Republicans Are Different From Fascists, Right?

Americans view fascism through the horrific prism of Hitler's extermination camps, particularly in terms of the extermination for European Jews. But fascism itself is a political-economic system and there's nothing inherently anti-Semitic about it. In fact, with a few exceptions-- like Henry Ford-- the plutocrats who financed the rise of German and Italian fascism in the 1920s and '30s did it for the exact same reasons plutocrats like the Koch Brothers are financing the Republican Party and other right-wing movements today. It's not because they hate Jews (or Mexicans or gays or women); it's because they are obsessed with greed and selfishness and seek an economic system that emulates the Law of the Jungle. Does this sound familiar?

In Italy, the fascists abandoned the inheritance tax, and halved the taxes of managers and directors of corporations. The Italian Minister of Finance boasted: "We have broken with the practice of persecuting capital."

Gee, if he were alive today-- and not a Republican elected official-- he could be writing on the Wall Street Journal editorial page or be working as a Fox commentator. Do these two paragraphs from Glen Yeadon's book, Nazi Hydra In America, remind you of any particular Midwest governors?

An April 7, 1933 decree gave the Hitler government the right to name a new governor for each German state. The governors were empowered to dismiss state governments, including judges. The law was used to seat Nazi governors and judges.

Hitler declared May 1 to be a national holiday and gave a speech on the dignity of labor. The next day, the S.A. seized all union buildings and offices, arrested all labor leaders and sent most of them to concentration camps, betraying the duplicity of the Nazi character.

All that said, the National Jewish Democratic Council expressed some concerns today about one Republican who has consistently... let's say "flirted" with fascists and fascism for his whole career-- and who announced that he's running for president again.

Texas Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) has spent a significant portion of his career in the House of Representatives working against the U.S.-Israel relationship and supporting positions that are out of step with the vast majority of American Jews. Today, Paul announced his candidacy for the 2012 presidential election. National Jewish Democratic Council President and CEO David A. Harris said in response:
 
"The National Jewish Democratic Council is deeply troubled by Representative Ron Paul's candidacy for president in 2012. Paul has never missed an opportunity to vote against the U.S.-Israel relationship and has consistently grandstanded against U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel. American Jews should be deeply alarmed that someone with such a deliberately miserable record on Israel would be a major candidate in today's Republican Party."
 
Paul's record on Israel is atrocious. So much so that even the Republican Jewish Coalition preemptively expressed concern about Paul's candidacy the day before he declared.

Most recently, Paul advanced an amendment that would have specifically cut funding to Israel out of the 2012 budget and advocated for the United States to abandon support for Israel at the negotiating table with the Palestinians. Paul has also "likened Israel's defensive blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza to 'a concentration camp'" and voted against sanctioning Iran for its nuclear weapons program.

Paul has ever-increasing grassroots support and he consistently places well in conservative straw polls, including his first place finish in both the 2011 and 2010 CPAC straw polls. Further, he has accumulated significant amounts of money to finance his campaign in addition to his energized supporters.
 
There is no doubt that Paul will be a force to be dealt with during the Republican primary season. With each success that he has, the questions that already exist about the GOP's ability to represent American Jews will become much more serious.