(no subject)

[fpb]

What with the increasing propaganda for Enoch Powell;
The presence of a few outright Fascists in my country's governing coalition;
The American columnist I spoke of and condemned a couple of years ago;
The current civil war within the anti-jihadist movement between the racists and the rest of us;
The Ron Paul candidacy, proving that from five to ten per cent of registered Republicans would turn out to vote for a proven racist, conspiracy theorist and liar;
And now THIS (http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=12532);
It seems that perhaps we have more need to be vigilant against racism and Fascism than I was hoping.

EDITED IN:
Since these newspaper articles tend to be removed from the Web after a while, or moved to a different archive, I will place a copy of the text (from The Michigan City News-Dispatch) behind this cut:

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Worst Campaign Idea Ever?
Hoosier congressional candidate speaks at birthday party for Hitler, in Chicago

Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

CROWN POINT, Ind. - If fans of Hitler held a party, and a candidate for federal office attended, would anybody notice?

Apparently, yes.

U.S. Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle is facing criticism from one of his primary opponents, and a host of people on the Internet, for speaking at an event over the weekend that celebrated Adolf Hitler's birthday.

Zirkle confirmed to The News-Dispatch on Monday he spoke Sunday in Chicago at a meeting of the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party, whose symbol is a swastika.

When asked if he was a Nazi or sympathized with Nazis or white supremacists, Zirkle replied he didn't know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.

"This is just a great opportunity for me to witness," he said, referring to his message and his Christian belief.

He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn't believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, pointing out the name isn't Nazi, but Nationalist Socialist Workers Party.

The Crown Point Republican spoke in front of about 56 "white activists" at an event honoring the birth of Hitler. The German leader was responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews and others during World War II.

Zirkle said the group asked him to speak to discuss the effect of pornography and prostitution on young, white women and girls.

Zirkle is running against Republican Luke Puckett of Goshen and Joseph Roush of Plymouth in the May primary. He lost twice before in primaries to former U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola and has made doing away with pornography and prostitution his top campaign plank.

"I told (Channel 16, WNDU in South Bend) in the beginning that I'd speak to any group that wanted me to speak," Zirkle said Monday. He said he's also recently spoken on the subject to a pair of black journalists.

"I'm keeping my promise. I'll speak to any group. (The National Socialist Workers Party) was interested in the targeting of white people for prostitution."

Puckett spokesman Kyle Bailey said Monday that Puckett was in "disbelief" when he saw a story on the Internet from a Web site called Overthrow.com.

It detailed Zirkle's speech in a story about the gathering, called not only to honor Hitler but to "fight America's economic collapse and reinvigorate the white working class."

At the event, Hitler's birthday was observed with a cake with a photo of Hitler and the words "Seig Heil."

"I can't believe, in 2008, someone could have such backward opinions," Puckett said.

Zirkle said he told the group about his days as a prosecutor in Indiana, during which time he prosecuted gangs involved in trafficking prostitutes and pornography from Eastern Europe.

The Crown Point lawyer, who also has an office in South Bend, has in all three of his primary races pointed to pornography and prostitution as the downfall of society. He said Monday that he agrees with the group's notion the trafficking of "young, white women should be stopped," he said.

When asked if meeting with Nazis was a danger to his political career, Zirkle said he was willing to take the chance.

"That's the risk you have to take to get your point across," Zirkle said. "If the Black Panthers or the Jewish Zionists want me to speak about these issues, I'll do it."



Contact Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I'm disgusted by this too. Note, though, that he hasn't won his primary, which means that he is not yet the Republican candidate. With this on his record, he hopefully never will be the candidate of any major party again, for anything.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

How the Hell he got on the list is what I would like to know. Don't American parties vet their candidates? And are there procedures to expel people for manifest moral failure?

[luckymarty.livejournal.com]

Don't American parties vet their candidates?

I don't think so. Every state I've lived in, joke candidates as well as serious ones turn up on primary ballots, and on the national level we get things like Lyndon Larouche running as a Democrat or Pat Buchanan basically mounting a hostile takeover of Perot's Reform Party.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, hostile takeovers of existing parties do happen. The most famous is Adolf Hitler's takeover of Anton Drexler's splinter German Workers' Party, and one I saw happen myself was Bettino Craxi's takeover of the Italian Socialist Party in the name of an all but Thatcherite market ideology.

[jamesenge.livejournal.com]

"Don't American parties vet their candidates?"

Yes and no. There's a party endorsement process (before the primary), and in that there's considerable vetting--not all of it a good thing: that's where a lot of candidates fail some ideological litmus test. But, in most states, candidates who get enough signatures on a petition can run under whatever banner they like in the primary. And it's the primary election, not the endorsement, that determines who is the party's candidate.

With all this being said, I wouldn't worry too much about this dopoid Zirkle. Fascism is a real danger in the US, but the dangerous people won't be sporting swastikas or celebrating Hitler's birthday.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not that - it's a whole swarm of things, such as the repeated attempts to resurrect Enoch Powell's racism, like Vlaams Belang becoming the relative majority party in the more important half of Belgium, like Le Pen... The important thing is this, in my view: people are no longer ashamed of being Fascists.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

In one of the first presidential elections I was old enough to vote in, back when I was in college, I distinctly remember someone from the American Nazi party making it onto the presidential ballot. (The US presidential ballots actually have quite a few candidates on them, it's just the top 3 or 4 who actually get any votes.)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, but surely he made it as a Nazi? I don't have that much objection to these morons making it as themselves - well, only the kind of objection I have against Nazism in general. It is when they try entryist tactics in order to colonize a mainsream party - as Ron Paul, who was not a Nazi but is indubitably a racist and a kook, tried with the Republicans. And this guy is obviously trying the same stunt.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

True that. Kind of hard to accuse someone of flying under false colors when they're on the ballot as a Nazi! I always wondered how many votes the guy actually got....

If you remember David Duke, he tried a lot of the sneaky tactics too, but he was too well known as a KKK member not to get outed by the press.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

By the way, in Europe -- with the democratic governments unable to check, and openly prosecuting critics of, the Islamists -- one thing you should worry about is a resurgence of old-style European fascism. The restrictions on free speech are choking off the normal democratic means of talking through a problem to a solution, and the European populations, especially the young people, are getting increasingly furious at their terrorization by jihadist gangs. When one tolerates beatings and rapes by the Muslims as a routine social problem, and muzzles criticism of this situation, one is trying to nail down the lid on a boiling pot -- an explosion is inevitable.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's happening. That is in part what I was posting about. Look under "Vlaams Belang", "Front National" and "Brigitte Bardot". And I would not be surprised if Britain's BNP had a breakthrough success in the coming May 1 local elections.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

If the democracies are wise, they will repeal their "hate speech" laws and let anti-immigrant parties come to power, or fail to come to power, in open debate and election. If they do this, then the actions against immigrants will be largely limited to restrictions on new immigration, enforcement of existing laws against immigrants who commit crimes, and deportation of undesirable individuals -- and European democracy will remain intact, its luster brightened by its success in repelling the jihadist menace.

If they are foolish, then their hate speech laws will prevent the nationalistic parties from coming to power, and they will smile and feel secure -- until the day that the mob marches on the parliaments, and the Armed Forces refuse to open fire on them. Then, the actions against immigrants will include mass expulsions and murders of whole populations -- and European liberal democracy will be shattered, scorned as the system which failed in Europe's hour of need.

I'd like to think that the European democracies will be wise, but so far they seem to believe that the way to deal with popular discontent over jihadist outrages is to clamp down on the public expressions of dissent. And along that course lies disaster.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As long as politicians have to court votes, the self-correcting mechanism exists. Many European politicians have woken up to the public's dislike of immigration, especially Muslim immigration. The trouble is that they still do not have the mindset to see the difference between racism and dislike of Islam. That will still take some time to learn.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

To be fair, hate-speach laws predate Jihadist behaviour spreading into the Western World. But I must agree that they are often counter-productive. It is not possible to legislate against prejudice and often the attempt provides the best recruiting drive for racists. The BNP are able to point at the 'injustice'of being silenced by anti-racism laws. But the laws also mean that their extreme views are not directly challenged as often as they ought to be.

I do wonder, however, if the casual, assumed, racism that perminated British society in the sixties and seventies would have faded as much as it has without legislation?

I also believe that opposition to the failed experiment of multiculturalism is what is often mistaken for racism. As a wooley liberal I do admire the ideal, but would like to see an example of where it has not led to tensions between communities.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I think that true respect for other cultures must mean that one takes them seriously -- which implies that one must judge them, because they are constellations of philosophies and customs acting in the same world that one lives in oneself. The assumption underlying completely nonjudgmental multiculturalism is that one's own culture is so utterly dominant that other cultures are safely quaint and removed from the levers of real power -- and that is indeed deep contempt.

[lametiger.livejournal.com]

"He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn't believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, pointing out the name isn't Nazi, but Nationalist Socialist Workers Party."

They're not Nazis, they're Natis (pronounced "Nashis")! As if.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

What I find unbelievable is that the reporter seems to have taken this as a serious answer. Well, one of my correspondents tells me that history in her part of the USA is taught up to about 1890 in schools, and this seems to prove it. I knew about Nazi = Nat-ional S-ocialist when I was 10.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

The reason we spell (and pronounce) "Nazis" with a "z", if I understand correctly, is that the German cognate to the English "socialism" is pronounced with a hard rather than soft sibilant. Hence, English "Nashis" would be the exact same acronym.