I don’t disagree, but as an example, I wouldn’t call a Jew who helped out Nazis because they were extremely afraid and, on some level, weak, a “Nazi,” and in my opinion, that would be a much closer call.
Likewise, I don’t consider black people who vote Republican to be “white power neo-Nazis,” and I think saying that is, well, nonsensical. I think people forget that many people never read the news. Many people get sucked-into the rah-rah tribalism of party politics, are accepted and used as minority representatives by the actual white power neo-Nazis, and are honestly often none the wiser. They don’t know anything about domestic and foreign policy, economics, history.
Are these people stooges of white power neo-Nazis? Absolutely. Is a large percentage (the majority) of the Republican Party absolutely in support of white power? You betcha, although I don’t think most of them would realize it. But again, to say that 70 million Americans are literal white power neo-Nazis, at this point, because they voted Republican? Do it if you want, but I won’t be going there at this point.
But back to the utility issue, which is what drives me the most on this point. If you just want to say 70-million Americans are neo-Nazis, first, that sets a tone where we should consider going to war against them, actual war, and kill them immediately. I don’t like that one bit.
It also feeds into what I think will be failed attempts to try to appeal to the, I don’t know what it is, 5-10% of Republicans who could potentially be brought back from the brink? I am happy to educate them about why the Republican Party has become such a thing, but the moment you just write that person off as a neo-Nazi, I think you’ve lost your ability to grab back that 5-10% of the GOP voting base. And you know what? I think scraping 5-10% off of the GOP voting base, post-Trump, post-Jan 6th, would be the smartest thing for progressives to concentrate on right now. Lock the GOP out of national power permanently. It could happen, and I think these labels for 70-million Americans work against that effort.