Political Extremism Quotes
Hayek uses this line to explain that fascism may emerge when communism—or belief in its promise—fails, as seen in Stalinist Russia and pre‑Hitler Germany.
Although the Nazis railed against the Communists & Socialists, the potential opposition they feared the most was the middle class. See also {582967}.
At the time Ford was considering running for President and some of the American right wing extremists were encouraging him to do so. Hitler had demonstrated how his fascist storm troopers would intimidate a major city as he had done it first in Munich and later in most other German cities. At the time, Ford and his supporters were delighted to have the support of such an important modern world leader as Hitler. The American Nazi Party's first president, Heinz Spanknoebel, was an employee at the Ford Motor Company. Fritz Julius Kuhn, leader of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund, worked at Ford off and on. As Hitler’s practices and policies were more and more exposed, and WWII began, this quotation made any political role for Henry Ford very difficult. Ford was the only American named in Hitler’s maniacal book Mein Kampf. He describes Ford as the only American who is not controlled by Hitler’s paranoid view of the Jewish conspiracy. Ford himself was an anti-Semite. See related quotes. Hitler awarded Ford the German Eagle Order Medal—the only American to have ever received it. It was reserved for those who assisted the Nazi Party outside of Germany. Benito Mussolini was another recipient.
The “Blue Shirts” were so called because of the color of the shirts that the young fascist thugs of the Nationalists wore in China—a color later adopted by the communists for dress. European Fascists tended to have young thug “enforcement” type battalions which were named for the color of their shirts: “Brown Shirts” in Germany, “Black Shirts” of the Fascist movement in England. Ironically, the Red Scare after WWII, convinced American leaders to support Chiang (who called himself and his party the “nationalists”) who was a deep admirer of fascism himself. Chiang’s version of Fascism which combined European type Fascism with traditional Asian warlordism and corruption alienated the majority of the Chinese peasants. America was forced to choose between Chiang led corrupt Nationalist fascists, and Mao led communists. We chose Chiang, but Mau and the Communists won. Chiang’s forces then seized Taiwan and this was the only part of China that did not go communist. After Chiang’s death, the island mini-nation became less fascist and more democratic, and by the 1990’s became a full-fledged democracy.
The evangelist had become disillusioned by his experiences with the right wing of the Republican Party in general and President Nixon in particular as he concluded that they had been using him and his ministry for partisan political purposes. He had originally assumed to the contrary. See {629697} .
