Vote for the candidate who doesn't fetishize Nazis
This should not be too hard
Yes, it’s officially election season. When most of us were coming of age, the actual election consisted of one day. You went to the polls, you voted and then you waited, often in front of your television set, to see who won. Or maybe if you were going to be out of town on election day, you voted a couple of weeks early by absentee ballot. Thankfully, in most states there is now a variety of options for casting your ballot.
In-person early voting is popular in Texas, and so is voting by mail in other states. All but three states (Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire) offer some form of early voting, either in-person or by mail in the form of no-excuse absentee balloting or the equivalent.
Unfortunately, these new methods of voting have made large swaths of the electorate concerned about voter fraud. It is unclear whether isolated incidents of fraud account for the skepticism or whether politicians who refuse to accept defeat have taken their cue from Donald Trump and told their supporters that if their side loses, it could only be as a result of cheating. I suspect the latter. Most recently, the suspicions have spawned what the Associated Press calls “a tsunami of voting conspiracy theories.”
Two weeks before the elections, officials have had to spend valuable time debunking lots of bunk, including (but not limited to) allegations of voting machines reversing votes, jurisdictions having more registered voters than people eligible and large numbers of noncitizens voting. The bullshit spread like wildfire on — you guessed it — social media.
Truth is boring, facts are boring, and outrage is really interesting. It’s like playing whack-a-mole with the truth. But what we try to do is just get as much information out there as possible. -Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in Utah
Staring a likely electoral wipe-out in the face, the Connecticut Republican Party is trying to cast doubt on the results of the election in advance by pointing to voter fraud in a Democratic primary in the city of Bridgeport five years ago. Four people were charged with ballot stuffing. And since it was a Democratic primary, no Republicans were harmed as a result. The fraud was committed by supporters of one Democratic candidate against another Democrat. But it seems Connecticut Republicans are laying the groundwork to blame their poor performance on cheating nonetheless.
With even less evidence, Trump has already told his supporters the only way he could lose the Nov. 5 election is if it is “rigged” or “stolen” from him. Lest you be tempted to take him seriously, be advised that this is a pattern with Trump.
In February 2016, after losing the Iowa caucuses to Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump proclaimed he was the victim of voter fraud and called for new elections in the Hawkeye State. Seven months later after he won the presidency in the Electoral College, Trump asserted, without evidence, that the only reason he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton was because of the “millions of people who voted illegally.” And, of course we all know what happened on January 6, 2021, and in the weeks preceding it.
Now he’s setting the stage for more fraudulent allegations of fraud. The dishonesty is bad enough but, like many observers, I fear if Trump is defeated he will encourage violence once again. Faced with the prospect of jail in the wake of his loss, a pardon issued by President Kamala Harris is unlikely.
In the last few days, additional information has surfaced about Trump’s fetish for Nazis and Adolf Hitler specifically. Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, who served longer than anyone as Trump’s White House chief of staff, confirmed and went on the record with recollections of Trump wondering why his generals couldn’t be more like Hitler’s. Of course, Trump is too slow-witted to know that Hitler’s generals tried to assassinate The Führer.
According to Kelly, “He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too’.” Trump had never even heard of Erwin Rommel, the Nazi general who championed what, if it had succeeded, would have been a deadly coup against Hitler. It is safe to say that just about any author has written more books that Trump has read.
But we do know that there is one book he has leafed through several times: According to a 1990 article in Vanity Fair, Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s late first wife, told her attorney that Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches in a bedside cabinet.
When discussing immigration, Trump talks about genetics (“bad genes”) and describes his political opponents as “vermin” — two favorite tropes used by Nazis in general and Hitler in particular. Finally, when asked if Trump was a fascist, Kelly, who holds advanced degrees in national security and strategic studies, told the New York Times that Trump’s style is typical of fascist leaders:
Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.
For launching his October Surprise, Kelly has been the subject of some ugly attacks on social media. Some of the attacks are too vulgar to repeat here, but the predominant narrative is that Kelly failed at his job and could not meet Trump’s high standards -- in effect, an incompetent, disgruntled employee.
So what does all this mean in terms of the election? I agree with analyst and podcaster Chris Cillizza (see below), who said he believes Kelly, but in the end it won’t change any minds. The heels of the vast majority of us are dug in.
Depending on the poll, undecided voters make up between 2 and 5 percent of the overall electorate. This election will come down to fewer than 100,000 swing voters in seven or eight battleground states; Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
As we edge even closer to Nov. 5, you can believe whomever you want and vote for the best candidate. I’ll support the one who doesn’t like Nazis. And the one who would never send an angry mob to the Capitol to beat up cops and change the results of an election. When you really drill down, it’s that simple.
P.S. As I wrote last week, there are plenty of other reasons to vote against Trump:
You know it's interesting that Kelly mentions Rommel for a couple of reasons. First, he's the most well-known Nazi general for obvious reasons. People of a certain age remember the name. Second, he's telegraphing a bit maybe.