DEMOCRACY IN DANGER
A Fascist Hootenanny Comes to Upscale Manhattan
Republicans host an event with creepy echoes of Hitler’s beer hall gatherings of the 1920s
Merriam-Webster defines “hootenanny” as follows:
a gathering at which folk singers entertain often with the audience joining in
On December 10, 2022, just in time to spoil the holidays, at a location on its chic Upper East Side, New York witnessed a political hootenanny. Reports suggested that the event could have roused fascists of yesteryear to kick up their heels.
Now, I’m a New Yorker, and we have a storied record in the birth of American democracy, so for me, that event was an abomination.
The “entertainment” included folksy comments from Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who delivered a Jimmy Crack Corn monologue — proving she didn’t care about Trump’s insurrection. But we know her master, Donald Trump, has not gone away.
The hootin’ and the hollerin’ included audience approval of her testament that — if she and Steve Bannon had organized the January 6th assault — they would have won.
Bannon was there along with other invited VIP guests, including Trump’s annoying eldest son. And Rep. Greene’s bravado was punctuated, to the audience’s glee, by her assuring her assault would have been armed.
First, my sympathies to Ms. Greene for traveling to NYC without the comfort of her AR-15s. The airlines probably allow comfort animals on their flights, but not comfort rifles.
Second, I hope readers in the Northeast share my disgust that a gala — headlined by an avowed white Christian nationalist — could be hosted in New York. And that cabal gathered in one of the most multicultural cities on the globe.
I’m not suggesting that a city that has previously elected Republicans cannot hold conservative political gatherings. But there is “conservative” and then there’s “fascist.” Winston Churchill understood the difference — fortunately for the salvation of democracy. And as I stated in a prior post, such modern antebellum signal flares should not be ignored.
History reminds me that the beer halls of German cities in the 1920s were popular locations for political meetings. Those gatherings included a young radical movement called the Nazi Party and their most popular orator: a former corporal sporting an odd mustache.
The fact that guests at the Manhattan event wore tuxedos and evening dresses (not brown shirts), while probably drinking Merlot (not beer and schnapps), is of little consequence. My analogy is justified by the rant uttered that evening by the president of the hosting organization, the New York Young Republicans Club (NYYRC):
We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets … This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power.
“Total war” and “in the streets”? (Sieg Heil?) What happened to party cries for balanced budgets?
So, let’s be clear: Ms. Greene’s verbal diarrhea wasn’t an awkward outburst that shocked the NYYRC leadership. They clearly relished everything that Greene and Steve Bannon represented.
And here’s the foul significance: First, we can expect a younger generation of fascist-friendly advocates in New York—and being incubated to follow in the footsteps of Trump and Rudy Giuliani.
Second, the event was not held in Ron DeSantis’ Florida or Texas. It was staged in the financial capital of the hemisphere where there is access to millions of dollars in potential support for a mutated Republican Party — one flirting with wearing a tiny, rectangular mustache.
Consider that nearly 100 years ago, Adolph Hitler delivered messages similar in tone, including during what history has called the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler went to jail in the aftermath of that event for attempting to stage a coup. (Sound familiar?) He used the downtime to reflect and write Mein Kampf.
Neither Marjorie Taylor Greene nor the NYYRC president will be earning jail time for their comments, and the First Amendment dictates that they shouldn’t. But Steve Bannon likely will for dissing Congress — but, like Adolph, only for several months.
So, will Bannon use his downtime to pen the official edition of the Republican Party’s Aryan, nationalist manifesto?
Thanks for your attention and past claps, and I welcome your responses. To follow future posts, you can press the button on the screen. — Geronimo Redstone
