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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHistory Repeats Itself - Extremists Turn to a Leader to Protect Western Values: Vladimir
In the 1940s, American Hero Charles Lindbergh urged America to back Hitler's Nazi regine and, in return, Hitler took steps to cultivate Lindbergh's support:
http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/201613/Charles-Lindbergh-Hitler-s-all-American-hero
And in a sickening anti-Semitic outburst, Lindbergh added: Their [the Jews] greatest danger in this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government. Lindberghs supporters and very probably the man himself really believed that the Jews were critical of him because of his blond, blue-eyed Nordic good looks. These, they claim, were not the kind of looks that Jews favoured. Similar views were held in Hitlers Germany.
It became increasingly apparent that Lindbergh himself was decidedly racist. He maintained everyone of European descent would eventually be replaced with a pressing sea of yellow, black and brown. And he openly stated that if it was a matter of choice, he would rather see America allied with Nazi Germany than Soviet Russia.
During the pre-war years Lindbergh was also open about his great admiration for Hitlers Germany. He travelled several times to the country to report on German aviation and the German air force, all at the request of the US government. But so impressionable was he that the commander in chief of Germanys air force Hermann Goering was able to convince him that it was far more powerful than it really was.
Sensing that Lindbergh was an admirer of the Nazi regime, he let him become the first American to examine Germanys newest bomber the secret Junkers JU88 as well as the Messerschmitt 109. Lindbergh was also given an opportunity to pilot the Messerschmitt which he would later praise fulsomely.
So delighted had the Nazi government become with Lindberghs lavish praise of their aircraft that at a dinner held in his honour at the American embassy in Berlin in 1938 he was presented by Goering on behalf of Adolf Hitler a decoration the Commander Cross of the Order of the German Eagle.
Today, Russia is using xenophobic sentiment and insecurity among whites to cultivate support and influence in foreign countries for Russia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/world/americas/alt-right-vladimir-putin.html?_r=0
As the founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party, an American group that aims to preserve the privileged place of whiteness in Western civilization and fight anti-Christian degeneracy, Matthew Heimbach knows whom he envisions as the ideal ruler: the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin.
Russia is our biggest inspiration, Mr. Heimbach said. I see President Putin as the leader of the free world.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump mystified many on the left and in the foreign policy establishment with his praise for Mr. Putin and his criticism of the Obama administrations efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. But what seemed inexplicable when Mr. Trump first expressed his admiration for the Russian leader seems, in retrospect, to have been a shrewd dog whistle to a small but highly motivated part of his base.
For Mr. Heimbach is far from alone in his esteem for Mr. Putin. Throughout the collection of white ethnocentrists, nationalists, populists and neo-Nazis that has taken root on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. Putin is widely revered as a kind of white knight: a symbol of strength, racial purity and traditional Christian values in a world under threat from Islam, immigrants and rootless cosmopolitan elites.
ElkeH
(105 posts)Trump's relationship with Russia has really put a spotlight on the right-wing's growing infatuation with Putin, but that infatuation probably predates Trump. Right-wing extremists across Europe and the US have in their minds built Russia up as a white, Christian utopia where liberalism is shunned and traditional values are embraced. Putin is therefore also a model leader in their fantasies.
Seeing this support for Putin is a frightening reminder of how many people, including here in the US, still hold deep hatred based on race, religion, and sexual orientation, and how many do not believe in basic human rights.