Listening To Trump’s Fascist Dogma In German Is Surreal and Sobering

As we speak, Madison Square Garden is open and people who intend to hear Donald Trump and a host of Republicans speak tonight are beginning to trickle in. The rally begins at 5:00 p.m. ET There were two Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden in 1939, one in February of that year and another on October 30. It’s almost 85 years to the day since fascism took center stage in that hallowed venue and tonight. As it’s been said, “Evil never dies, it just reinvents itself.” And it does so after a period of dormancy, during which time people forget.

Here is a link to live stream counter programming during Trump’s rally. He has a lengthy roster of speakers. If they only speak for five minutes each, this could go on for hours.

These are the words of Marshall Curry, who put together an Oscar-winning documentary on the Nazis in Miadison Square Garden.

Seven years ago, I came across archival footage from a “Pro America Rally” that filled Madison Square Garden in 1939. In the black-and-white images, twenty thousand New Yorkers packed the arena, waving flags, singing the Star-Spangled Banner, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. But the cheerful displays of patriotism were laced with a malignancy: alongside a forty-foot portrait of George Washington hung two enormous swastikas.

The keynote speaker that night was Fritz Kuhn, the self-styled “American Fuehrer.” Hearing him call for a “white Gentile-ruled United States” and seeing thousands of Americans offer a straight-armed salute was disorienting and surreal — like something from a fictional alternate history, where the Nazis defeated America.

I edited a short film from the footage, and we screened it around the country – at places like the Museum of Tolerance and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. We shared it on YouTube and social media, hoping it would be a sobering reminder that we Americans are not immune to the seduction of demagogues. At just seven minutes, it became one of the shortest documentaries ever to be nominated for an Oscar.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a surprising spike in online activity around the film. It turned out Trump had announced he would be holding a rally at Madison Square Garden this Sunday, and a lot of people were drawing comparisons between the two events.

They pointed at the way Trump – like Kuhn – uses dark humor and the symbols of patriotism to whip up his followers against refugees, the press, and religious minorities.

It’s tempting to roll our eyes when liberals accuse Trump of flirting with fascism. But it’s harder to ignore when the warning comes from Trump’s own Republican allies who know him intimately.

General John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that his former boss meets “the general definition of a fascist for sure.” General Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the former President is “fascist to the core.” Republican stalwart and two-time Trump voter, Liz Cheney agrees. And even Mike Pence has refused to endorse Trump – think about that for a moment – in part because Trump put “himself over the Constitution.”

The comparisons with Kuhn aren’t just about Trump’s disregard for democracy. Lindsey Graham has called him a “race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot.” J.D. Vance wrote in a leaked message that he didn’t know whether Trump was “America’s Hitler” or just a “cynical asshole.”

He’s both, J.D., he’s both. And J.D. Vance will be one of the headliners tonight, as Trump’s running mate. Interesting how disposable a moral compass is when enough money and power come into play.

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