624

Nazis at CPAC is a frog-in-boiling-water moment for the right (www.msnbc.com)

submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

91 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The white supremacist right is penetrating the mainstream right with increasing ease.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is the premier gathering of right-wing activists and politicians in America every year, and it serves as a bellwether for the direction of the conservative movement. This year Nazis showed up.

According to an NBC News report, “a group of Nazis who openly identified as national socialists mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed ‘race science’ and antisemitic conspiracy theories.” (Hitler’s Nazi Party was officially called the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”) The reporter of the article has video of one of them giving a “heil Hitler”-style salute in the lobby of the hotel where the conference took place and of other members of the group reportedly used the N-word.

This is a critical frog-in-boiling-water moment for the right: The mainstream organs of American conservatism are apparently acclimating to Nazis in their pot. That this group was able to mingle with participants at a high-profile conference, wasn't kicked out of CPAC, and wasn't appropriately condemned is a sign of how contiguous mainstream conservatism has become with white supremacist politics today.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago

Having two of the most charismatic Presidents in American history

Lincoln and JFK? No, wait, the two Roosevelts? No, Reagan and Lyndon Johnson? Jefferson and Washington?

If you're talking about Obama and Clinton, sure they were relatively charismatic compared to boring presidents like Bush Sr., Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. But, US history is filled with very charismatic presidents. Even Bush Jr. was fairly charismatic, that's how he managed to rile up the country to take part in the "War on Terra", and how showing up at ground zero and putting on a hard hat was so important for so many people.

The problem with Jeb Bush wasn't George Bush Jr., it was Jeb Bush. He wasn't very charismatic, wasn't a deep thinker, wasn't a leader, etc. The Bush name isn't toxic among Republicans, it's just that Jeb has even less charisma than Hillary Clinton.

As for what killed the GOP, it's much more complicated than just two somewhat charismatic Democratic presidents:

The financial crisis, and how the US focused on stabilizing the banking system without also helping the little people
A black president, driving racists to the GOP and making them determined to vote
Centrist presidents taking fairly moderate economic policies, destroyed the GOP's image as the party of fiscal responsibility
Clinton and Obama not shying away from military solutions to problems made the GOP's image of the hawkish party weak

So, when the GOP was at a period where it was trying to figure out how to define itself, Trump arrived and defined it as the anti-establishment, dog-whistle racist, christian theocratic party.

[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

JFK was pretty charismatic in the same way Clinton was. Lincoln was not charismatic, he had a high pitched voice that sounded like a screaming kettle according to sources.

There's obviously many factors in the GOP's decline, I'm just saying that a big part of it was the psychological effect of seeing voters from demographics who they thought were locked in republicans being willing and enthusiastic to vote for democrats

this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024

624 points (98.8% liked)

politics

31633 readers

1893 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
No manipulating votes via bots or alt accounts; this will result in permanent bans. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules and use critical thinking when reading, posting, and commenting. Users that repeatedly have comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News