The folly of suggesting that 74 million Americans are pro-Nazi

MSNBC reported over the weekend that Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally drew “comparisons to a 1939 pro-Nazi rally” — without noting that it was the cable network itself promoting the narrative, using footage from 85 years ago in its coverage of Trump’s event.
In a segment labeled “breaking news,” an MSNBC anchor called the rally “particularly chilling” because in 1939, people had gathered in support of “a different fascist leader” in a place where the stage was “draped with Nazi banners.” There were no such banners Sunday, nor were there people making the Nazi salute; in fact, it wasn’t even the same building. But MSNBC didn’t let the facts get in the way of the chosen narrative, which is that Trump is the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler.
It was breathtakingly irresponsible for an American media company to make a comparison like that, particularly so close to an election in which many people are already frantic with fear over exaggerated claims of what one or the other “evil” candidate will do. Others went so far as to describe the event as a “klan rally,” a charge that, were not the political right now the champions of free speech, could lead some enterprising Saul Goodman-type attorney to threaten a defamation case.
Democrats had for days been suggesting that the selection of the venue was a “dog whistle” to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, as opposed to a natural choice for a native New Yorker. The Democratic National Convention has met at Madison Square Garden four times without any such comparisons, musicians such as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen have played there, and two popes— John Paul II and Francis — have celebrated Mass there. Rolling Stone magazine once named it the “coolest arena” in the U.S.
There is a concept called Godwin’s Law that says the longer an internet argument goes on, the more likely it is that someone will be compared to Hitler. There’s an actual person beyond that law, an attorney named Mike Godwin who, in 2017, told Time magazine that the comparison is lazy. “As far as I know, every president who has been president from the time I got on the internet has been compared by someone to Hitler. People compared President (Barack) Obama to Hitler. People have forgotten there were pictures of Obama with a Hitler moustache,” Godwin said then.
He has since, however, said that it’s just fine to compare Trump to Hitler, writing for The Washington Post last year, “Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy.”
As candidates for the highest office in the land, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are fair game for any epithet their opposition wants to throw at them, regardless of how these labels soil our political discourse. But the 70-plus million people who voted for Trump in 2020 — and those who will do so this year — are collateral damage in this ugly game, and MSNBC indicted every person who was at the rally in its coverage. And although a comedian’s terrible joke about Puerto Rico landed poorly — you can hear the crowd groaning and the comic has to scramble to recover from the fail — it’s being painted by the left as an example of why the rally was full of “hate.”
To be fair, there are still islands of calm where the media looks at the bigger picture — the picture where MAGA includes ordinary, happy conservatives who spend more time at church and Little League games than fomenting rage on social media. ABC’s Jonathan Karl alluded to this on “Good Morning America” when he noted the crowds at Madison Square Garden and how long they had waited to hear Trump speak. “Trump has created a movement, there’s no doubt. I can’t think of another Republican figure of my lifetime who could’ve come into a Democrat city like New York and put together anything like that,” Karl said.
But some of the rage we are seeing directed not only at Trump, but at his supporters, is appalling. Earlier this year, one former journalist wrote on Twitter, “If you vote for Trump, you’re just as terrible a person as he is.” This is occurring even as Harris and many of her supporters are indicting Trump for his own inflammatory rhetoric, which, to be clear, is equally abhorrent.
Whatever happens Nov. 5, the country will be left with a big challenge: a citizenry distrustful of each other and of the nation’s institutions, and news media that will be wondering anew why half the country hates it. The New York Times, in its coverage of the rally, called the event a “carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.” Three writers contributed to the report. They didn’t quote a single person in the crowd.