During Donald Trump’s rally in Richmond, VA there were a number of protestors who were not in favor of Trump’s immigration policy. As they were protesting they got into a bit of an altercation with an angry Trump supporter. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian (The Point), hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
“Donald Trump was heckled at a Virginia rally tonight and some of his supporters ended up getting in a physical altercation with the protesters.
The protesters began to speak up when Trump talked about immigration. His supporters cheered to drown them out while Trump said it’s their First Amendment right, while still predicting the ‘dishonest” media would run headlines about the hecklers instead of all the thousands of people who didn’t heckle him (which, no, since when has not heckling someone been news?).
But as CNN reported tonight, before the protesters were removed from the room, things got physical between the roughly-dozen protesters and a few of Trump’s supporters.”*
Read more here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-figh…
Comments
Cenk
The reason why people associate violence with the left wing is because in the 1920s-1940s the political left helped usher in authoritarians like Mussolini and Hitler. It is incredible how close Hitler’s platform is to some of the modern left wing positions. Hitler condemned capitalism and its unfairness in speeches just like how we heard at the democratic debate. He also used violence to spread his influence across Europe and Africa. Within the country his party demanded nationalization of corporations and profit sharing, which is another way of saying fair and living wages. It is true that he spoke out against Marxism but that just wasn’t his strain of left wing ideology. Hitler was also very patriotic like our modern right wing, but patriotism has been associated with both sides of the aisle.
We cannot be ignorant of these facts. We have to end this left versus right war by standing up for the truth on both sides.
Hitler was on the FAR right of the political spectrum. He was a fascist. His ideology had NOTHING to do with Marx, socialism or communism. Hitler did not agree with social ownership he wasted corporate control., He believed in cooperate and military control of the “state” and of course he did not want social justice for all people. He was a dictator not a democrat or even remotely socialist.. He used the term National Socialism to evoke a feeling of unity and cooperation. This is a misnomer. I understand the Right wanting people to think he was a Leftist but he was on the complete opposite spectrum,. He wanted to control the people as seen in his book burning campaign. He spoke out against Marxism because Marxism is the idea that all ideologies will rise up when people are oppressed to overthrow and create a new. That politics was cyclical and we would eventually go back to the communal idea of tribes where everyone works together, give to the.whole and shares with the whole, no one at the top or bottom. With every ideological shift there would be social unrest and dissatisfaction that would lead to revolution. Marx was a philosopher not a politician. Hitler wanted no part of “the people” having any say at all. That said, Hitler stifled the communist idea in Germany and had over 1000 communists arrested for their political views, Trade unions were banned and the party was ousted from Parliament. Hitler, around the same time, pushed the “Enabling Act” which gave the government the right to pass laws that went against their constitution. He was able to do this due to the world economic crash of 1929 and with it cut income by a quarter, 25%. Hitler said he was for worker’s rights but his words and his actions were polar opposites.. He took any power the worker had away and put it in the control of the aristocracy and the cooperate machine. Many workers did not unify against his tactics because he did help the country get out of the world economic crisis of the time problems in Germany after WWI.. Hitler was against the left in every area, even with reproductive rights which at the time was about selective breeding and sterilization to create his master race. I could keep going but really the rest is history.
Hitler’s platform may have talked about worker’s rights but his practice was about as far right as one can get. He stripped workers pay and did not by any means care one bit about fair or living wages.
I appreciate your comment but we clearly have a very different understanding of history. In college world history I learned a similar version to what you just told me. When I examined the facts for myself I came to a different conclusion.
You just correlated fascism with the right wing. What is your definition of fascism? Can you name any other fascists besides Hitler with your definition and why you consider them fascists? I feel like you are just summoning that word and using the negative connotation to associate it with the right. I use Mussolini’s definition, arguably the inventor and pioneer of fascism, that it is “the melding of the corporation and the state.” I interpret this as state control over the economy and essentially the livelihood of the people within it.
In Mein Kampf Hitler discusses how he is pro union. I can assure you he was for unions as long as they were linked with the Nazi-party. If a union disagreed with him ideologically, he banned it. If it served the will of his totalitarian regime (what he probably described as the good of the state or the common good) I would imagine he would be okay with it based on the words in his book. But he was not against unions, he was against those who did not fall in line with his agenda. Here is a link to chapter 12 of his book where he discusses the importance of unions. It’s a classic… http://www.mondopolitico.com/library/meinkampf/v2c12.htm
Selective breeding and sterilization is a left-wing phenomenon and in a way it still is with the arguments for abortion ending crime (regardless of how you feel about abortion as an issue). Scientists and social planners throughout the 1900s dreamed of creating the perfect society, Hitler’s extreme version of that was extermination of the Jews in Europe. If you actually read the reports and studies of eugenicists in Germany and even in the United States you will see that they are deeply rooted in left wing ideology. I was shocked to learn this as well. Hitler was greatly inspired by these scientists and acted on his beliefs.
I would like to address all the other points you made but I think if you really want to know the truth you will continue to seek it out yourself. Hopefully my information on Mein Kampf and the origins of eugenics has helped you understand the other side a little better… but if not… I think we both can agree that Hitler ultimately turned Germany into a totalitarian regime (regardless of what you definition of fascism is). The enforcement of greater government control and state interest and manipulation of the economy is more of a leftist concept than a rightist. It is the left wing that embraces Keynesian economics. Hitler exercised government control of the people, state manipulation of the economy, influenced by left wing eugenicists and state planners… and even more (like I said go find our for yourself!). Based on this, Hitler would seem to have much more in common with the left than the right, especially some of the pesky libertarians that ally with the right that want to cripple the power of the federal government.
It is true that Hitler was against Soviet Socialism and later communism. But that fact alone does not mean that he was right wing. That isn’t a good basis for the argument. I prefer to analyze the ideologies and the policies and come to my own conclusion. Based on what you told me in your comment, I am not convinced that we can just say Hitler is a right winger. Also, I have searched for evidence suggesting he was inspired by right wing thinkers or philosophy, but I cannot find this. He certainly was not a capitalist which is a tenant of the modern right wing.
I think you are correct that he didn’t care about fair or living wages. But he used that issue to get the support and trust of the German people. Those tactics are being used today on the democratic (left) debate state. I have read that many Germans actually opposed Hitler once they realized what they had allowed to come to power but they were fearful of speaking up because of the nature of the totalitarian state. It silences opposition with fear and economic controls, which is exactly what Hitler accomplished with the Third Reich. That is against everything the right wing has ever represented.
Interesting.. found a Guardian article about the left’s dark past in eugenics. This was the “progressive” social science of the mid 1900s! I was pleasantly surprised that The Guardian is consistent on this, enough to acknowledge it.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/eugenics-skeleton-rattles-loudest-closet-left