Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on
Is Fascism Welcome in the Republican Party?
The PA State GOP has scheduled a fundraiser in NYC -- this Friday, Dec 11, at the Plaza Hotel.with presidential candidate Donald Trump as speaker. The event is a fundraiser for statewide Pennsylvania GOP candidates. I hope that Nw Yorkers will make clear their sense that Republicans, like all Americans, must reject his racist, gynophobic, Islamophobic, xenophobic politics.
Trump will not be the first fascist politician to get support from the hyperwealthy hoping to stave off progressive opposition to their domineering power by energizing racist and xenophobic strands in the body politic. Check, for instance this report on Germany in the 1920s from Politicus USA
“Hitler’s press chief, Otto Dietrich, wrote in his memoirs that “Hitler addressed captains of industry for the first time in 1926 in my home town of Essen.” By the end of the 1920s, Hitler was not only receiving the support of German monarchists and the German aristocracy, but started receiving, in Hanfstaengl’s words, “quite large subsidies” from German industrialists in the Ruhr like Fritz Thyssen and Emil Kirdorf. Fritz Thyssen later claimed in his memoirs that he ‘donated 100,000 gold marks to the NSDAP in October 1923.’ ”
Details of the event follow:
Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania Annual Commonwealth Club Luncheon:
Friday, Decenber 11
Special Guest: Donald Trump
11:30 a.m. – VIP reception & photo opportuni
12:00 p.m. – General Reception
12:30 p.m. – Luncheon
The Plaza
58th Street and Fifth Avenue
$1,000 – Luncheon
$2,500 – VIP Reception & Luncheon
$10,000 – Table of Ten
PA GOP officials have dismissed criticism of the event because of Trump’s outspoken views on illegal immigration and Muslim immigrants and other controversies, and vowed to continue with it as planned. State GOP Communications Director Megan Sweeney said Trump — and any other candidate — has the right to their opinions and perspectives on the country and how to move it forward “Donald Trump has been a successful business leader in New York for decades and our supporters will have an opportunity to hear about his vision during an important time in which they’re deciding who to support next year.
[Comments that follow, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow:}
If I were writing these comments by Ms. Sweney in more candid language, this might read:
“Millions of dollars in political contributions, with no press present to hear and criticize – that trumps worrying about his fascist, racist, xenophobic stance. In fact, that stance might be to our long-range political advantage."
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