Monday, January 23, 2017

'America First' is a motto invented for Nazi sympathizers

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Friday, January 20, 2017, 8:15 pm

Forget soaring rhetoric. Donald Trump’s inaugural speech abandoned optimism, unity, and hope for the meanest, angriest speech of modern times. As Trump put the “bully” in bully pulpit, his “American carnage” speech included a phrase that was familiar from his campaign rhetoric.

TRUMP: We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first.

It’s not a new term. In fact, it’s a term that Franklin Roosevelt admitted was “pretty good.” But the history of that phrase is not good at all.

He wasn’t quite promising “America über alles,” but it comes close. “America First” was the motto of Nazi-friendly Americans in the 1930s, and Trump has more than just a catchphrase in common with them. ...

The phrase was minted by Nazi sympathizers, who used isolationist rhetoric to oppose Roosevelt in the 1930s. And its heart was in America’s heartland ...

There would soon be several hundred chapters and almost a million members, two-thirds of whom resided in the Midwest. Charles Lindbergh would officially join America First in April 1941, serving as the committee's principal spokesman and chief drawing card at its rallies.

Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/nnb2PiBH3w8/--America-First-is-a-motto-invented-for-Nazi-sympathizers

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