As the sad drama involving Nazis, White Supremacists, and counter protesters in Charlottesville, VA plays to its heart-breaking end, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the plight of the American conservative.
First, let’s consider, first and foremost, the “American” Nazi, by contrasting this critter with a Republican and a Democrat. The two latter are members of political parties within the context of the American constitutional system. This means they accept the primary tenets of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, such as All Men[1] Are Created Equal, periodic and fair elections, yada yada yada. They may disagree on how to run the joint, but when it comes to the central tenets of the Republic, there’s little discord.
They are Parties.
The Nazis, on the other hand, have proven to be a system of government. Once in power, their will to retain power is not constrained by the system of government which they’ve invaded; that structure is twisted or ignored in their relentless gathering of power. They despise the thought that all people are created equal, as that clashes with their central tenet that the Aryan race is superior to all others. And they are a Party of raw power, or, as the Wikipedia page says,
Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying the Germans as a part of what the Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race.
Social Darwinism, the biological observation of the “survival of the fittest” grafted on to human society, is often implemented as Eugenics, which is the extinguishment of the reproductive function in those deemed inferior for physical, social, or racial reasons (read: they lop your nuts off with a garden shears and dig out your ovaries with a spade), is a prominent part of their philosophy, because they see their racial purity as imperiled by the inferior who compete with, and often beat, them. But their Social Darwinism even applies within their governmental structure; there is little interest in Justice, merely with accruing and using petty power to advance their personal interests. These are all observations from their one real-world experience.
No more exposition is necessary to make my point, and that is this: the “American” Nazi is no more than a traitor to the United States of America. His “party” isn’t a party, it’s a competing system of government repugnant to the governmental principles of the United States, as made explicit in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers[2], and many other documents of the Founders and other great politicians of the ages, from Washington to Lincoln to Roosevelt to, yes, Obama.
I condemn the movement and its constituent ideas as a system inherently unstable and vulnerable to the worst sort of power-seeker, but, in the great American tradition of redemption, I leave the rancid followers of it, yes, even those invading Charlottesville, the opportunity to reconsider, to abandon these discredited ideas and their fool’s quest. To return to the enduring experiment in justice we call the American system.
The murderer will, of course, face Justice. And if he does not rue that day, then he is an unsalvageable fool.
The careful reader will note I mentioned White Supremacists as well as Nazis, but have not discussed them since. The general reasoning applied to the Nazis works as well for the Supremacists, as they, too, have central tenets at desperate odds with those already enumerated in this post; the White Supremacist cannot, by explicit reason, apply faithfully the tenets by which government is executed and applied. If they do not bring an explicit system of government to the table, their central tenet is repugnant and incongruous in an industrious people.
But let’s move on to the most important point of this post, and in doing so I’d like to point out that my mention of Presidents from Washington to Obama was not a mere rhetorical device. Does that line of politicians of varying capabilities but undoubted loyalties stop with the accession of Trump to the Oval Office?
Consider his condemnation of the violence:
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.” [CNN]
On many sides. As if those who protested the invasion of Charlottesville on behalf of the United States were merely the moral equivalent of those Nazis and White Supremacists, those who would overturn the American government and replace it with one riddled with violence and oppression. Does President Trump truly believe such a remarkable equivalence?
It’s tempting to indulge in incendiary rhetoric, perhaps suggesting that Trump, urged on by his advisors Miller and Bannon, works to destroy the very system of Government which has kept us successful for 200+ years, but this would probably be inaccurate. My common sense tells me that this self-proclaimed “smart” guy probably doesn’t understand, care about, or perhaps even know of, the historical incidents which define these various movements – even the American governmental system which has so benefited him. He is, after all, an incurious man who has buried himself in private sector pursuits for his entire life.
His statement may be charitably read as simply attempting to establish a middle ground. However, the President, for all of his electoral success, is truly an amateur politician who has exhibited mastery only in that single facet of politics; his failures in office have reached a magnitude that makes enumeration meaningless – and damn near impossible. Keeping in mind his known popularity with the far-right fringe population, including the Nazis and supremacists, and the clues that indicate he is aware of that popularity, it’s relatively simple to see that this statement is his attempt to keep that part of his base happy with him, while still attempting to be Presidential to the rest of the country.
Judging from the condemnations rattling in country-wide, his attempt is a failure. The attempt is transparent, and many have seen through it and are sickened.
So, for the Trump voter appalled by the Charlottesville violence, they now face a quandary: how to proceed politically in the future. Continue to embrace Trump, who has moved from Trump the Bully, to Trump the Greedy, to Trump the Incompetent, to now Trump the Fool? Does he move on to Trump the Fuhrer?
And, of course, similar questions apply to every member of the House of Representatives who supports President Trump, beginning with Speaker Ryan. Or, more directly, when, Speaker Ryan, will you repress your urge to power, and bring to the fore the need for someone else to be the Executive of this Nation?
1Yes, yes, gender-neutral; do not become distracted by the single poison ivy plant while trekking through the forest.
2These papers debate the positives and negatives of a strong central government, but neither is in itself a subversive affair; discussion and debate is an integral part of the American experiment.
