of them who wanted us to fight on the other side with the Nazis.

...

Interviewer: Do you think we are now seeing a resurgence of fascism in our country?

Maddow: I think we are seeing another iteration of the ultra right and it has a lot of the elements that are the most worrying things that you look for when you're looking at a democracy that's in trouble of yielding to authoritarianism. We see violence intruding into the political process. We see the scapegoating of minorities and dangerous conspiracy theories...

Interviewer: A rising antisemitism?

Maddow: Rising antisemitism is an absolute red flag. Antisemitism almost always goes with the rise in fascist ideation and it's just something that we can't ignore. There's a history here that we ought to learn from. Americans before us, just as smart, just as resourceful, just as funny, just as clear-minded as any of us could ever hope to be, fought those fights before us. We can learn from what they did.

Let’s hope we learn.

Maddow’s contention that antisemitism almost always accompanies the rise of fascism should have more impact right now as we witness the horrors of Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel and the resulting death and destruction. I know there’s a long and complex history in that region, but if you’d like an articulate and concise discussion about the topic, this conversation between TED’s head of curation, Helen Walters, and political scientist Ian Bremmer explains the historical context of the conflict. He also opines how Israel might respond and what it might mean for Jews, Palestinians, and the world at large.

But, back to Maddow’s podcast and forthcoming book. It’s so commonly referenced it’s almost become trite but it’s so true, as writer and philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (Often paraphrased as “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it..”) Let’s hope Maddow’s warning to us all is heeded and we avoid fascism rising in the United States.

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