On The Morning Joe show, MSNBC commentator Donny Deutsch recently likened Trump voters to Nazis. Speaking in regards to the latest manufactured outrage of separating illegal immigrate children from their parents, Deutsch said:
-You had to be a member of the Nazi Party. This seems like a no-brainer, but the Nazis were a political party.
-You have to be ethnically German.
-You had to be ethnocentric. The Nazis believed only a member of the "race" (someone of German blood) could be citizen.
-You had to be a nationalist. Nationalism is defined as loyalty and devotion to a nation. It should be stressed here that nationalism is not the same as patriotism. In the words of George Orwell, "Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
-You had to be an isolationist. Non-citizens were prevented from immigrating, and all non-Germans already living in Germany were forced to leave the Reich.
-You have to be a socialist. The Nazi party called for the nationalization of all public companies, and a division of profits of all heavy industries. That they were socialists should be obvious, but this fact has often been overlooked by many. It also indicates that contrary to what some have asserted, the Nazis were not right-wing. Socialism and Communism are two sides of the same coin, and it should be remembered that the Nazis had a pact with the Russians until they broke it.
-You have to support national healthcare and nationalized education.
-You have to support control of the press. All writers and employees had to be German. Non-Germans were forbidden by law to exert any influence, or publish material that the government deemed counter to the "general good".
-You have to be a fascist. Execution of the 25-point plan was to be executed with a strong central power, with unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich.
In summary, in order to be a Nazi you had to meet ALL these qualifications. Cherry picking one or two things, misconstruing them, and then using them to mischaracterize someone because you don't like their political beliefs does NOT make them a Nazi. Just Remember this the next time someone calls you a Nazi.
I wanna attach what you just said to the question that Carter asked John about; politicizing; I could put an exclamation mark about everything you said. It was particularly reprehensible when Ivanka said, “It looks a certain way.”
What has to happen now is this can no longer be about who Trump is. It has to be about who we are, if we are working towards November. We can no longer say Trump’s the bad guy. If you vote for Trump, you’re the bad guy. If you vote for Trump, you are ripping children from parents’ arms. The mistake that we’ve made in the past, is “Look at that bad guy over there. Look at that bad guy.”
What the Democrats have to do is make the next election a referendum on not who Trump is, but who you are. That’s the big difference. You can no longer now as a voter — because it’s not about taxes, it’s not even about some abstract term of immigration or nationalism; if you vote for Trump then you, the voter, you, not Donald Trump, are standing at the border, like Nazis, going “You here, you here.”
And I think we now have to flip it and it’s a given, the evilness of Donald Trump. But if you vote, you can no longer separate yourself. You can’t say, well he’s okay, but — and I think that gymnastics and I think that jiu-jitsu has to happen.
This is just one example of many of how the Nazi label has been thrown around so casually these days, that it's necessary to define exactly what a Nazi is, and what they believe. For this we look to the National Socialist Program. This was a 25-point plan of the National Socialists German Workers' Party presented by Adolf Hitler in 1920. I wont be going over the whole 25 points verbatim, you can read those for yourself. These, however, are the main points of what it means to be a Nazi:
-You had to be a member of the Nazi Party. This seems like a no-brainer, but the Nazis were a political party.
-You have to be ethnically German.
-You had to be ethnocentric. The Nazis believed only a member of the "race" (someone of German blood) could be citizen.
-You had to be a nationalist. Nationalism is defined as loyalty and devotion to a nation. It should be stressed here that nationalism is not the same as patriotism. In the words of George Orwell, "Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
-You had to be an isolationist. Non-citizens were prevented from immigrating, and all non-Germans already living in Germany were forced to leave the Reich.
-You have to be a socialist. The Nazi party called for the nationalization of all public companies, and a division of profits of all heavy industries. That they were socialists should be obvious, but this fact has often been overlooked by many. It also indicates that contrary to what some have asserted, the Nazis were not right-wing. Socialism and Communism are two sides of the same coin, and it should be remembered that the Nazis had a pact with the Russians until they broke it.
-You have to support national healthcare and nationalized education.
-You have to support control of the press. All writers and employees had to be German. Non-Germans were forbidden by law to exert any influence, or publish material that the government deemed counter to the "general good".
-You have to be a fascist. Execution of the 25-point plan was to be executed with a strong central power, with unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich.
In summary, in order to be a Nazi you had to meet ALL these qualifications. Cherry picking one or two things, misconstruing them, and then using them to mischaracterize someone because you don't like their political beliefs does NOT make them a Nazi. Just Remember this the next time someone calls you a Nazi.
