THE TRUMP PARTY GOES FULL "HORST WESSEL"

Who was Horst Wessel? The name has been increasingly thrown around in recent weeks, as the Right coalesces around the tale of Ashli Babbitt as a “fine young woman,” a “patriot,” who was “executed.”

Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel (9 October 1907 – 23 February 1930), commonly known as Horst Wessel, was a Berlin Sturmführer ("Assault Leader") of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's stormtroopers. After his murder in 1930, he was made into a martyr for the Nazi cause by Joseph Goebbels.

Wessel was the son of Wilhelm Ludwig Georg Wessel, a Lutheran minister in Bielefeld; his mother also came from a family of Lutheran theologians. The family, influenced by the father’s politics, were avid supporters of the monarchist German National People's Party (DNVP). At age 15, Wessel joined the DNVP's youth group Bismarckjugend ("Bismarck Youth"), from which he resigned in 1925. At the time, the DNVP was the most influential right-wing party in Germany.

After graduating from high school in 1926, he enrolled in the Friedrich Wilhelm University school of law. There, he joined a dueling society dedicated to "steeling and testing physical and moral fitness" through personal combat. While a law student, Wessel founded his own youth group, the Knappschaft, whose purpose was to "raise our boys to be real German men." He also joined the Wiking Liga ("Viking League"), a paramilitary group whose goal was "the revival of Germany on a national and ethnic basis through the spiritual education of its members." He later joined mopre sinister groups, including the “Reinhard Regiment” of the “Black Reichswehr,” and the "Olympia German Association for Physical Training", a paramilitary group that succeeded the disbanded Reinhard Regiment. The Viking League and the Olympia Association were banned in Prussia in May 1926, when it was discovered they were planning a putsch. Two weeks later, Wessel joined the Sturmabteilung, later saying that over 2/3 of the Viking League had already joined the SA and the Nazi Party.

Wessel became an admirer of Josef Goebbels, at the time the “Gauleiter” (party leader) of Berlin. He later wrote: “The NSDAP was a political awakening. ... The movement's centrifugal force was tremendous. ... One meeting followed hard on the heels of the last one. ... Street demonstrations, recruiting drives in the press, propaganda trips into the provinces creating an atmosphere of activism and high political tension that could only help the movement.”

Wessel soon impressed Goebbels; in 1929, he became the Street Cell Leader of the Alexanderplatz Storm Section of the SA. In May, he was appointed district leader with the rank of Sturmführer. He dropped out of law school in October 1929 to devote himself full-time to the Nazi movement. That same year, he wrote the lyrics to "Die Fahne hoch!" ("Raise the Flag!"), which would later be known as the "Horst Wessel Song" He wrote songs for the SA in conscious imitation of the Communist paramilitary group - the music to Die Fahne hoch!" was taken from a Communist song book to provoke them into attacking his troop. He was recognized by Goebbels and the Berlin Nazi hierarchy as an effective street speaker;in the

During this period, Wessel took up with Erna Jänicke, a 23-year-old ex-prostitute, and she moved into his flat, which he rented from 29-year old Elisabeth Salm, whose late husband had been an active Communist Red Front Fighter, although she described herself as apolitical. She wanted them to leave, fearing Jänicke, had returned to prostitution. On the evening of 14 January 1930 she asked Communist friends of her late husband for help. When they realized that Horst Wessel was involved in the dispute they agreed to beat him up and get him out of Salm's flat by force. They sent word to a nearby tavern for Albrecht "Ali" Höhler, a heavily tattooed cabinetmaker and criminal who had just recently been released from prison; he was a member of the Red Front Fighters' League.

At 10 pm that night, Höhler and Erwin Rückert,went to Wessel’s flat and knocked. Expecting another SA man, Wessel opened the door; he was shot by Höhler and badly wounded. Taken to a hospital, he recovered somewhat but then died on 23 February from blood poisoning contracted in the hospital. Höhler was quickly arrested., tried , and sentenced to six years in prison for the shooting; the light sentence was due to the court's finding of extenuating circumstances. In 1933, after the Nazis took national power, Höhler was taken out of prison under false pretenses by then Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels and members of the SA, who executed him.

Goebbels, who had been looking for someone to turn into a martyr for the Nazi cause, saw in Wessel's shooting the possibility of a propaganda bonanza. He eulogized Wessel in his newspaper, Der Angriff: “A Christian Socialist! A man who calls out through his deeds: 'Come to me, I shall redeem you!' ... A divine element works in him. making him the man he is and causing him to act in this way and no other. One man must set an example and offer himself up as a sacrifice! Well, then, I am ready!” In an editorial in the Völkischer Beobachter, Alfred Rosenberg said Wessel was not dead, but had joined a combat group; afterwards, Nazis spoke of how a man who died in conflict had “joined Horst Wessel's combat group."

Although Goebbels could not get Hitler to attend Wessel's funeral, Hitler did speak at Wessel's grave three years after his death, on 22 January 1933, for the dedication of a memorial. Hitler called Wessel a "blood witness" whose song had become "a battle hymn for millions."That night, he addressed a memorial service at the Berlin Sportpalast, at which the "Funeral March" from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung was played, and the stage was set as an altar made from "laurel trees, branches, candelabra and a larger-than-lifesize portrait of Wessel.

Goebbels turned Wessel into the foremost Nazi martyr. In 1934, after “The night of the long knives” in which Hitler consolidated power by having the leadership of the SA executed by the SS, the “Horst Wessel Lied” became the official Nazi Party song, played alongside the German national anthem,"Deutschland über alles".

My intention of going into such detail about Wessel is because we are seeing what is nearly a daily increas in the radicalization of what can now only be called the Trump Party. If anyone harbors any doubts, I suggest you look up the video of Trump’s speech to the CPAC convention last night. Look at how the lectern he speaks from is raised high, look at the adoration on the faces of the true believers, look at how he delivers a speech full of lies.“Godwin’s Law” can now be considered officially rescinded.

Yesterday morning, before the speech, Trump was on Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Futures” show on Radio Berlin, er, I mean Faux Snooze. What they said about Babbitt, and how they are now making her a “martyr” who was “executed” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is not that different from Goebbels’ use of the death of Horst Wessel.

Bartiromo said, “That is right, I want to talk about that because Ashli Babbitt, a wonderful woman fatally shot on January 6 as she tried to climb out of a broken window. Her family has spoken out, her family has been on Tucker Carlson , and they want answers as far as why is this wonderful young woman who went to peaceful protest was shot, do you have any information, there is speculation that this was the security detail and a leading member of congress security detail, a Democrat, what can you tell us in terms of who shot Ashli Babbitt, what do you know Mr. President?

Trump went full conspiracy, “I have heard that, I will tell you they know who shot Ashli Babbitt, they’re protecting their person, I’ve heard also it was the head of security for a certain high official, Democrat. And we will see, it is going to come out, it is going to come out, what happened to Ashli Babbitt and what’s happening currently to people that are incarcerated and it would be one thing if you did that, but why BLM, the death and the destruction that they caused the Manhattan, New York, Chicago and if you take a look at L.A. In Minnesota, look at what they did in Seattle, they’re not paying apart enterprise in New York they release 400 people who practically burned down fifth avenue and burn down our stores and kill people and they’re all released, they’re released, don’t worry about it, just leave it was just announced. You have people with no guns.”

Trump went on: “Who is the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head? There is no repercussion — that were on the other side, it would be the biggest story in this country.”

He now insists that the January 6th insurrection actually amounted to a “lovefest between the Capitol Police and the people who walked down to the Capitol.” He repeated his demand that “they have to release the people that are incarcerated.”

Ashli Babbitt, “this wonderful young woman who went to peaceful protest,” was not shot as she “tried to climb out of a broken window,” as if she was trying to flee. She was an active member of the insurrectionist mob that was breaking through the doors to the the Speaker’s Anteroom, the last barrier preventing them breaking into the chamber of the House of Representatives. Had the insurrectionists been successful, they could have gotten hold of Representatives, who were at that moment being evacuated from the chamber. We have seen the gallows the insurrectionists put up in front of the capitol.

And no, no matter how many times Trump claims it was “Boom! She was shot in the head,” she was in fact shot in her shoulder and likely died from a severed artery, while her fellow insurrectionists prevented EMTs getting to her in the crowded hallway.

A good way to measure just how radical the party has become can be seen in the difference between this weekend’s CPAC and the one held in February. In February, the straw poll gave Trump 74% support with DeSantis getting 72%; this past weekend, the straw poll saw Trump get 71% support for running in 2024, while the nearest competitor was again DeSantis, this time with a mere 21%.

Not only that, but Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the domestic terrorist paramilitary gang The Oathkeepers, was an honored guest this weekend at the CPAC conference. In the past six weeks, members of The Proud Boys SA-style street gang have been elected to local and state Republican party organizations. When a political party welcomes paramilitary organizations, they are no longer an “electoral party.” During his speech, Trump proudly told the audience that he didn’t learn a thing when he got impeached twice. “I didn’t become different. I got impeached twice. I became worse.” And they applauded him.

On front after front, Trump has returned to the escalating incitements to violence which caused the Jan 6th insurrection in the first place. He told his Chief of Staff John Kelly that “Hitler did a lot of good” back in 2018. This confirms what his ex-wife wrote about his keeping a book of Hitler’s speeches.

Horst Wessel and his gang of SA thugs used to show up at opposition meetings and incite violence. Yesterday, Representative Katie Porter held a community town hall meeting in her district down in Orangatag County. Nick Taurus , a leading far-right figure in the county who plans to run against Porter in 2022 called on his supporters to “Confront Katie Porter” in an Instagram post that featured the walk-up music of a pro wrestler:“Please join the Taurus Campaign this Sunday (07/11/21) at 2:30PM to demand AMERICA BE PUT FIRST and send Carpetbagger Katie back to the Iowa farm she came from!” Taurus tagged several accounts connected to Nick Fuentes, the far-right white supremacist leader who, among other things, has said of the Jim Crow South: “It was better for them, it’s better for us.” Taurus added later in the video that “We have to make these people squirm, we have to make them feel uncomfortable.” He also implied that the Orange County Republican Party was involved in the stunt: “We decided to go down after being prompted by the local GOP and to kind of make our voices heard.” Taurus then led a crew of supporters loudly heckling the congresswoman at the event at a park in Irvine. The confrontation escalated into a brief scuffle, with punches thrown. Though Taurus later denied that he intended for his protest to get violent, Porter said in a statement that he had created “unsafe conditions.” (She’s always good at understatement.)

As my friend Josh Marshall points out in an editorial today at Talking Points Memo, “The point of his over-the-top claims isn’t to litigate the particulars of any specific encounter. Their very absurdity is less an effort to deceive as a demonstration of power. They are meant to make the case that the whole event was justified, righteous and right. It was right and necessary and praiseworthy because the election was stolen, rigged, illegitimate. The Big Lie and the insurrection are inseparable and Trump is arguing that one can’t be vindicated without the other... This argument about inseparability and vindication is a clue to the first goal of this push: maintaining an iron grip on the GOP and making the 2022 campaign about him. Congressional Republicans have almost unanimously opposed any efforts to investigate the events of January 6th. But that’s not enough. Trump wants them to embrace the insurrection explicitly. He is defining the embrace of the insurrection as the dividing line between RINO insiders and pro-Trump true believers. He is using it as a cudgel to maintain his hold over the party and keep his own grievances, demands and drama as the party’s animating core.

In the meantime, Manchin and Sinema are happy to cosplay Chamberlain and Daladier and meet Trump in Munich to hand over Czechoslovakia. At CPAC, Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), was secretly recorded heaping praise on the two for bearhugging the filibuster: “Thank goodness for Sinema and Joe Manchin.”

I wish I was as wrong about these people as those who call them “clowns” say. But I’m not.

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