How little do you have to accomplish in life to be proud of being born white? How empty is your trophy case? How empty is your life?
Nazis didn’t have to sit and ponder these thoughts as they held a rally on Orange County property at the corner of North Alafaya Trail and Waterford Lakes Parkway. Members of the National Socialist Movement and known area agitators Bert Colucci and Eddie McBride were on hand to pathetically cosplay at genocide.
Videos and photos showed the squad of less than 20 ganging up on a motorist who jumped out to confront them. No police were visible on the scene. OCSO said they are investigating the matter and that hate “has no place in our society.”
Later in the day, the bald scumbags dropped anti-Semitic banners — and one that read “Let’s Go Branon” (sic) — over I-4. The Florida Highway Patrol disbanded the group. While the reaction against the rally from officials was quite loud and quick, one notable state employee took a different tack.
Ron DeSantis’ controversial press secretary, Christina Pushaw, floated the idea that the Nazis were paid actors stirring up outrage for Democrats to score easy points. She then pointed to an incident at a Glenn Youngkin rally where members of the Lincoln Project appeared dressed as white supremacists.
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Not only is this take ridiculous (Colucci and McBride are known Nazis around these parts), it’s not even based in reality. The Lincoln Project, famously, is a group of anti-Trump Republicans. If you need a hint, it’s in the name.
Never one to be cowed by the facts, Pushaw carried on attacking anyone who made the connection between Nazis and right-wing beliefs. She trotted out the Venezuela-level tired counterargument that because the Nazi party had socialist in its name, the party itself must be affiliated with leftist thought.
While the young party that became the Nazis started as a workers’ party in the early 1900s, under the direction of Adolf Hitler it became an avowedly capitalist and far-right institution. The party continued to use the word socialist in its early years to draw working-class people in. All the proof you need is in the fact that hatred of the communist USSR and a misguided eastward attack are what ultimately did in the Nazi regime. Commies took Berlin and that’s a verifiable fact.
The inclusion of “socialist” is a nearly 100-year-old, puddle-deep piece of propaganda that Republicans can’t get enough of.
Beyond that, Pushaw defended her boss’ decision to not quickly condemn the rally. While other politicians were quick with a tweet, DeSantis did not respond. When any socialist group asked what Ron thought, Pushaw asked them to condemn BDS, a movement asking companies to divest from Israel over their ongoing war crimes in occupied Palestine.
Hey Christina, maybe once you hit your fourth or fifth tweet dancing around the remarkably easy act of condemning Nazis, it’s time to take a breath and write a statement. Try to make sure to grab the stationery where the eagle faces left.
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This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2022.