Are There Fascists In Our Midst That We Don’t Know About?

American aid to Ukraine founders while Putin threatens nuclear war

Supplies of Baby Boomer fallout shelters are quickly diminishing as Gen Zers order them from Amazon in response to Vladimir Putin's threat of Nuclear War over aid to Ukraine. (Shutterstock Photo from smolaw)

There are many episodes of American history that we would like to forget even when they include important lessons. But all too often, history begins to repeat itself with events that could have been avoided if only we had learned our lesson in the first place.

Let’s turn the Wayback Machine back to the 20th century.

In March of 1938, Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to the German Reich. Barely a word of opposition was spoken. In September, his armies marched into the Sudetenland snatching it from neighbor Czechoslovakia without opposition.

A year later, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland causing Britain and France to come to its defense. Just barely over 20 years after the end of the “war to end all wars”, the armies of the Third Reich were sitting comfortably in Paris cafes.

Yet through all this, many voices of sanity in America were silent. On the other hand, people like radio evangelist Father Charles Coughlin, industrialist Henry Ford, and aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, were all using the airwaves to say that Adolf wasn’t all that bad.

Hadn’t Hitler’s Nazis pulled Germany out of a massive economic depression, they asked?

Charles Lindbergh was fascinated by Germany’s rebuilding of their air force, a forbidden initiative outlawed by the Treaty at Versailles ending WWI. And, he liked the modern technology of their planes. He got a medal for visiting the Reich.

Henry Ford had a vested interest in Hitler’s war machine. The German Ford plant was making money hand over fist, supplying the German military with the machines to rebuild their army. To keep America out of the war Ford founded America First … a pseudo-patriotic organization, spreading his sympathetic fascist claptrap similar to how Fox News does it today.

Father Charles Coughlin was just crazy.

These men made it “fashionable” to flirt with the fascists. And, the charismatic trio drew millions to their cause while in the meantime, letting Hitler swallow up Europe, opposed only by Great Britain.

Until of course, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

Within days after the surprise attack, Hitler declared war on the United States, and talk of cozying up to the Nazis disappeared. Then, the world started anteing up the human cost of war with 15 million soldiers and 38 million civilian deaths as the price of the next 5 years.

Here we are, some 80 or so years later, and Vladimir Putin is marching his personal war machine across Ukraine. Meawhile, House Republicans under the so-called leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson leave Ukraine and NATO out to dry.

Instead of standing up to tyranny, conservative celebrity Tucker Carlson travels to Moscow to chat with the Russian leader. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his loonies in Congress hold aid to Ukraine hostage in a circus of political gamesmanship. And, America appears poised to elect Donald Trump, who flat out says that if he’s elected, America will not defend any NATO nation behind in their payments.

“You gotta pay your bills,” he shouts. It’s pay-to-play on a grand scale that makes Chicago's corruption under Mayor Richard Daley look like a friendly game of Monopoly.

Are these guys the 21st-century fascists in our midst who are echoing the voices of Coughlin, Ford, and Lindbergh?

As Europe scrambles to make up for America’s failure, French President Emmanual Macron reminds the world that if Russian aggression doesn’t stop, sooner or later it will lead to French soldiers, as part of NATO, fighting on the ground helping to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty.

The response from Putin was quick. In his annual speech to the Russian people, he threatened that direct intervention from the West could be met with a nuclear response.

“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory,” Mr. Putin said. “Do they not understand this?”

Apparently, people like Tucker Carlson, Mike Johnson, and Donald Trump skipped out on their world history class in high school and never learned the lessons. Perhaps they just see this as a chance to feed their egos for personal gain. Or maybe they spend too much time on the crack pipe, but they’re leading us onto World War III, believing the American people will blindly follow them down the path of nuclear destruction.

Have we learned nothing about bullies? Are we so glued to our phones we can’t see the handwriting on the wall? It is mystifying.

But whatever the case, America needs to wake up before it’s too late. These guys are a danger to our freedom.