Perhaps the most important book of the 20th Century was “Gulag Archipelago” by Solzhenitsyn. It gave witness to the truth that Soviet Communism was a murderous, barbaric totalitarian police state. It destroyed the lies and propaganda that the radical left in America and Europe wanted to believe that Communism was flawed but essentially beneficial. Horse shit.
Rachel Maddow has told the history of the America First political movement of the ‘30s and ‘40s in her “Ultra” podcast - eight episodes. This is perhaps the most important historical account in the 21st century so far.
I had no knowledge of this history. I thought it was just Americans wanting to stay out of the “European War”. Horse shit.
That America First movement was a full on fascist, Nazi, pro-Hitler violent crusade to violently overthrow democracy in America and create a pro-Nazi, anti rule of law, anti-democratic, antisemitic tyranny in America. These were not misguided peace loving isolationists. These were white supremacist fascists in the pay of and in ideological agreement with the white supremacist Nazis and Hitler.
America has a long history of white supremacist domination - from Manifest Destiny that destroyed Native Americans, to anti-Chinese bigotry in early California, too African American slavery in the Confederate states, to racist Jim Crow terror in the post-civil War South, to complicit indifference in the North, to current Republican Party voter suppression and overt racist political appeals today.
The fascist white supremacist pro-Nazi America First attempt to overthrow America in the ‘30s and ‘40s is being re-enacted by today’s white supremacist pro-Putin MAGA Cult Republican Party today.
How did we stop it eighty years ago? It took everything that America could muster to triumph - the courts, political opposition, investigative journalism, private personal exposes, and the American voters. The rule of law was insufficient. As it is today. Political opposition was insufficient. As it is today. Journalistic exposure was insufficient. As it is today. Each element of exposure and opposition was insufficient. It took the whole of American goodness and truth to stop American fascism and lies. It was up to America to say no. All of the tools that American goodness could muster was required.
We are called to do it again. Now. We will prevail because goodness and truth will prevail over fascism and lies.
I firmly believe.
It is worth the time to listen to this gripping history that we were never taught. Because it is repeating now.
