In the 1932 German elections, Hitler and the Nazis cleverly played the long game. They knew they were closer than ever to fulfilling their dream of seizing power via democratic means and destroying the nation’s constitution from the inside. To make that happen, they needed to woo wary citizens. So Hitler softened his rhetoric and soft-pedaled the party message in his quest for persuadable “swing” voters.
Bear all that in mind – indeed, we’ll shortly return to 1932 – as I share my impressions of the 2024 MAGA griftathon.
As Tony Soprano once said, “The hustle never ends.” The con this time was to invite viewers at home to think of MAGA as one big teddy bear, a cult of comfort where everyone rhapsodizes about “unity,” where the purported goal is “bringing us all together.” And Der Leader (who, in real life, has tested positive for Convict) is really a soulful softy humbled by his brush with a bullet (or a glass fragment, or whatever it was).
Ah yes, him.
I won’t waste valuable column space parsing his usual tsunami of lies. (My favorite: Democrats want to quadruple everyone’s taxes! That statistic exists nowhere.) Lies aside, ex-Republican strategist Rick Wilson smartly describes last night’s numbing 90-minute speech as a “ramblefuck from start to finish,” but what I found most noteworthy were the “unity” riffs at the start: “The discord and division in our society must be healed…As Americans, we are bound together…I am running to be president for all of America.”
Aw, wasn’t that sweet? Plus the part where he said, “In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens…citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.” Indeed, the convention itself was designed to woo voters with sugary messages, and, naturally, many in the mainstream media played along. USA Today declared that Republicans “championed the notion of the country coming together while pledging to do their part to lower the temperature in the red-hot rhetoric that has characterized this year’s election season.”
But – no surprise – the anti-Trump Republicans who run The Bulwark website were hip to the the scam: “The most authoritarian ticket and the most extreme party agenda in modern American history have been presented to the American people, at this convention, in a relatively non-threatening way…Which makes it even more dangerous.”
True that. What mattered most at the cult convention was the horrific content that got left out.
For instance, there was nary a peep about Project 2025, the fascist blueprint for governance that 140 former Trump apparatchiks have drawn up for his delectation. (The convicted felon said recently that he knows nothing about it – yet another lie.) Here are just a few tidbits that went unmentioned during the cult’s purported kumbaya:
* “The Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding…the perceived threat of climate change (is) a favored tool that the Left uses to scare the American public…Climate-change research should be disbanded.”
* “The FDA…should withdraw (the abortion pill)…Stop promoting or approving mail-order abortions in violation of long-standing federal laws that prohibit the mailing and interstate carriage of abortion drugs.”
* “The next conservative president” should delete the terms “gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.“
* Gays should not be raising kids: “Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation…Married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.”
I get why the felon and his convention planners worked so hard to hide their true intent. They want to run out the clock to November, wooing easily duped voters with empty bromides, masking their fascism with soporific snake oil.
Just like Hitler did during his 1932 power bid. It’s well documented.
That spring, he lost the presidential election. (He then sued in court, claiming in vain that the election results were rigged.) But in preparation for the summer’s Reichstag elections, he softened his message – and his party won the largest share of seats in the legislature. With that leverage, he got himself appointed Chancellor in January ’33 and the rest we know.
You may be wondering how he softened his message. It was ingenious. He mass-marketed a two-disc record (for $8 in today’s currency) entitled “Appeal to the Nation.” He didn’t rant and rave. He moderated his tone. He said not a word about the Jews. He said not a word about his favorite topic, revenge and retribution; indeed he omitted his favorite revenge riff (“heads will roll”). He talked instead about bridging the nation’s divides, about “freedom” for all Germans as “a unified people.” And the con paid off at the ballot box, big time.
Can something like that happen here? At this point, need I even pose the question?