Nazis are no real threat these days
Nazis #Nazis
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 | 2 a.m.
I take exception to the Miami Herald editorial in August, “DeSantis keeps failing most basic test in politics: Denouncing Nazis.”
In the 1930s and 1940s, it took moral courage to denounce Nazis and fascists. In early 21st-century America, Nazi and fascist movements occupy the extreme political fringe and are likely to stay there. Granted, contemporary totalitarian movements can still attract street thugs, who are essential for arousing fear and social instability. But to raise the big money that could fund a counter-government under Nazi control, the United States would first have to go through a reactionary movement against economic internationalism.
Some corporate leaders and NGO managers may romanticize violent activism. But so long as their own businesses operate on international models, they can hardly throw their support to such narrow nationalist groups as Nazis and fascists. Without that support, Nazis have little chance of attaining significant political power.
Over the past 70 years, they have declined in status until they have become our American boogeyman.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, having been portrayed as a Nazi sympathizer, has a right to call out his accusers. But to ask him to focus on denouncing Nazi fascism is unrealistic. Denouncing the boogeyman is likely to be interpreted as conformist sanctimony, or as virtue signaling for those who have barely enough courage to confront a paper tiger. You don’t vote for people like that.