A lot has happened since then, obviously, as he's proceeded to dig himself deeper ever day, but that's not why I'm inclined to rescind my moderate view in this regard.
This morning I had someone tell me we can't judge the Alt-Right, the KKK, or even the American Nazi Party itself based on the "extreme example" of World War II.
It was one of those jaw-dropping moments for me, and impressed upon me that one cannot really afford to take a moderate stance on anything pertaining to Nazis. The fact that anyone could say that simply flabbergasted me, but I realized that, perhaps I take for granted other people's awareness of history.
The German Nazi party was founded in 1920, took power in 1933 (despite lacking the support of most Germans) and then proceeded to ban all other parties effectively ending democracy in Germany. It then used that power to not only aggressively expand across central Europe, but to begin a slow-boil from white supremacist rhetoric to extermination. Other nations at the time tried to ignore the execution of their white-supremacist agenda and to appease their expansionism, but as the leader of the Sudeten German Party said to Adolf Hitler, the Nazis "must always demand so much that [they] can never be satisfied."
The World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS) was founded in 1959, nearly fifteen years after the end of the German Nazi Party (1945) and well after the crimes committed by the Nazi Party became well known to the world at large during the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946). The founder of WUFENS also renamed the organization as the American Nazi Party (ANP) a year later, I assume because he was worried his fellow Americans wouldn't connect them to the Nazi's we fought in World War II. (This was also before the establishment of the larger World Union of National Socialists in 1962).
Given the many WWII veterans voting in the 1960s, the ANP faced intense resistance in American elections, so in 1967 the founder attempted to 'reform' the party (more like soften its image), renaming it the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) and instructing members to be less vocal about some of their beliefs. His attempts to create a 'moderate' version of Nazism ended with his assassination that same year by a rejected ANP applicant (he was rejected for being too socialist, mind you, not for being a homicidal ****head). Given that the Civil Rights Movement was succeeding, his successor retained the decision to 'tone-down' hate speech directed towards non-whites, however, they retained the party's emphasis on "a future all-white society" as the party's ultimate goal. Since then the party has, as I understand it, been rife with internal conflict, breaking into many smaller cells.
The point, however, is that the Nazi party of Germany from 1920-1945 is not an extreme example of Nazism. The German Nazi Party was not a splinter group or an extremist group. The party that perpetrated the holocaust was the seed from which the others descend. Modern Nazis knowingly embrace and celebrate a heritage of mass violence and domination, approving horrific actions that many Nazis in WWII would have been appalled to learn about. The German Nazi Party established the values and agenda that represent the core philosophies of their successors, and fundamental to that philosophy is the goal of AN ALL WHITE SOCIETY, or what we might less politely but more concisely call GENOCIDE.
The members of the American Nazi Party did not go out and create a new party with some incidentally overlapping ideals or integrate themselves into an existing, authoritarian party. They formed a party as a direct successor to the German Nazi Party felled 15 years earlier, and they not only retained the Nazi name, they retained the swastika, the Third Reich flag, and the sturmabteilung uniforms as core elements of their image. They adopted and kept those symbols because they took pride in their predecessors' legacy, and they did so fully knowing that for much of the world they were symbols not only of 'racial purity' but of terror, intimidation, and extermination.
American Nazis are not simply fragile white men whining about political correctness or reverse discrimination; these are people who support an organization which would, given the opportunity, end the system of government that protects it and exterminate at least a third of our country.
And yeah, I'm sure that there are Alt-Right members who don't consider themselves "Nazis", but as they say, 'if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, its probably a duck'. If you stand next to someone with a Nazi flag, hold a torch, and chant about white power, what the hell are you if not a Nazi?
If you get to a rally, see that the other people who've turned up are championing an organization that industrialized the murder of a race, and you don't think, gee, maybe I'm on the wrong side of this, you are among the worst people this world has produced in the entirety of its history.
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James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.
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