Republicans want young people to misunderstand history and its effects
West Virginia state senator and senate education chair Patricia Rucker (R-Jefferson County) recently took to the pages of the Washington Times to trot out some very wrong and oft-repeated myths about history and generally to be condescending towards “young people”. Her article was headlined, “Young people misunderstand socialism and its effects.”
Sen. Rucker is very concerned that young people are embracing socialism and she thinks they’re embracing socialism because they don’t understand what it means. She posits that it may be “because the word “socialism” and the way we hear it in the American vernacular has changed.”
It’s awful condescending to claim that young people don’t understand socialism, but it’s especially so when two of her core examples are exercises in revisionist history.
Nazis Weren’t Socialists, and They Killed Socialists at the Bidding of Industrialists
Rucker wonders, “how many millennials know that Hitler was a socialist. The word Nazi was derived from the term National Socialist from the German.”
This is a myth, and it’s easy to fall to prey to it because English-speakers try to take “nationalsozialistische” (one word) and break into two words “national socialist.” Then they ignore the first part of the word and focus on “socialist”. It’s a bit like a vegetarian turning down a veggie burger because it’s a burger.
The full German name of the Nazi party was the “nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (national socialist German workers party). It was founded as the “Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (German workers party), and it adopted “nationalsozialistische” in 1920. They didn’t adopt that term to more accurately describe the party — they adopted it to draw German socialists and communists away from internationally-minded socialist and communist parties so that the Nazis could gain seats in the Bundestag (the German parliament).
As the Shoah Resource Center at the International School for Holocaust Studies notes,
In 1919 an antisemitic right-wing political party called the German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) was founded in Munich; this party adopted the combined “national-social” ideology. In 1920 the party added “National Socialist” to its name and thus became the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP or Nazi Party). A year later Adolf Hitler, a man who started out as a public speaker for the party, became its undisputed leader, or Fuehrer. The National Socialist ideology was an outgrowth of earlier political theories that also gave birth to fascism — a political movement that became popular in Italy some years before the Nazis took over Germany. [Emphasis added]
The big differentiation wasn’t the socialist part — it was the national part. A central part of Nazi rhetoric was that Germany had been robbed in the aftermath World War I and that an international Jewish conspiracy was to blame for both Germany losing the war and the worldwide depression that began in 1929. Moreover, they also blamed immigrants, Slavs, Roma, Bolsheviks (seen as internationalist Jewish communists), the disabled and various other ‘non-German’ groups, and they created an entire nationalist myth about Aryanism and the supremacy of the German nation.
There was a special term for Marxist socialists who joined the ranks of Nazi party. They were called “beefsteak Nazis” who were ‘fascist brown on the outside and socialist/communist red on the inside’. There were also ‘Strasserist’ socialists, who were so disdained by Hitler and the party elite that Hitler had Gregor Strasser murdered in 1934 as part of the “Night of the Long Knives”.
Despite its misleading name, the “Night” of the Long Knives lasted between June 30 and July 2, 1934. During those days and nights, the black-shirted Schutzstaffel (SS) murdered or imprisoned nearly all of Hitler’s opposition within the Nazi party — including socialists, communists, and the brown-shirted Sturmabteilung (SA).
Ever hear of the multinational corporation Thyssenkrupp? Industrialist Fritz Thyssen, along with other wealthy German business leaders, encouraged Hitler to suppress socialists, communists, and the SA. Their pressure led to the Night of the Long Knives.
To demonstrate how much perception of history can change, I wonder if Sen. Rucker knows about German World War I veteran and early Nazi supporter Martin Niemöller. Niemöller wrote:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
One wonders if Sen. Rucker would be so condescending towards Pastor Martin Niemöller, who endured seven years and even sermonized in German concentration camps, as she seems towards young adults in America.
Hitler scare-mongered about international socialism and communism, and he blamed a mentally challenged Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe for the bombing of the German Reichstag.
Hitler then used the Reichstagsbrand (Reichstag fire) as an excuse to consolidate his powers. As lawyers Michael Tigar and John Mage point out, “the Nazis had gained a Reichstag majority by expelling the Communist deputies, as part of the spate of repressive measures taken just after the fire.”
Even for Hitler, the fear of socialism was less a real threat to Germany than it was a useful bogeyman-tool for breaking his opposition and consolidating power — with the aid of members of Germany’s industrialist class, such as Fritz Thyssen.
There is nothing beyond misunderstanding the English translation of “national socialist” that could lead a person to believe that Hitler was a socialist in the way Rucker insinuates.
Italian Fascists Weren’t Socialists and They Killed Socialists to Consolidate Power
Rucker goes on to gloss over some history about fascism in Italy, writing: “[Hitler’s] ally was Mussolini who was a Fascist. The definition of fascism is the control of industry by the government. The definition of socialist is the ownership of industry by the government. Do you see much of a difference?”
Yes. I do see a difference, despite her bad-faith oversimplification. And so does anyone who has even superficially studied 20th century Italy.
Mussolini himself spelled out the differences writing in La dottrina del fascismo (The Doctrine of Fascism) that, “Fascism [is] the precise negation of that doctrine which formed the basis of the so-called Scientific or Marxian Socialism.” [Emphasis added]
In the same book, Mussolini writes,
“Fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable, fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be levelled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage.” [Emphasis added]
In other words, Mussolini saw fascism as an explicit bulwark against pure democracy and equality, and as an expression of what he saw as the natural fact that people are made unequally. Fascism also serves as a bulwark against the 51% (or 99%) rabble dictating to the 49% (or 1%) of superior men.
By any definition of socialism — even the conservative notion that socialism is a system that makes everyone equally poor — the idea of equality is fundamental. On the other hand, Fascists see equality as unnatural, leaning on Social Darwinism to explain why some people are better than others. Nazis look to the same sources.
And just as Hitler had socialist-leaning Nazis murdered during his ascent in the 30s, Fascists murdered an Italian socialist leader and active member of parliament named Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. The Fascists banned all parties except the Fascist Party just two years later, in 1926.
Socialism is in direct conflict to both Nazism and Fascism, which is why both Hitler and Mussolini sought to eradicate socialists and communists and other left-wing dissidents from their right-wing authoritarian governments and societies.
So again, yes — it doesn’t take much to see big fundamental differences between fascism and socialism, despite Sen. Rucker’s bad faith argument that they can kinda-sorta be described similarly.
To reiterate so far: Hitler wasn’t a socialist, and socialists were explicit enemies of Hitler’s Nazi party. And, while Mussolini was a socialist in his youth, in his adulthood Mussolini saw socialists as the enemies of Fascism and Fascism as an antidote to socialism.
In short, both Hitler and Mussolini demonized socialism and even went so far as to have socialists, communists, and other leftists jailed or murdered.
Looking back in American history, Republicans have demonized everything from minimum wage laws to Social Security as “socialism,” but the fears have proven unfounded again and again.
On the other hand, we were warned about what American fascism may look like: corporate capture of the American government.
The Republican Party Looks A Lot Like the Spokespeople for Monopoly & Vested Interest
Vice President Henry Wallace served as Vice President of the United States during most of World War II (1941-1945), and he saw the defeat of Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy just four months after leaving office.
He also warned America in 1944 about the threat of Fascists in America. But he didn’t warn of fascism coming from equality-seeking socialists. He wrote on April 9, 1944 in the New York Times:
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. … They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.
Wallace further warned that the American fascist’s one final goal “toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”
It is worth pointing out that the Republican Party, led by Mitch McConnell, fights tooth and nail to keep corporate dark money in our politics so that their corporate donors can continue to dump millions of dollars annually into our elections, just to elect their preferred politicians. Why? So that they can subvert our democracy and use the power of our democratic republic to give themselves tax favors while rolling back consumer, environmental, and worker protections for average Americans.
When Republicans fight for small government, what they are really fighting for is the privatization of government services. When we privatize government services, we concentrate the power of the market and the power of the state into the boardrooms of massive private corporations. When we concentrate market and state powers into boardrooms, we sideline the American citizenry and place corporate profits and investor returns above the General Welfare of the United States.
A government that sidelines the American citizenry to favor corporate profits is precisely what Vice President Henry Wallace warned us about as Vice President of the United States during World War II.
If we are going to have an honest conversation about the future of our democratic republic, then it needs to begin with an honest understanding of history. Rucker’s article presents a superficial history at best, and an intentionally deceitful and revisionist history at worst.
