{"id":9321,"date":"2023-02-17T23:49:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T04:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=9321"},"modified":"2023-02-21T00:21:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T05:21:31","slug":"dcs-friends-of-fascism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/02\/dcs-friends-of-fascism\/","title":{"rendered":"DC’s friends of fascism"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>n Capitol Hill today, there are more fascist and far-right sympathizers than at any time since the interwar period. These include Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, who attended a conference held by a Holocaust denier<\/a> and white nationalist, Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins, who has ties to paramilitary Oath Keepers and Three Percenters<\/a>, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who invited a Holocaust denier<\/a> and Neo-Nazi to the State of the Union Address, and many<\/a>, many<\/a> more. While disturbing, this seeding of Congress with white nationalists, authoritarians, and fascist sympathizers is not without historical precedent. Indeed, events rarely occur without some sort of historical foreshadowing. During the interwar years characters of much the same caliber ascended to high office in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Dan La Botz, in an article from New Politics<\/a>, has made the comparison between the current Congress and the 1920s, when the KKK was a mass force and counted Senators and Congressman as members. While that is valid, the Klan of the 1920s was more of a reflection of the era’s reactionary attitudes than an instigator of them. The 1930s and early 1940s, on the other hand, saw a proliferation of extremist fascist groups, some with memberships in the tens of thousands like the German American Bund<\/a>, the Black Legion<\/a>, the Silver Shirts<\/a>, and \u201cRadio Priest\u201d Charles Coughlin\u2019s Christian Front<\/a>. Not only did these groups have memberships in the thousands, these organizations and their views had support within the walls of Congress.<\/p>\n

The 1930s<\/h4>\n

One of the first Congressman to voice support for fascism was Pennsylvania Republican Louis T. McFadden. The Congressman tied anti-Semitic conspiracy theories into his criticisms of the Federal Reserve and read<\/a> the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em> into the Congressional Record. McFadden was lauded<\/a> in the Nazi Party\u2019s Der Sturmer<\/em> as \u201cone of the few Congressmen willing to talk openly against the Jews.\u201d He was quoted<\/a> in the Liberator<\/em>, the newspaper of the domestic fascist organization the Silver Legion, in support of Adolf Hitler. McFadden\u2019s speeches were frequently reprinted by the Silver Legion and other affiliated groups. McFadden lost his bid for reelection in 1934 and was dead<\/a> of coronary thrombosis before he could mount a campaign for the Presidency as the candidate of the \u201cIndependent Republican National Christian-Gentile Committee\u201d an organization designed, according to McFadden, to \u201ckeep the Jew out of the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

McFadden was not alone in his sentiments. Illinois Congressman Stephen A. Day sent Adolf Hitler a telegram on April 6, 1933 congratulating him on taking power.1said, <\/a>\u201cHitler is displaying a forbearance that might well be emulated by statesmen of other nations.\u201d Another admirer of Hitler was New York Republican Congressman Hamilton Fish, an anti-Semite that mailed<\/a> out The Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em> from his office to constituents. In 1933 Fish sponsored the publication of the book Communism in Germany<\/em> that blamed the spread of Communism on the Jews and credited Adolf Hitler with stopping a Communist takeover of Germany.<\/p>\n