By james art Oakland, CA (Special to Informed Comment; thread) – On February 20, 1939, the German-American Bund held a rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG) called the “Mass Demonstration for True Americanism.” It was fueled by the cover of the Great Depression, which was still fresh in the American mind; and reinforced by the continued economic struggles of post-Depression America, along with growing isolationist sentiment driven by xenophobia and overt racism. The Bund was an openly pro-Nazi organization that demonized Jews and lumped all Jews together as communists; organized by Fritz Kuhn, who rose as the “American Führer”. They organized summer camps in the US and made their children wear Hitler Youth uniforms while indoctrinating them in their sick ideology.
On October 27, 2024, Donald Trump held a rally at the same MSG (different building) to promote the same concepts of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and hatred of “the other.” Comparisons were inevitable, despite Republican denial.
This six-hour hate-fest was a quixotic move by Trump that was not intended to win electoral votes in New York; but to sow hatred in the breasts of those who are his followers, and to vilify those who are not. He didn’t even invite the seven New York Republicans running for his seats, instead choosing speakers spewing infantile “humor” and insults. The clear message is that he is serious about jailing political opponents, ending civil liberties, and turning America into a Christian nationalist-fascist theocracy if re-elected. Like Kuhn, Trump is a deep admirer of “Jew-hating, mass-murdering maniac,” as Hitler was characterized by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film. Inglourious Basterds.
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted, “The message the MAGA caravan brought to Madison Square Garden was that their movement would soon be completely unrestricted.” But this event illustrates that it already is. Trump doubled down on every aspect of his threats of American carnage, including deporting “domestic enemies” such as Jack Smith, Hillary Clinton, judges, journalists; and using the US military against its own citizens. The audacity would have been shocking in 2016, but now it’s almost normalized in context. It’s a measure of how badly this guy has skewed the political spectrum while giving America’s fascists the “all clear” signal to come out and act.
MSNBC cable news has been slammed by right-wingers for correctly including scenes from the 1939 rally in its coverage. To ignore this would be a sin of omission for historical and journalistic thoroughness. The juxtaposition of the two videos was blasted as “shameful” by conservatives who highlighted the diversity of the crowd. But that’s what and who they are. The Republican spin machine and media (eg Rupert Murczoch’s Fox News and New York Post) are all atwitter because someone pointed out the obvious parallels.
Fox News called it inflammatory and unfair to call it a “Nazi rally,” but the participants showed no restraint or subtlety about their message. It was a disturbing, delayed echo of the event in 1939. Trump financier and creator Elon Musk wore his black MAGA designer clothing with fascist design undertones. Some deep-thinking Republicans tried, pathetically, to distance themselves, while most embraced it and doubled down on the message. Their party was swamped and swallowed by Trumpism, just as Ronald Reagan kicked the Ripon Society out of the “Big Tent” to make way for the Moral Majority. Clever Republicans like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were kicked out the same way.
“Alt-Right”, Digital, Dream / Dreamland v3 / IbisPaint, 2024
Let’s get one thing straight: Donald Trump is NOT “good for Jews” or Israel. A minority of American Jews abandoned the Democratic Party under Reagan, swayed by the myths of Reaganomics and its supposed support for Israel; which was indeed driven by the evangelical Zionists. They ignore the fact that the evangelical “love” for Israel is not based on their millennial hopes that the Jews gathering the Holy Land will provoke the return of Christ and the conversion or damnation of all Jews. This wacky theology is, of course, a euphemistic version of Hitler’s Final Solution: a world without Jews. The presence of a handful of right-wing, rather isolated and uninformed Jews says nothing about the extremist nature of the event. They pretended it wasn’t fascism because all they cared about was getting Trump back in power so he wouldn’t interfere with Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza and aggression in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. They have been tricked into believing that Trump is “good for Jews and Israel,” by their own misperceptions. Not all smart, successful people are deep thinkers, especially single-issue voters.
The content of the rally was an outright lie, as there is no positive content in the Trump campaign. CNN broke away to verify some claims in real time, including that FEMA has no money for hurricane victims because it was all given to illegal immigrants, that thousands of illegal immigrants have flooded into Springfield, Missouri, and that the US is “occupied country.” Much was made of the five hours of “entertainment” that set the stage for Trump’s appearance, including the shameful insults against Puerto Ricans. Their only concept of humor is abuse and mockery; infantile and juvenile.
The most immediate takeaway is that this rally represents Trump’s total investment in American fascism. He doubles down on the worst and most inflammatory things he’s said, no matter how wrong and untrue they are, because that’s what his base buys. The gathering illustrates the extent to which the entire MAGA movement is increasingly independent, completely dependent on packaging up dystopian fantasies and lies and forcefully spreading them around. Most Republicans accept all of this because Trump is what they always wanted in a candidate. Others try to do damage control for all the unvarnished racism and meanness. After all, the goal was to set the stage and fire up his supporters so that they would be primed for nationwide riots if he lost.
The irony is that MSG is known as the best entertainment venue in the world. As with Fox News itself, the rally functioned as a dark and macabre form of entertainment. In times like these, America needs heroes, real and fictional. Maybe we should call for an Indiana Jones married to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to refuse the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail to the Nazis and support Kamala Harris’ campaign.