Public Domain
America First Committee emblem
America First Committee emblem
When the bipartisan House Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection issues its final report this week, its recommendations to hold former President Trump accountable for his role in the violent assault on Congress to overthrow President Biden’s election are sure to be called unprecedented.
That accurately describes Trump’s actions for weeks leading up to the Capitol attack by a raging mob out to destroy democracy. But historically it was the second attempt by rightwing Republicans to replace democracy and free elections with fascism.
Many more Americans now know about the first plot by extreme rightwing House and Senate Republicans against democracy in the 1940s in direct collaboration with Nazi Germany.
Collaborating with the Enemy
That’s because MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow created a stunning eight-part podcast, Ultra, detailing all the parallels with today’s anti-American MAGA Republicans. It’s now the most listened-to podcast in America.
After Nazi Germany was defeated, a Justice Department prosecutor gained access to the Nazi government records naming 24 rightwing members of the House and Senate, overwhelmingly Republican but also a few Democrats, who colluded with Adolph Hitler’s Washington agent. Congressional members mail unlimited public communications at government expense, so taxpayers funded Nazi propaganda nationwide.
Most of those collaborators were leaders in the notorious America First movement who opposed the war against Germany. It was widely criticized as a hate group because prominent supporters including Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford were openly antisemitic. Trump still embraces their slogan America First for fundraising.
Library of Congress
Hamilton Fish III
Hamilton Fish III
Montana Sen. Burton Wheeler led the senators working with the Nazis. In 1941, Wheeler and Lindbergh were photographed on stage at an America First rally giving Nazi salutes. The House leader was Hamilton Fish III, the main speaker at a huge pro-Nazi America First rally in Madison Square Garden decorated with swastika flags in 1938.
A year later, Fish flew to Germany to meet with German and Italian Nazi officials. Foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop loaned Fish his government plane to fly to other European countries urging them to accommodate Hitler.
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Nazis also were supported by the most powerful rightwing broadcast voice in America. In 1938 when the U.S. population was 130 million, 30 million Americans listened weekly to Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest in Royal Oak, Mich., at the Shrine of the Little Flower.
Violent Militias
Public Domain
Charles Coughlin
Charles Coughlin
Don’t let the lovely name of his church fool you. Coughlin was a virulent antisemite. He combined his on-air church services with attacks on Jewish bankers and calls for violent militias to take up arms to defend Christian nationalism.
The continuing parallels across 80 years of American history present a challenge not only to our democratic institutions, but to every American. No matter how much evidence of political corruption prosecutors gather, politicians do everything possible to avoid holding each other accountable unless voters insist upon it.
Two courageous federal prosecutors were fired for compiling evidence of the first seditious conspiracy against democracy by rightwing politicians allied with the Nazis. An incompetent judge allowed the only trial against terrorism by America First conspirators in 1944 to turn into uncontrolled bedlam.
The prosecutor’s opening statement was interrupted after every few words by objections from 22 defense attorneys and cat calls from the 30 defendants yelling for him to sit down and shut up. The chaos ended abruptly in a mistrial after eight chaotic months with the announcement the judge had died overnight. The Justice Department said it wouldn’t retry the case.
Too Explosive for Publication
But in 1945 after Germany’s defeat, President Truman’s Atty. Gen. Tom Clark sent the trial’s second prosecutor John Rogge to interview captured Nazi leaders and examine government records. Clark promised the Justice Department would issue a public report detailing any evidence Rogge found about the American Nazi operation.
It didn’t happen. Instead, Rogge’s report was why Rogge became the second prosecutor fired for investigating U.S. politicians assisting the Nazis. Truman described Rogge’s report as too explosive ever to be released, classifying it as secret. Sen. Wheeler, named in the report along with 23 other rightwing congressmen, had been Truman’s mentor in the Senate.
The rest of the story is a victory for journalism and American voters. The details of the report leaked to the press. It became sensational national news just as the travesty against justice the daily absurdity of the America First trial had been.
Ham Fish was trounced in in the 1944 election during the sedition trial. Sen. Wheeler, a Senate powerhouse, didn’t even make it through the primary in 1946. The same happened to most of other prominent politicians who spread Nazi propaganda. One had sent thousands of his constituents a favorable interview with Hitler.
Voters in this year’s midterms shocked Republicans by voting against candidates refusing to accept election results. The January 6 Committee will recommend continuing steps to protect democracy.
Then it’s up to Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland and the American voters to make sure democracy’s laws are enforced.
