HISTORICALLY ANTISEMITIC, PRO-NAZI FORD MOTORS JOINS VICIOUS ANTICHRIST DONALD WILDMON IN ANTI-GAY JIHAD

There was a time when half the people I knew didn't like the idea of buying a Volkswagen because the company had been so heavily implicated-- to put it mildly-- in the Nazi effort. (I didn't know anyone at the time who could afford a Mercedes so thinking about that company's participation in the far right's gift to mankind was moot.) Many of us did buy VW bugs and VW vans, mostly because they were cheap and cool and we allowed ourselves to be convinced that it was a new world, a new Germany, a new VW, a new day, etc, etc. To be honest, VW's non-Nazi mindset is a lot more believable than Ford Motors'. "Ford?" you ask. Oh yes, the company in Detroit whose management is asking for God only knows how much in tax dollars so they can keep collecting their outrageously high salaries and bonuses (while shipping more American jobs overseas). Thanks to the swell folks over at AMERICAblog and at THE ADVOCATE we are learning the details of Ford Motors' decision to boycott gay media after threats of a boycott from Donald Wildmon's Mississippi-based hate group, the mis-named "American Family Association."

Wildmon, a fake right-wing preacher and aggressive extremist who is best known, for his virulent campaigns against Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Robert Mapplethorpe, is claiming victory-- and is calling off his threatened boycott of Ford "for now"-- after forcing Ford to cease advertising in mainstream gay lifestyle magazines. Wildmon's obsession with spreading a message of hatred has made many people wonder if he is an actual antichrist. Those who have watched him in action over the years are convinced he is.

But let me come back to the vile Wildmon in a moment. First I want to give you a little context in terms of Ford Motors. This is a company that should know better, given their very racist and reactionary-- many say treasonous-- past. Henry Ford was not just a typical reactionary Republican robber baron; oh no. This one was as vicious and aggressive a Nazi pig in his day as people like Robertson, Phelps, Dobson, Falwell, and Wildmon are today. Ole Henry Ford published an antisemitic hate rag called THE DEARBORN INDEPENDENT which was distributed in Ford dealerships in the 1920s and, among other things, republished the antisemitic right-wing nonsense called "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." Ford's paper was notorious not just for its virulent antisemitism but also for being anti-immigrant and anti-labor (see, the Republicans never change, although how many children and grandchildren of the immigrants Ford and other wingnuts were demonizing then are now hate-mongers themselves, even sitting and drinking beers with other fat Minutemen in Arizona, trying to terrorize desperate Mexican migrants?)

Anyway, auto manufacturer, and newspaper publisher Ford seemed to think he needed to do even more in a world he apparently thought was craving more hatred and bigotry. He also published and had his car dealerships distribute a book called "The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem"-- and then he found a hero who he could really get behind: Adolf Hitler. Ford was an early financial backer of der fuehrer and his little right-wing politcal party and was always yammering on about what a great leader Hitler was and how we needed leaders like him in America. (Bush's grandfather, another far right-wing nutcase, was also a big Hitler supporter at this time.) Ford built factories in Germany-- using slave labor-- that greatly helped the Nazi military build-up and was rewarded with the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle (see photo above), the first American to ever get such an honor from the Nazis; Bush's grandpa, a notorious money grubber, was a less august Nazi operative and he just got cash for his efforts.

Think about that the next time you think about buying a car. Unless you're gay or have gay relatives or friends. Then you can think about what Ford is up to now. Try to imagine a right-wing hate group (like the Nazis or the KKK or the Republican Party) contacting a major corporation and telling them to stop advertising in a progressive magazine or on Air America or in a newspaper that contradicts The Leader. Imagine that the KKK Grand Dragon goes to the head of Ford and says "Stop advertising in that left-wing, Jew-owned, Black-lovin', Bush-bashin' New York Times or we'll get every racist redneck in the Bible Belt to stop buying your trucks." What would Ford do?

Well you don't have to imagine! The Grand Dragon of the American Family Association, Donald Wildmon, called a boycott of Ford and, guess what Ford did! They informed gay media outlets on which they have been advertising-- which is what pissed the neo-Nazi Wildmon folks off-- that they were pulling their ads and would no longer be doing business with them. And the boycott got cancelled.

How embarrassing for Ford-- or was it conveniently coincidental considering who holds power in DC?-- that this should come to light just when Ford is begging the Federal Government for a bailout after years of dismal mismanagement and incompetence and greed as bad as anything demonstrated by FEMA!


MONDAY EVENING UPDATE

The January 24, 2000 issue THE NATION has a great piece on Ford and the Führer which all Jews, gays and progressives thinking about buying a car ought to read carefully.