Attendees will have the chance to win a plaque commemorating Trump and the ‘J6 Prison Choir’s’ jailhouse song ‘Jusice for All’ briefly charting at #1 on the Billboard Music Charts
Just in case you had any doubt about whether he intends to stage another coup attempt if he loses.
Given the number of German ex-pats living in the US in 1939, this isn’t entirely far from the truth. The first world war and the subsequent economic collapse drove a huge wave of European immigrants to the Americas. The Nazi movement in the western hemisphere was driven in large part by German Nationalists at home appealing to the sympathies of their peers throughout North and South America in order to raise money and build international trade relations to power the revitalized German industrial base.
The current iteration of American fascism isn’t something we imported. Its got roots that go deep into the Goldwater/Reagan revolution of the late 60s/early 70s (and beyond, tbf). The hysteria aimed at Latin American migrants stems from our dirty wars south of the border intended to suppress socialist revolutions that threatened to upend cheap fruit production. The guns-for-drugs trade that followed further exacerbated the American fear of day laborers and seasonal agricultural workers was inflamed by American crime TV and talk radio. This wasn’t some German propagandist sending over his best hatchet men to stir up xenophobias at home. It was purely a product of American white nationalists stirring the pot.
Trump is an entirely American expression of the fascist state. Fully clutching the cross and draped in the American flag.
I was pretty sure that the biggest wave of German immigration to the United States was before WWI (including some of my ancestors, BTW), but I decided to double check and yep, Wikipedia agrees with me:
The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and World War I, during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880, they were the largest group of immigrants. Following the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, a wave of political refugees fled to America, who became known as Forty-Eighters. They included professionals, journalists, and politicians. Prominent Forty-Eighters included Carl Schurz and Henry Villard.
The Wikipedia article seems to have a gap where it doesn’t say how many Germans immigrated in the 1920s, so I looked further and found this:
As for the 1930s, Wikipedia says that “many [German immigrants] were Jewish Germans or anti-Nazis fleeing government oppression,” but also that “about 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi German American Bund during the years before the war.” Looking at the chart, 25,000 would be only a small fraction of the total number of Germans who immigrated between 1918 and 1939. (However, according to that group’s article, only American citizens of German descent were allowed to be members, so that figure isn’t relevant to the number of recent German immigrants who were Nazis, despite the first article’s implication.)
TL;DR: I think the notion that those 20,000 Nazis filling Madison Square Garden were mostly post-1918 German immigrants is… unlikely, to say the least!
TL;DR: I think the notion that those 20,000 Nazis filling Madison Square Garden were mostly post-1918 German immigrants is… unlikely, to say the least!
about 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi German American Bund during the years before the war.
I mean, those numbers seem to tie out pretty neatly.
Looking at the chart, 25,000 would be only a small fraction of the total number of Germans who immigrated between 1918 and 1939.
Sure. But I’m not in any way suggesting all German migrants were Nazis. I’m saying that the American Nazi Party was primarily composed of first and second generation German migrants, heavily influenced by the media originating from their nation of origin.
In the same way, not everyone who moves from New York to Texas stays a Yankees fan. But most fans of the Yankees down in Texas have some familial relationship to New York.
They were then, too. You don’t think all those attendees hopped an ocean liner over from Europe for the occasion, do you?
Given the number of German ex-pats living in the US in 1939, this isn’t entirely far from the truth. The first world war and the subsequent economic collapse drove a huge wave of European immigrants to the Americas. The Nazi movement in the western hemisphere was driven in large part by German Nationalists at home appealing to the sympathies of their peers throughout North and South America in order to raise money and build international trade relations to power the revitalized German industrial base.
The current iteration of American fascism isn’t something we imported. Its got roots that go deep into the Goldwater/Reagan revolution of the late 60s/early 70s (and beyond, tbf). The hysteria aimed at Latin American migrants stems from our dirty wars south of the border intended to suppress socialist revolutions that threatened to upend cheap fruit production. The guns-for-drugs trade that followed further exacerbated the American fear of day laborers and seasonal agricultural workers was inflamed by American crime TV and talk radio. This wasn’t some German propagandist sending over his best hatchet men to stir up xenophobias at home. It was purely a product of American white nationalists stirring the pot.
Trump is an entirely American expression of the fascist state. Fully clutching the cross and draped in the American flag.
I was pretty sure that the biggest wave of German immigration to the United States was before WWI (including some of my ancestors, BTW), but I decided to double check and yep, Wikipedia agrees with me:
The Wikipedia article seems to have a gap where it doesn’t say how many Germans immigrated in the 1920s, so I looked further and found this:
As for the 1930s, Wikipedia says that “many [German immigrants] were Jewish Germans or anti-Nazis fleeing government oppression,” but also that “about 25,000 people became paying members of the pro-Nazi German American Bund during the years before the war.” Looking at the chart, 25,000 would be only a small fraction of the total number of Germans who immigrated between 1918 and 1939. (However, according to that group’s article, only American citizens of German descent were allowed to be members, so that figure isn’t relevant to the number of recent German immigrants who were Nazis, despite the first article’s implication.)
TL;DR: I think the notion that those 20,000 Nazis filling Madison Square Garden were mostly post-1918 German immigrants is… unlikely, to say the least!
I mean, those numbers seem to tie out pretty neatly.
Sure. But I’m not in any way suggesting all German migrants were Nazis. I’m saying that the American Nazi Party was primarily composed of first and second generation German migrants, heavily influenced by the media originating from their nation of origin.
In the same way, not everyone who moves from New York to Texas stays a Yankees fan. But most fans of the Yankees down in Texas have some familial relationship to New York.