Gangsters Quotes
He had squads of thugs that he would “rent” out to other gangsters for their enforcement activities and to unions to protect themselves from goons and intimidate non union workers. However, he would not let his men work as goons and strike busters or for companies—despite huge pay offers—to keep their workers in line, a common practice at the time.
There are few national organizations who would keep a director who made statements as vicious and racist as this about anyone much less the President of the United States. The use of the Nazi slogan of “subhuman mongrels” was stunning at the time. However, the National Rifle Association is a single issue organization and of the racists and neo-Nazis in America many have affiliated with the NRA so forcing Nugent out would have caused a split in their ranks. The larger problem was for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, running for Governor, who kept campaigning with Nugent and even refused to repudiate Nugent’s language or facts. He too wanted the votes of the racists, KKK and Nazis of Texas and did not want to anger them. However, many of the independents and conservative Democrats who otherwise might have supported Abbot will likely not. One of the biggest problem for every candidate is what to do when one of his extreme supporters makes extreme and reprehensible statements. The strongest candidates repudiate them right away and if that loses a few votes from the base, so be it. The weaker candidates try and play the middle and remain silent. A month later, after a huge press story covered the media, Nugent made a half-hearted apology.
Such a comcept has been shared by most autocratic governments like Nazi Germany, but before and after Germans did not see this subservience to and power of the state as desirable or even necessary. The Vatican has had periods like this. But this Sistema has been a part of Russian culture during the millinium of Czarist rule. It was used andn explicitly made a part of Lennin and the Russian Revolutionaries, and then so heavily used by Joseph Stalin before, during and after WWII. It continued under the Post Stalinist Communist leader and when the Soviet Union fell and Russia became less authoratoran, it was not utilized but it was deeply embedded in the Russian psyche and culture as demonstrated by the fact that Vladimir Putin began t use it as an instrument of his governance.
