The Tea party movement rise is similar to that of the Nazi party in Germany in 1933

[Politics_Guy25]

There are striking similarities between the Nazis and the tea party. Both arose out of economic discontent, both are racist to the core, both held extreme religious views, both had/have a famous voice appealing to their followers leading the charge-Palin is beloved by her narrow band of followers as Hitler was by his - and both preyed on people's fears in an attempt to gain power. Oh yeah, I forgot, both are/were fascists as well.

Oh yeah I forgot the nazis and the teasters advocate violent overthrow of the government-or did in the Nazi case-if they don't get their way. See that GOP candidate promising revolution last week if they don't take back power.

The Tea Party is the most direct assault on American democracy that we have seen in a long time. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of them.

Scary to the core. The good news is that Mccarthyism was defeated, and the pro-Nazi US movement in the 30s was defeated. The US always has managed to fight these forces off in its history. Thank god we have someone as charismatic as President Obama with President Clinton helping us campaign against them to take them on. Lest we forget that FDR had domestic wackos to fight off as well.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

1. CBS news says the TPM is only favored by 18% of Americans

... altho you'd never believe it from the press they get.

FINGERS CROSSED this is only a momentary media mania that will pass with the failures and extremes of the party.

However there are some similarities... and the other 82% need to stay aware.

[newspeak]

4. yes, and the brownshirts were also in the minority

Hitler won with 33% of the vote. And, the rest of the population was apathetic, fearful or fighting. And, we also know what happened to some of those who fought against Hitler--White Rose Society.

[Enthusiast]

17. That is the problem.

The media. Larger movements have been completely ignored, historically.

[rug]

2. Say what you will about Nazis, they wouldn't be caught dead looking like this.

[newspeak]

3. forgot most are against gays and abortion

Hitler outlawed abortion, as did Hirohito and we know what happened to the gay community-pink armbands anyone?

[lunatica]

5. LOL! They wouldn't be caught dead looking like this either

[Politics_Guy25]

6. LOL well to be fair

That guy in that pic is probably a threat to no one but the people that he so desperately wants to see put into power are.

[BootinUp]

16. oh dear lord.

:rofl:

[GoCubsGo]

56. Damn.

Now I'm going to have "Be a clown, be a clown, be a clown" running through my head all day.

[provis99]

7. they sure like desecrating the flag, don't they?

I wonder if their underwear is made out of the Constitution.

[DearAbby]

66. Is that a disguise or WIG???

RUN A WAY!!! :yoiks:

[LiberalFighter]

8. Nazis held extreme religious views? Did they even hold religious views?

[jberryhill]

10. Run this through google translate

On every standard issue belt buckle

[LiberalFighter]

14. But did Hitler tie in God and religous views in his speeches?

Wasn't it more that Hitler thought of himself as god?

[jberryhill]

23. Yes

Consider that Germany was 70% evangelical protestant. In "On The Jews And Their Lies", Martin Luther laid the blueprint for ridding Germany of the Jews.

"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work."

- Adolf Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936

[Deep13]

63. He definitely relied on religious rhetoric.

He thought of himself as a chosen instrument of providence.

[Politics_Guy25]

11. They claimed to be very Christian-n/t

[dionysus]

18. they had a lot of help from the catholic church in many places....

[backscatter712]

21. Hitler was a Roman Catholic, and sent atheists to the camps at one point.

Despite Pope Maladict's protestations otherwise, Hitler was a Roman Catholic for his entire life, never renounced his faith, and talked about his faith in some of his speeches.

[boppers]

27. It's complex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany

In case you don't want to read all that, here's my cynical perspective: Many religions and Nazism united forces in many ways, but after the war, religions saw that as bad public relations, and started a campaign trying to erase the history.

[PADemD]

40. "Gott mit uns"

Hitler's religious beliefs and fanaticism (quotes from Mein Kampf)

http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm

[and-justice-for-all]

68. Yes indeed they did, they were very superstitious

and were also very much into the occult.

[OlympicBrian]

9. Tea Partiers are also AGAINST the Founding Fathers principles

The Tea-Partiers are for less regulation. In addition, they are backed by corporate elite, including the Koch brothers. They are also pro- US Chamber of Commerce (Glenn Beck recently had a fundraiser for the Chamber). This means they stand for more offshoring, consistent with a main policy goal of the Chamber...

This is all AGAINST what the Founding Fathers stood for:

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country."

- Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.

"Shall we make our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these; experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfort."

- Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Austin, 1816.

"The selfish spirit of commerce knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain."

- Thomas Jefferson to Larkin Smith, 1809.

There is a major conflict here--the TPs claim they want to return to the values held by the Founding Fathers!

[txaslftist]

50. Being anti-regulation would definitely make them nazi-ish.

Those nazis were real strict about not having rules...

[starroute]

12. There are important differences in the larger society

What I recall learning in high school is that under the Weimar Republic, Germany increasingly fell into violent polarization between the extreme left and the extreme right. There was no viable middle, and people were increasingly tired of upheaval. As a result, many ordinary Germans looked to Hitler to restore stability.

We don't have that going on today. Our country is not dissolving into violence, and no one is going to look to Sarah Palin as a stabilizing figure.

Another factor is that after World War I, there was a widespread turning against modernity on the part of intellectuals, a feeling that some crucial spiritual element had been lost in the brave new world of fast cars and skyscrapers. The more benign form of this can be seen in an author like J.R.R. Tolkien -- but a less innocuous variety of it led many other writers into a flirtation with fascism, which gave the fascists a veneer of intellectual respectability.

But there simply are no fascist intellectuals today -- and the Tea Party wouldn't have anything to do with them if there were.

The Tea Party call to take America back may appeal to the minority of middle-aged white males who can fancy themselves it was once their personal property. But there's no way they can broaden their appeal. The Nazis at least addressed themselves to all Germans, demonizing only relatively small minorities. The Tea Parties have already demonized the majority of Americans and there's no way they can start pretending to be a big tent.

[icnorth]

43. "There are important differences..."

[DailyGrind51]

13. Pres. Obama and the Congressional Dems represent the Weimar Republic?

[baldguy]

54. If they can't/don't/won't fight back - Yes.

HCR went on a year longer than it needed to because Obama wasted time & political capital trying to reach out to GOP Congressmen & Senators who want to see him & the country fail, and are supported by people who want to kill him.

[DailyGrind51]

72. I have to agree with that analysis, like Weimar, Obama and Reid have been way too accommodating!

[craigmatic]

15. Not Nazis they're closer to Mussolini's fascists. The only difference is the lack of unifiorms.

[denem]

19. No way. The Tea Party is a very AMERICAN phenomenon.

The rebel yell circa 1864 meets the Guided age. It's as simple as one step forward two steps back - Roll back the New Deal and the Square deal, bankrolled all the way. It's not pretty, but has a impressive American lineage. USA USA USA.

[bonzotex]

20. agree...uniquely American n/t

[proteus_lives]

32. They're No-Nothings.

They'll be gone in a few years.

[bonzotex]

22. superficial similarities....

The teabaggers are horrid trolls but not real Fascists even if they'd like to be. Comparing them to Nazis may be fun around the cocktail bar, but they are not really comparable beyond broad right-wing populist themes.

The biggest difference is that the USA in 2010 is a vastly more rich and complicated country than Germany in the the 20s and 30s. Plus, as weak as the Democrats act sometimes, Our government does not compare to the basket case that was the Wiemar Republic. The teatards aren't going to take over anything.

The worst thing the teabaggers can do is drag enough votes in to put the Corporatist Right Wing back in office. The teabag agenda will be discarded and their elected teahadists will suck down some corporate cash and vote the Republican line.

The rank and file teabaggers are useful idiots, not revolutionaries.

[cemaphonic]

29. Plus, Germany had centuries of authoritarian rule pre-Weimar

Americans are too damned cantankerous and ornery about our perceived freedoms and democracy to unite under a "beloved leader" of any stripe.

[proteus_lives]

33. +1

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. All right wingers are the same

[Clio the Leo]

25. Except that they're not that smart....

.... and they have fewer teeth.

[zulchzulu]

26. The Tea Party is indeed a White, "Christian", Nationalist, Racist, Homophobic Movement

Anyone who says otherwise is either trying to hide the truth or is just plain stupid.

[cliffordu]

28. the problem for them is the millions of dudes just like me that would

kill them in the streets for trying anything like that.

pow pow pow


Lotta veterans and well trained civilians who won't stand for it.

[Stand and Fight]

30. Hmmm.... Sometimes it is best not to say anything.

I suggest you read the excellent book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer or, better yet, Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer. The Nazis may have been thugs, but they were organized thugs with a long history coming before even the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. They had their own Army prepared to enforce compliance -- not only at rallies, but also on the street BEFORE they came to power ten years later in 1933. Read the books, you'll quickly realize just how foolish your statement sounds in light of that. In short, the Tea Party is nothing like the Nazis. Nothing.

[Politics_Guy25]

36. The tea party sent an army to Capitol Hill to harrass and intimidate HCR supporters

Remember that? Chasing Dem congresspeople down the halls screaming at them, hurling racist insults, threatening them for voting for HCR, physical altercations, i.e., brownshirt tactics. Even from this early hour of their movement, they are resorting to intimidation tactics that the nazis would approve of.

[baldguy]

55. FL 2000

Remember this?

[olegramps]

41. You come off as being a condescending person with a big ego.

[Codeine]

44. He comes off as having some historical awareness

and not being prone to ridiculous overstatement and false equivalencies, actually.

[Stand and Fight]

53. No. Just aware of the facts.

Not swayed by emotion. Show me direct facts and you'll sway me to your side. Try to appeal to me with emotional hyperbole and fear -- and you're no better than the folks on the other side. It's the one thing I can't stand about people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, etc... It's the very opposite of why -- even if I don't always agree with what the President and the Democratic congress do -- I can understand it from the standpoint of facts and reason and -- dare I say? -- pragmatism. The OP's post is nothing but an appeal to fear and an assault on reason.

[olegramps]

57. The fact remain, their tactics are similar. I believe that is what concerns many.

The right wing is spewing vicious propaganda. They most certainly are homophobic. They draw the support of radical fundamentalists who would impose their beliefs on the entirety of society without regard to freedom of conscience or civil rights. Are they a real threat? Perhaps not in comparison to what transpired in Germany in the aftermath of WWI. I just believe that you could have expressed yourself without being insulting. I have read both of the books that you mention, but I wouldn't consider myself to have a profound knowledge of the rise of the Nazi phenomenon. It reaches back centuries to the time of the Reformation and earlier. It has ties to deep religious divisions and most certainly the rise of nationalism along with eugenics. It was a multi-head hydra.

[Stand and Fight]

59. That's your perception. I can't help how you perceive things.

Nonetheless, you've proven my point. Thank you.

[olegramps]

61. You are just an arrogant example of what is wrong with America.

[laugle]

76. Well said!

And don't forget paranoia!

[laugle]

75. Why?

Because he/she recommended a book.....LOL........we don't want to confuse anyone with historical facts..........

[LongTomH]

58. Excuse me! What do you think Blackwater is?

"...................their own Army prepared to enforce compliance"

[mix]

71. For capitalist corporations and mostly abroad to secure profits and resources.

Sounds like capitalism, American style to me.

[mix]

70. +1 nt

[Stand and Fight]

31. Oh yes... Unrecommended because your post spreads ignorance.

Just as rotten as the nonsense that the Right sometimes puts out.

[Politics_Guy25]

35. Thanks for your defence of the tea party

Also, I did a thesis on World War II and have read numerous books on WW II in additon to watching the complete "World at war" series from the UK in additon to the "BBC history of World War II" in addition to watching numerous documentaries on TV about D-day, the rise of nazism etc. Send me a PM to test my knowledge of World War II if you don't believe me and then you can google my answers so you know that I didn't just cut and paste from somewhere.

The tea party is less than a year old. The Nazis had an infancy as well. Their ideology is not at all dissimilar from National socialism, i.e., right wing fascism.

But yes I understand how discreditng the teasters may be uncomfortable to you. I understand that if they are discredited, that makes a GOP resurrection nearly impossible.

Also, in regards to your ignorance post, I understand that the memory of the holocaust and the nazi atrocities against the gypsies, disabled and jews including the gassing of millions of innocents must be preserved. Part of preserving and honoring those victims is by pointing out movements as they arise that are similarily evil BEFORE they attain the power that Nazi Germany had.

A warning from History to borrow a phrase. That does NOTHING to descerate the memories of Auschwitz, etc. Also, Auschwitz didn't open on the day that the Nazis formed their party.

I totally don't understand your reply to me at all honestly. BTW, listen dude, my grandfather nearly lost a leg in World War II so umm I do understand what it was all about and am not ignorant of it AT ALL.

Your elitism shines through in your response to me as well.

[txaslftist]

49. LOL.

Any time there is an active new element in US politics the establishment groups call them nazis.

Welcome to America.

[Stand and Fight]

52. If you know anything about my history on this board or in general,

you would spout such hyperbolic nonsense. Implying that I somehow am defending them because I reject the premise of your statement that the Tea Party folks are like the Nazis, is a straw man argument if I've ever seen one. Just because someone doesn't agree with what you're spouting doesn't mean there some covert operative for the Tea Party or the Republicans for that matter. It simply means that your opinions seem more based in emotion than historical fact.

The Nazis were a highly organized and focused political force. They were able to gain traction in Germany because of how truly dire the state of the economy was at the time. While things in America are somewhat hard, they are hardly to the state of affairs in Germany in the early part of the 20th century. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the Nazis would NEVER allow the likes of Rachel Maddow or Olbermann to speak out against them. There is no White Rose Society needed in this country -- just a media that actually reports the facts rather than their opinion. MSNBC has some of those good voices to combat the stupid from the Tea Party -- CNN and Fox not so much. But don't come off comparing these clowns to the evil of the Nazis, because there no where near there. The Nazis very early on stated what they wanted to do and how they thought best to do it. Until Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck write a book called My Struggle, I'll keep an eye on the news, but I'm not losing any sleep over them and I'm sure as hell not comparing them to Adolf Hitler and company. These Tea Party idiots are being egged on by corporate interests to vote against their own interests.

Your grandfather lost a leg in WWII and somehow that gives you an understanding of what the war was all about? :eyes: Riiiiiight.

There's no elitism in my post -- just an absence of being overly emotional. It's called reason.

[sweetapogee]

65. the baggers

according to who you happen to read on DU, are either a bunch of idiots or the genius of a forced takeover of the government, they will either be with us forever or will disapear after the election.

[proteus_lives]

34. Google No-Nothings.

Much, much closer to the TBers.

This cycle has been part of the American political cycle for a long time.

[Codeine]

45. I thought it was Know-Nothing.

Or am I thinking of something else?

[proteus_lives]

51. You're right,

I mistyped.

[14thColony]

46. Ahh the Know-Nothings

Their original offical name? The "American Republican Party." Oh, the irony.

[Nye Bevan]

37. You seem to be terrified of the Tea Party.

Since you think they are similar to the Nazis in pre-war Germany, presumably you believe that Palin and her followers are somehow going to push through a Constitutional Amendment canceling future elections and giving them absolute power in perpetuity, like Hitler did. But I don't think so. They are mostly laughable buffoons, who will run some candidates and possibly win a few races. Absolute worst-case scenario (though exceedingly unlikely) is Palin becomes President in 2012, then messes things up so badly she loses in 2016.

Don't worry so much. These people are more Bozo the Clown than Adolf Hitler.

[nomaco-10]

39. and you seem a little bit too complacent....

Your bozo the clown analogy is way off the mark. These people are dangerous and pose a serious threat to democracy and world peace, especially since they are sanctioned and financed by a well funded right wing agenda that only cares about corporate amurika and profit margins.

They're bat shit crazy and determined to take over this country. You should give them more credence. Seriously.

[nomaco-10]

38. So weird that you would write about this very subject...

I was just telling a friend this morning that I thought this country reminded me of Nazi Germany in the early-mid thirties. The rampant nationalism, the xenophopia and the fear mongering and propaganda being broadcast 24/7 via FUX Noise.

The comparison is chilling.

[MadHound]

42. Oh good grief, no, the Tea Partiers aren't like Nazis

And for you to make that sort of comparison just goes to show how little you know about Nazis and inter-war Germany.

[txaslftist]

48. Nah, it's cool.

We can all be nazis to someone.

[txaslftist]

47. Ironic...

The Tea Party says that the federal government is the nazis.

DU says the tea party are the nazis...

The GOP calls womens' advocates "feminazis"

The religious right complains of "nazis in black robes"...

Hell, if we are all Nazis, why not just embrace it.

[moondust]

60. Wall Street money fueling both. n/t

[Deep13]

62. I agree. nt

[GSLevel9]

64. uniforms and matching hats coming next... nt

[and-justice-for-all]

67. Indeed it is...nt

[marlakay]

69. The people were out of work and hungry

and he promised them jobs & food...I read about it a few years ago and he also was very charismatic. No one had any idea starting out he was going to murder millions of people...it wasn't like that at all. They were desperate and hungry...

but even in the beginning some people knew...like the leaders at the time. My husbands father was sent to live in america with relatives in the late 20's because his grandfather in germany was a prussian officer and didn't want my husbands dad to be a nazi...the leaders knew...the people didn't...

[woo me with science]

73. Um, no it's not. nt

[Very_Boring_Name]

74. I said this to a friend during the angry HC townhalls, the tea party reminds me of the brownshirts