The magnate calls for a rally on Sunday in the same setting that in 1939 hosted 20,000 pro-Nazis

▲ Above these lines, former President Barack Obama accompanies the Democratic standard-bearer, Kamala Harris, in Georgia.Photo Afp

▲ In the image, the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, during one of his campaign events yesterday in Las Vegas, Nevada.Photo Afp

David Brooks and Jim Cason

Correspondents

La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, October 25, 2024, p. 21

New York and Washington. Perhaps it is the perfect setting for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is accused of being a fascist by his Democratic opponent, his former chief of staff and other opponents: he has scheduled a mega campaign event in the historic Madison Square Garden, New York’s iconic arena, where in 1939 the largest rally of American Nazi sympathizers in history was held.

When Kamala Harris declared that Trump he is a fascist At a CNN forum on Wednesday, it was the first time his campaign used that term in public, trying to mark fundamental differences with his opponent two weeks before the election in which, according to polls, the two candidates are tied. But it is not new that high-profile public figures call it this way.

In fact, the first to do so were traditional conservatives, when he ran as a candidate in 2015 with a message against Mexican and Muslim migrants. Several critics have since continued with that concept about the tycoon, the most recent: his own former chief of staff, the general of the Marines John Kelly, who this week commented that Trump fits the definition of a fascist.

In interview with The New York TimesKelly also revealed that in the White House Trump once expressed that he wanted the type of generals Hitler hadand that the Nazi leader had done some good things.

But perhaps the most alarming thing is that the former president himself – who assured that Harris’ words against him are proof that he is losing, and by farand turned around stating that she is a threat for the country – does not hide its authoritarian tendencies and the use of tactics that analysts call fascist.

The central axis of his anti-immigrant message, including the use of phrases related to Nazi messages, such as that undocumented immigrants are poisoning the blood of the United States, comments that it will be dictator for a dayand remembering that the Supreme Court gave him immunity and almost unlimited executive power, are some examples.

Furthermore, he repeats comments such as that perhaps he will have to use military forces against the enemy withinwhich includes the radical left Democrat as well as candidate Harris and President Joe Biden, and his constant threats that if he reaches the White House he will purge the government of disloyal officials and immediately proceed to fire special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading two federal criminal cases against of the former president.

Meanwhile, he remains the first president to incite a coup attempt in the country’s history, something that continues today by refusing to accept the results of the previous elections and preparing the ground to repeat that rejection if the count does not favor him. in two weeks. In fact, almost half of the Republican candidates for Congress or high state positions have publicly expressed that they have doubts about the integrity of the race with the purpose of undermining public confidence in the electoral process, the newspaper reported. Washington Post.

But even with big words like fascist – and this could be the first time in history that a presidential candidate from one of the two national political parties has been described as such by his opponent or by his former close collaborators – Trump remains tied with Harris in national polls and in almost all five or seven states keys that will determine the final result.

The bet of the Democrat’s campaign team is that using the word fascist could guide the vote of the few undecided people who still exist at this point, and also in order to emphasize that American democracy is in danger if Trump wins. But it is quite possible that much of the public does not know what it means to be a fascist – the generation that lived through World War II, also known as the war against fascism – is almost gone, and the official myth of the United States as the victor over the Fascism has faded, and exists only in movies.

At the same time, the great concern of the electorate is the economy, prices and jobs – in part the anti-immigrant rhetoric is effective when Trump and his allies blame foreigners for stealing jobs and economic benefits from this country.

The magnate has managed to position himself as a defender of white workers and farmers, as well as some Latinos and Afro-Americans, who feel they are losing what they had or what they were promised. And with this he has so far managed to evade what for any other politician would have been professional suicide, between his two impeachmentsbeing convicted of 34 counts related to business fraud, criminally accused of dozens of serious crimes and convicted of civil charges for sexual abuse, among others. “Donald Trump has challenged the gravity policy. He has survived the unsurvivable, normalized the abnormal and obliterated the red lines drawn by his predecessors. And he could win – again,” commented Axios analyst Zacahary Basu.

Some critics have declared that the mega-event planned by Trump at Madison Square Garden for Sunday is reminiscent of the pro-Nazi event held there 85 years ago, a comparison denounced by spokespersons for the Republican campaign team.

At that 1939 rally, the stage was decorated with a huge image of George Washington with swastikas on his sides. About 20,000 attended the event of solidarity with Hitler in Germany, and offered the Nazi salute as they passed the flag with a swastika. Daily News reported on that date: 1,700 riot police were deployed around the headquarters. Outside there were what was estimated to be 80,000 anti-Nazi protesters.

It is not yet known how many will arrive at the big event (tickets are sold out). It is also not known if there will be, or how many, they will be outside calling for resistance against what their opponents call fascist.