Republicans Campaign From The Holocaust Playbook
Democrats Have To Beat Them
Singling out an ethnic minority with “bad genes,” blaming them for crimes and other depraved acts, pushing for violence, and advocating for rounding up that minority and putting them in camps to get rid of them. There is not a single inch of daylight between the agenda as laid out in 1930s Germany by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and Donald Trump and the Republican Party in America today.
One area I will sort of give Trump some “credit” in, is that unlike his predecessors as head of the GOP – figures like George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and John McCain – he isn’t subtle about any of this. He doesn’t hide his bloodlust under Bush-style rhetoric about “compassionate conservatism,” or Romney’s colorless rhetoric about having immigrants “self-deport.” He has always been this person, from when he pushed birtherism on Fox News to the day he launched his first presidential campaign calling Mexican immigrants “rapists.”
But what we face in 2024 is a Republican Party fully bowed beneath his power and a playbook to execute on his Hitlerian vision for the country in a way he couldn’t in his presidency. Even worse, the media has gotten worse and worse, consistently sanewashing Trump while setting up all kinds of ridiculous standards that Democrats like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris must live up to, as Trump is given a pass.
These dire signs are why we can’t just assume that the Democratic Party knows better and has the inside track on the way to defeat Trump. Because their recent behavior sure doesn’t look like a party on the best path to victory.
This is not about ideological purity. Speaking for myself, I am mostly aligned with the ideals that the Democratic Party supports. Unlike during the Iraq War era, nothing immediately comes to mind that I have a revulsive reaction to as part of the party ideology. The problem is largely one of tactics.
The Democratic Party, from leaders like Harris to the wealthy consultant class who are really ideologically vacant and essentially mercenaries who move from campaign to campaign, there is this forever notion that electoral victory comes from slicing off Republicans. While Democratic candidates do need vote support from moderates, independents, and some Republicans, I think it’s foolish to think the path there is to pander to the right and assume the left – and I mean all the left from center to extreme – is already locked down and ready to go. It could be true (2020) but it might not be (2000, 2016), so why risk it?
The campaign has made a good strong push on issues of utmost importance to core Democratic voters, particularly on abortion rights. Recent electoral results show us that Democratic support of these issues aren’t just in the moral right, but they help the party to appeal to a base beyond their core. You don’t win the races Democrats have won over abortion rights with just Democratic voters, and the party didn’t compromise on its position as they might have in the late 90s.
But then they also do things directly out of the old, failed, Democratic Third Way playbook. Going to the border. Cutting campaign ads with Liz Cheney. Calling for ridiculous bipartisan commissions. Making wonky economic arguments that lull anyone within a ten-mile radius to sleep. Rhapsodizing about John “Bomb bomb Iran” McCain.
It can look all over the place and it isn’t what is needed to head off this Trump threat. The bulk of voters do not pay attention to politics, and they need a blunt force appeal. Trying to slice and dice Republican constituencies with language coded to appeal to the right turns off possible Democratic voters. The public doesn’t get references to subtle ideological differences.
Trump’s message isn’t subtle. It’s a racist bullhorn that squarely blames Democrats for enabling the immigrant hordes Trump is promising to kill.
Nuance is the wrong way to defeat that. Democrats showed during their convention that they can actually do this the right way. Labeling Republicans, Trump, and their Project 2025 as dangerous weirdos that shouldn’t be near any kind of power. Every night of the convention reinforced this message in a unifying, rallying method that didn’t compromise the core of the party while appealing to disaffected Republicans and independent voters.
The threat is at our front door. We need that energy in the final sprint, not the failed Washington consensus/consultant mindset. The stakes are too high.
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— Oliver
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“There is not a single inch of daylight between the agenda as laid out in 1930s Germany by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and Donald Trump and the Republican Party in America today.”
I’ll say it again: If you still don’t think this is how the Nazis got started, tell me how you think the Nazis got started.
It seems to me that the Harris/Walz campaign was on the right track until they let David Plough become a "campaign advisor". There was a fairly sudden shift back to annoying, off putting, bipartisan bullshit. I understand we need Independent voters (who are really just Republicans who don't want to admit it). But pretending that we have to adopt watered down positions so Republicans don't get scared is just stupid. The majority of people support voting rights, women's rights, civil rights, addressing climate change, gun control, packing the courts, and raising taxes on the idle rich (just to mention a few widely supported issues). It's ok to campaign on things that people support. Dodging questions, or responding with weasel words only serves to depress Democratic turnout, and hands the election to the fascists.