Is it ever okay to quote or make excuses for Nazi propaganda? A college paper of Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R) was discovered, and he seems to have made excuses for the philosophical founders of Nazism. He is now running for Congress and will be campaigning with Rep. Thomas Massie (R), who famously shared a quote attributed to a prolific neo-Nazi.
All the while, Indiana Rep. Jim Lucas (R) recently posted a picture of a Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels’ quote on his personal Facebook account. The quote referenced governmental use of propaganda to mislead the populous and was screen grabbed and shared by his opponents.
Under the heading “Joseph Goebbels: On the “Big Lie,” the quote reads: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its power to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Lucas’ opponent Chad Harmon took to Twitter to condemn Lucas for quoting a Nazi.
After running against Jim Lucas for a while now, it’s hard to surprise me anymore, but today he literally changed his cover photo to a quote from Nazi Joseph Goebbels.
This is a sitting Indiana State Representative quoting a Nazi.How tf did we get here? pic.twitter.com/n5GpwDagFM
— Chad Harmon (@chadharmon2022) August 15, 2022
Lucas has since removed the post but has not issued a statement or apology.
Sharing Nazi quotes has been prevalent among politicians and public figures alike.
In January, Rep. Thomas Massie (R) tweeted a quote that read, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” Massie’s tweet incorrectly attributed the quote to Voltaire.
However, those words actually came from Kevin Alfred Storm – a well-known neo-Nazi. Storm founded his own neo-Nazi group and regularly spewed “antisemitism and racist material” on the radio, among other mediums.
When he’s not sharing neo-Nazi propaganda, Massie can be found voting against antisemitism measures in the U.S. Congress. He was the only member to vote against a House resolution condemning antisemitism. The bill, which the House voted 420-to-1, was a symbolic measure to combat Holocaust denial and distortion and protect religious liberty.
Massie was also the only Republican to vote against an anti-BDS resolution, which sought to end the discriminatory practice of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and businesses that do business with or support Israel. His vote was in-line with members of ‘The Squad,’ who openly support BDS, regularly vote in opposition to U.S. support of Israel, and disseminate rhetoric deemed by some to be antisemitic.
Massie has endorsed Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R) in his run for Congress in Florida’s District 7 and will be in Seminole County campaigning with Sabatini on August 21st.
Sabatini is no stranger to controversial messaging. He regularly refers to those who pushed for mask usage during the pandemic as “mask-Nazis.” The ADL condemned his remarks, citing the dangers of carelessly invoking the Nazis into political discourse to “delegitimize political opponents.” Sabatini doubled down on his comments by sharing a GIF of the “No Soup for You” scene from Seinfeld’s “No Soup for You” episode.
— Rep. Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) June 30, 2020
Sabatini may also have an affinity for Nazi political philosophy.
We recently uncovered his undergraduate honor thesis at the University of Florida, in which he argued that history took some of the political philosophers responsible for Nazism out of context.
His paper titled A Profound Logic of the Blood: Nietzsche and Political Culture in Weimar Germany focuses on Freidrich Nietzsche, whose writings are widely considered to have influenced Hilter’s writing of Mein Kampf.
He begins his thesis with a Nietzsche quote, “It is only beginning with me that the earth knows great politics.”
Sabatini appears to argue in the paper that Nietzsche’s political philosophy is praise-worthy for the time but that his ideas were co-opted by the Nazis later.
Sabatini further profiles Nazi philosophers like Oswald Spengler but failed to mention his antisemitic beliefs, such as that Jews are a “disintegrating element,” “money thinking,” and should be removed from Europe.
Others like Carl Schmidt, who was a member of the Nazi party and a raging antisemite, are also discussed in Sabatini’s paper. Schmidt advocated for German laws to cleanse the “Jewish spirit” from Germany. Sabatini did not include this information in his paper, arguing that Schmidt’s ideas were taken out of context.
Much of Sabatini’s analysis seems to justify these Nazi thinkers arguing, “The romantic ideas of the “Young Conservatives” never appealed to the masses. Instead, their ideas were taken over and distorted, much like Nietzsche’s, by the National Socialism movement.”
You can read Sabatini’s 40-page thesis online here.
The promotion of Nazi ideas seems to have a strong grip this political primary season.
