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The Amazon Trail: All Along the Watchtower

Lee Lynch | January 12, 2021

Topics: American Civil Liberties Union, Capitol riot, Coup, Donald Trump, Republican Party, Southern Poverty Law Center, The Amazon Trail, Unite the Right

In this month’s Amazon Trail, Lee Lynch explains that the right-wing insurrection we’re dealing with now in the United States is nothing new.

Oh, hell, what can I say at a time like this? Did we think they’d simply go away?

When angry white criminals occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon back on January 2, 2016 and the seven miscreants were charged with federal conspiracy and weapons violations only to go scot free;

When, in the 1980s and 1990s, angry white Christians organized to legalize discrimination against their scapegoats-of-the-day, gays, in order to build a vast political machine;

When a woman was killed by a white supremacist at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia;

When people of color are daily, hourly, victims of “officers of the law”;

With Southern Poverty Law Conference workers putting their lives in jeopardy to identify and expose hate groups;

With the American Civil Liberties Union and its sister social justice organizations unendingly trying to bring equality to a country that can’t or won’t provide it for its citizens;

When sixty-four million voters choose a money-grubbing, power-grabbing, morally empty, strangely uneducated cheater to rule them, and make an American idol of him;

When you’re Jewish, or your skin isn’t white, or you’re female, or your affectional preference scares people enough to make you a threat and a target;

When Americans bomb their neighbors;

When it’s dangerous to represent the citizens who elected you — we need to pay attention. We need to acknowledge that anti-democratic power is quietly accruing and will lash out; will harm rather than protect this too-trusting nation.

These rightist protestors are angry that gays can marry; they’re angry about a woman, especially a woman of color, becoming our vice president. They’re angry because they can’t get ahead, can’t pay their medical bills, can’t put anything away for retirement. This anger is passed from generation to generation, and as we become a more just and equal nation some of these Americans blame the newly enfranchised for taking away their jobs, or their right to be better than whoever is lowest on their totem poles. They’re striking back, but at the wrong people.

Right wing demonstrators apparently think wealthy Republicans represent them. Socially, they may. But it’s not affirmative action taking bread off their tables, it’s not gay marriage siphoning off the middle class. It’s not “satanic” Democrats lowering taxes on big business or cutting food stamps, gutting Medicaid, and threatening to weaken Medicare and Social Security. Democrats are not the ones passing laws to weaken unions nor are they making it easier to give U.S. jobs to countries guilty of child labor, sweatshops, and pitiful wages.

Republicans are for big business. There’s a mutually beneficial relationship there: corporations fund their political campaigns and elected officials do corporations’ bidding. Like voting to consider corporations equal to humans. The campaign donations are used, in part, to target voters who are told that Democrats, progressives, socialists, liberals — whatever trigger word works — are harming Americans. The demonization is passed through certain churches, through organizations like the N.R.A., through some charter schools, through media designed for the purpose of telling lies.

They spread lies that smeared intelligent and capable Hillary Clinton so thoroughly that an insecure, bankruptcy-prone idiot who knows nothing about government, foreign affairs, economics — about anything necessary to the office of President of the United States — was elected. Now, because he pandered to the anger and frustration of a populace frightened of change, opposed to inclusiveness, looking for a miracle, they seem to believe an economic evangelist con man will lead the way to riches untold.

We should have expected it and done more to stop it. This is a capitalist nation. Nothing wrong with that. Except, when Republicans eased the restrictions on corporations, they unleashed a money-grubbing free-for-all.

Unfettered capitalism is greed, pure and simple. Greed for profit and greed for power. And that’s what we have today, universal greed. Instead of taking care of its citizens, our government feeds that greed, starving those it was supposed to serve and protect, telling them all the while who to blame. While destroying the economy for the average American, these shameless elected corporate automatons duped laid-off factory workers, ex-service people, unstable wanna-be rebel leaders. Duped them not into a revolution, but into murderous, cock-a-hoop self-sabotage.

The Republicans aren’t sitting in jails, the corporations aren’t sharing their riches. These dissenters, tools of a corporate, big brother world, aren’t going away. We, the people, cannot look away any more.  

Copyright Lee Lynch 2021. Top Photo via The Hill/Twitter

Everything You Are Feeling Right Now is Valid

Landon Shroder | January 7, 2021

Topics: America, American politics, Coup, Donald Trump, Insurrection, Republican Party, Riot, rioters, United States, Washington DC

Citizens of conscience, everything you are feeling is valid. How can we even begin to process the range of emotions experienced in the past 24 hours? What happened yesterday, January 6, 2021, is a day that will forever be seared into our collective memories. On this day, a rabble of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists attempted a coup against the government of the United States. The images of this mob scaling the walls of Congress, ransacking the offices of our elected officials, and committing violence against the seat of our government was beyond excruciating to watch. Even more so, since it was all done in the name of a white supremacist president whose lies and conspiracies have corrupted so much of our body-politic. 

Because of this we are right to feel angry. 

In the aftermath of President-Elect Joe Biden’s electoral certification, we cannot forget to hold those accountable who let this happen: corrupt politicians whose only sense of principle originates with naked power, the police who were clearly complicit in letting this siege take place, and a conservative media echo chamber that continues to put their profits above the health and well-being of our democracy. And of course, the president, whose malfeasance and depravities need no explanation. 

Because of this we are right to feel betrayed. 

Photo by Quinn Bonney

There has been a lot of conversation on what to call yesterday — an insurrection, a riot, a mob — but in the end, this was an attempted coup. An attempt by a despotic authoritarian to subvert the will of the people and overthrow our democratic traditions that, however imperfect, provide the foundational bedrock of our society. This did not happen in a vacuum, though. Our president has been enabled by a subversive political class that has betrayed their oath of office and their country. Whatever their intent, they should have known better. They must be held responsible. 

Because of this we are right to feel anxious. 

Grandstanding on the idea of “my constituents have concerns about the election” is as dangerously ridiculous as it is dangerously provocative. There is only one outcome in this scenario: creating the conditions we saw unfold yesterday. Indeed, the men and women who pushed this narrative are not working class, salt of the earth Americans, fighting against the establishment. They are the epitome of the elite. Ted Cruz went to both Princeton and Harvard, Josh Hawley went to Stanford and Yale. These are seditious men who used their power and platform to wage war on our democratic traditions (however imperfect). They stand beside other giants of sedition: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Alexander Hamilton Stephens — their visages could line what remains of Richmond’s Monument Ave. 

Because of this we are right to feel distressed. 

Photo by Quinn Bonney

Do you remember this summer, when hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets in support of racial justice and police reform after the murder of George Floyd? Do you remember the sheer brutality of the police and their mandate of state-sanctioned violence? The tear gas, pepper spray, armored vehicles, riot police, and mass arrests? Now remember yesterday — when Q-Anon conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and people who were chanting “murder the media” easily overran the Capitol building. Do you remember seeing the videos of cops taking selfies with rioters and insurrectionists, abandoning their posts, and letting the gates open? Does the difference between these two things need further explaining? 

Because of this we are right to feel rage.

Photo by Quinn Bonney

None of this should surprise us. We can be shocked and filled with emotion, but surprised we cannot be. This is the inevitable outcome of a failed political system; a system that has elevated demagoguery at the expense of conversation and partisanship at the expense of pragmatism. Instead of reconciling our foundational issues, which would lead to a stronger America in terms of racial justice, income equality, healthcare, education, and climate (to name a few); we have let extremism, racialism, and fascism take root — because that was an easier pathway forward. Because it was easier to ferment hate and conspiracy than it was to look within and acknowledge our failures. Yesterday proves this. Throngs of enraged white people who felt entitled enough, who were privileged enough, to wage a coup in the name of a cultist conspiracy speaks to the depravity of what America has become. And no amount of revisionist history and political double-speak will wash away the truth of what we bore witness to yesterday. 

Because of this we are right to feel apprehensive.

The only path through this is forward, with an acknowledgment that everything we are feeling is valid: anger, betrayal, anxiety, distress, rage, and apprehension. There is no turning back from what happened yesterday. As we face our family, friends, and colleagues who believe in the Trump conspiracy and cult, we will be faced with the complex reality of who they are, what they believe, and what they have become. The sides have been drawn. There are those who will stand for democracy (however imperfect), and those who will stand for fascism, white supremacy, and the conspiracies of a political faction corrupted by an incurable sickness that has been allowed to spread uncontrollably. No one knows what the coming days will bring, other than a continued range of emotions — all of which will remain valid for some time to come. 

*All photos by Quinn Bonney. You can also find Landon Shroder on IG right here.

The Mysterious Disappearance Of Baugh Auto Body

Benjamin West | March 4, 2019

Topics: Baugh Auto Body, Dave Brat, Eric Cantor, Gadsden signs, Gerry Baugh, Mechanicsville Tea Party, Republican Party, Tea Party, Virginia Right

How did Gerry Baugh go from being a primary player in Central Virginia’s hard-right political sphere to closing his body shop without notice, leaving customers in the lurch? RVA Mag does some digging.

When I cut my engine in the parking lot of Baugh Auto Body and Truck Repair, the air was relatively still. There was some minor commotion at the large shooting range next door — car doors closing, people chatting — and a muffled rush of cars passing on Broad Street. But since Baugh Auto is tucked into a little oasis — down a hill behind a cube of a car wash and with some vegetation cover — it felt isolated, and vaguely surreal.

I rapped on the door a few times and tried to peek through the window with little success. There was no light and no movement. A sign on the door read: “Baugh Auto Body is not currently accepting any vehicles until further notice. We are sorry for an inconvenience this may cause.”

I assumed the signwriter meant “any” …or maybe they had one specific inconvenience in mind. Either way, I stood around for another minute, waiting for some sort of response. But I didn’t expect anything. Not just because of the empty parking lot, or the heavily locked-up back lot, but because of an unprecedented move in late January when Baugh Auto Body abruptly closed. No warning. No documented apology or motive. No nothing.

“My car was in pieces,” Riley Shaia said. “I couldn’t have driven it off that lot if I wanted to.”

A customer of Baugh’s for two decades, Shaia comes into the story because her minivan had been damaged in an accident — she wasn’t at fault. She said she chose Baugh over her insurance company’s preferred vendor because of her past positive experiences with the shop. Then the “red flags” started cropping up — less communication than normal, mainly, but nothing that she noticed in the moment. As the scheduled pick-up day drew near, she decided to call on a whim.

“The gentleman said: ‘Well, I have some very bad news for you,’” Shaia said.

“It didn’t really register. I was like: closed? Like, for the day? What are you talking about? And he said: ‘No, we’re closed for good. We’re just closing down.’”

Photo by Benjamin West

Shaia said she was “shell-shocked.” She was instructed to get her car off of Baugh property in the next couple of days, or her keys would be left in the car and it would be free game for anybody who stopped by.

Luckily, Shaia’s insurance company handled the situation beautifully and got her car out of there. She stressed how wonderful they were, how they incurred losses though they had no obligation (remember, she had opted to use someone other than their preferred vendor). But others weren’t so lucky. Shaia drove to Baugh’s to case the scene, making sure her insurance wouldn’t run into any more unforeseen anomalies. She was met with a locked building, the aforementioned sign, and about 40 other vehicles, some in pieces like hers. One thing was for sure: things were about to go downhill fast.

Naturally, people started finding out, and their first instinct was to show up at the shop’s front door to secure their property. Shaia said a former employee decided to unlock the place and dump out the keys to begin the exodus. NBC 12 was at the scene. Their footage shows reporter Eric Perry walking into the unlocked building and calling out with no response. The camera pans down to the front desk haphazardly littered with people’s keys. Perry spoke with one woman who had shown up to check on her car, and had no idea what was happening.

“I found a key, it starts my car and I’m going,” she said. The woman left a note on the desk, just in case.

Shaia said she heard from secondhand sources that the abrupt closure had something to do with debt, though she stressed that she cannot vouch for these claims personally. However, RVA Mag found no bankruptcy filings from Baugh Auto Body Repair, and there seemed to be no shortage of customers leading up to the big day.

To date there’s been no definitive answer to why Baugh Auto Body went under.

Who is Gerry Baugh?

Hop on the highway, weave out of the concrete jungle, and you might run into one of the many roadside signs maintained by local branches of the hard-right political movement known as the Tea Party. They’re similar to the muted yellow of the Gadsden Flag (you know, the “don’t tread on me” one). They’re typically on private property, and highlight the juicy bits in red.

Over the years some have read: “’What is your fair share of what someone else has worked for?’ – Thomas Sowell,” “By 2031 all tax revenues will go to federal entitlements and our debt interest. Nothing is left for anything else,” and “’The further a society drifts from the truth… the more it will hate those who speak it’ – George Orwell” (who, incidentally, was a fervent Socialist).

But if you were cruising down a particular local road sometime in 2012 (we’re not sure which one), there was a chance you passed one that read like this:

“A patriot who stood up for freedom. Thank you Gerry Baugh.”

Photo via Virginia Right

This isn’t a coincidence, or some minor point. For years, Baugh has poured his money and energy into Tea Party efforts. Elwood “Sandy” Sanders Jr., a local lawyer and blogger for Virginia Right, remembers the first time he heard about Baugh, which happened when he opened up a 2010 issue of the Mechanicsville Local. The article that caught his eye detailed a pre-budget meeting for Hanover County School Board. While most in the audience were explicitly praising the county school superintendent’s plan, Baugh walked in and started asking some hard questions. He had done his research, according to Sanders, and spoke out against what he saw as the grotesquely high salaries of the board members.

“And so he was above the fold; and I thought: man, that guy’s my hero,” Sanders said.

“He did his homework, he went to the meeting, and he kind of broke up that ‘let’s congratulate ourselves’ attitude that many of those kinds of meetings have.”

Sanders said he immediately wanted to meet Baugh. And he wouldn’t have to wait long — a few weeks later, he ran into him at a meeting of the Mechanicsville Tea Party. Back in those days, according to Sanders, the political energy of the group was much higher, and there were more active members. The meetings were in their salad days, and anything was possible, even meeting somebody you deeply admired. Your hero.

Sanders found out Baugh was one of the founding members of the Party. He may have even played a large role in the famous signage around town, though Sanders isn’t sure.

“I would assume that he was behind all of that in some way,” Sanders said.

Photo by Christopher Rand, via imgur

Baugh served as the Mechanicsville Tea Party president for at least two years, and during his term in 2012, Virginia Right, the publication Sanders writes for, named Baugh Person of the Year. As they got to know each other, Baugh and Sanders went out for lunch on many occasions.

“He wanted to help me if I wanted to run for delegate,” Sanders said.

Sanders never did run for office; he didn’t feel he was “politically wired” in that way. But around the time of their conversations, Baugh was having similar conversations with somebody else — somebody who, just a few years later, would be dominating headlines with one of the most unexpected political victories in Virginia history: Dave Brat.

It’s half-a-decade’s old news by now. But in case you aren’t aware, Brat beat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his party’s 2014 primary and went on to win the general election. This second part wasn’t a surprise because, until the 7th Congressional District voted in Abigail Spanberger this past November, the district consistently voted conservative (Spanberger is the first Democrat to hold the office since 1970). In 2014, it was widely seen as the Republican primary that would determine the election’s ultimate winner. And the Republican primary was surprising.

According to an article by International Business Times, Brat’s victory over Cantor marked the first House Majority Leader to be ousted by their own party’s primary since the title was introduced in 1899.

Photo by Christopher Rand, via imgur

According to multiple sources, Baugh played a potentially irreplaceable role in convincing Brat, an out-of-the-spotlight college professor, to challenger Cantor, who’d been the incumbent for well over a decade. It’s political science 101: this does not happen.

In his Virginia Right article titled “GIVE SOME CREDIT where IT IS DUE: GERRY BAUGH,” Sanders writes that Baugh “worked hard to try to talk Dr. Brat into running.” A Chesterfield Monthly article reprinted in a book titled Slingshot: The Defeat of Eric Cantor states that four years before Brat ran for office, Baugh brought him to speak with Mechanicsville Tea Party members and “continued to lobby Brat to challenge Cantor.”

What’s more, Roll Call tells us that not even Gerry Baugh himself but his company, Baugh Auto Body, was Brat’s largest campaign contributor during the primary race against Cantor, donating a total of $5400. Fun fact: Baugh actually contributed more in the primary than Koch Industries donated in the general election. Blogger Michael Maynard even cracks a joke about it: “Baugh’s Auto Body must be one of the Koch Brothers’ secret campaign contribution groups.”

So Where Is Gerry Baugh Now?

It’s clear that Gerry Baugh played a definitive role in Central Virginia politics. While he isn’t always in the spotlight, he works hard to fight for what he believes in.

But this doesn’t change the reason that he’s in the spotlight now. While his Auto Body shop may have helped Dave Brat down the road to Congress, it left a lot of its customers in the lurch.

Photo by Benjamin West

Besides some minimal reporting and a handful of angry social media posts, the mysterious disappearance of Baugh Auto Body is already fading into history. Their website was removed almost simultaneously with the closure (though you can still view it on the Wayback Machine), and listing sites are beginning to remove Baugh from their accessible records.

But for an instrumental figure in one of the most surprising and unusual political events in Virginia — heck, in United States — history to disappear like this certainly seems worth noting.

We might never know what prompted such a puzzling event. RVA Mag has received no response to requests for comment from owner Gerry Baugh, but because most of his online contact information is linked to his former company, we can’t be sure that he is even receiving these requests.

If we don’t know anything else, we know this: closing your business without warning or remorse leaves a lot of people very angry.  

“They obviously knew they had some problems when they took our cars,” Shaia said. “This didn’t happen overnight, it wasn’t like something catastrophic happened to their business — I’m pretty sure this is a long term thing.”

Shaia said that although Baugh Auto kept taking her insurance money, and went as far as to take her car apart, they “didn’t do a thing to fix it.”

“It’s just very dishonest and disturbing that someone would do that.”

Top Photo via Google Street View

Dissension in the Ranks: Virginia GOP Chairman Resigns, Fueling Speculation about Corey Stewart

Mike McCabe | July 3, 2018

Topics: Corey Stewart, Democrat, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, GOP, Midterms, Republican, Republican Party, Senator

John Whitbeck, the chairman of the Virginia GOP, resigned early Saturday afternoon, presumably because he didn’t want the proverbial shit storm of supporting Republican Senatorial Candidate Corey Stewart on his resume. More so, given the bigotry and charlatanism in the Republican Party has not yet returned to Reagan-era levels.

In a subliminal statement posted to the Republican Party of Virginia’s Facebook page, Whitbeck said, “I started this job with a message of party unity being the key to our success. I will end the job the same way. No matter what happens cycle after cycle, Republicans must stand together.”

Naturally, Republicans are emphatically not standing together on this one.

Bill Bolling, former Virginia lieutenant governor under Governors’ Tim Kaine and Bob McDonnell–and a Republican candidate for governor in 2013 himself–tweeted after Stewart won the primary that he was “extremely disappointed that a candidate like Corey Stewart could win the Republican nomination for US Senate.” He went on to say, “This is clearly not the Republican Party I once knew, loved and proudly served. Every time I think things can’t get worse they do, and there is no end in sight.”

John Whitbeck

Stewart will now take on incumbent Senator Tim Kaine in the November midterm elections. His refusal to renounce ties with the white supremacist organizer of Unite the Right, Jason Kessler, along with his “I was Trump before Trump was Trump” comments have earned him derision from both parties. This has led many long-time conservatives, and many other Republicans on the ticket this fall, to not touch Stewart with a ten-foot pole. He has even been eschewed by the ultra-conservative Koch Brothers and their political funding. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, for one, chose not to endorse Stewart after his primary win. Their chairman, Cory Gardner, said they have “no plans” to spend any money on Stewart’s campaign. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) were both eager to distance themselves from Stewart; Sen. Cornyn effectively gave the “Who’s that?” response when asked about Stewart, and Sen. Paul said he was “disappointed” in the result of the primary. 

And then there are the incumbent representatives on the Republican ticket in Virginia this fall, all of whom will assuredly stay silent on Stewart until they are forced to make a public comment.  Susan Swecker, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said that Stewart will bring out the true colors of his fellow Virginia Republicans. “There is no place to hide — you are either running with Corey Stewart and you condone his vile politics, or you don’t,” she said in a statement.

While party divide is the most likely reason for Whitbeck’s resignation, a dismal track record in elections since taking over as chairman in 2015 could also be a factor. Ralph Northam won the gubernatorial election last year by nine points, which was the largest winning margin by a Virginia Democrat since 1985. Democrats also flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates, which was the biggest electoral shift towards the Democrats since 1899.

The midterm elections this fall will be in many ways a litmus test for the Republican Party in the age of Trump. Virginians will get an opportunity to show the rest of the country just how much they approve of their president with the Kool-Aid drinking Trump acolyte on the ballot this fall.

White Nationalist Who Attended Unite the Right Elected as Republican Official

Madelyne Ashworth | June 7, 2018

Topics: Charlottesville, Identity Evropa, Republican Party, richard spencer, Unite the Right, white nationalists

White nationalist James Allsup, who attended the tiki torch march and the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last August, has been elected as an officer in the Republican Party of Washington state.

Over the weekend, Allsup posted a letter confirming his elected position on Facebook, stating he would be a Republican Party Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) for precinct 129 in Whitman County. The position had “no challenges,” according to the letter.

Allsup has aligned himself in the past with the white nationalist and neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa, identified as such by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In addition to attending the Unite the Right rally, he has been seen speaking at other white nationalist events over the past year, including one in Washington, D.C. last year that also featured white nationalist Richard Spencer. Allsup is an avid Youtube and Facebook user, which he uses as a platform for anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant views.

On his Facebook page, Allsup posts statuses such as, “It’s okay to be white,” “My culture is not a costume,” and promotes the unfounded and ridiculous myth that pitbulls are vicious killers.

In Washington state, a precinct officer is someone who organizes a voting precinct for their political party and brings neighborhood and voter concerns to their local party organizers, and is described as a grassroots position. While James Allsup will not have any real deciding power as a precinct officer, it does mean he will control what his party organizers hear as concerns from his neighborhood and local voters. The Whitman County GOP calls PCOs the “backbone” of the GOP.

Allsup writes encouraging words to his followers on Facebook such as, “You may be scared of ‘identity politics,’ or labels like ‘nationalist’ and ‘identitarian.’ But unlike the so-called conservatives, who merely pretend to care about your interests to get your vote, American nationalists and identitarians are ones willing to risk everything–social status, financial status, and sometimes even our lives–to protect our nation.”

Allsup studied political science at Washington State University and graduated in 2017. According to his Facebook, he was the former chairman of the Washington College Republican Federation and a former senior advisor for Students for Trump.

Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst for the SPLC told the Huffington Post that, “Anytime that someone who holds extreme political positions has any foothold in mainstream politics, it’s a problem.” Hankes also added that white nationalists have used the strategy of seeking power in uncontested elections before, adding to the eight white nationalists running for office this year, according to SPLC.

And honestly, who could hate this face?!

Nala the Pitbull

Virginia Republican Forum Equates Gun Debate Led by Parkland Student Survivors to the Holocaust  

Landon Shroder | April 1, 2018

Topics: Gun Control Debate, Holocaust, Jews, Parkland Students, Republican Party, virginia, Virginia Beach

On Passover weekend, one of the most observed holy days for Jewish people celebrating the biblical end of slavery in Egypt, a Virginia Beach (VB) Republican forum made a Facebook post equating the gun control debate led by survivors of the Parkland school shooting to the holocaust – a genocide that claimed an estimated 6 million Jewish lives during WW2.

The post made on Saturday was accompanied by a picture from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum showing thousands of shoes from the victims of the gas chambers and read, “To all the kids that walked out of school to protest guns. These are the shoes of Jews that gave up there [sic] firearms to Hitler. They where [sic] led into gas chambers, murdered and buried in mass graves.” The post finished with, “Pick up a history book and study the US Constitution, and you’ll realize what happens when you give up freedoms and why we have them. Share if you agree.”

As of Sunday the post had been shared over 800 times by pro-gun advocates and has drawn widespread condemnation from the Jewish community and their allies in the Hampton Roads area, reflected in the comments section of the post.

One commentator, Amanda Mileur, summed up the post by saying, “This is revolting. To compare people who want gun control so that kids WON’T be murdered in schools to Nazis is bad enough.” She went on to comment, “But to blame Holocaust victims for their own deaths? To say they died because they allowed the government to take their guns? That is reprehensible, not to mention an inaccurate representation of gun laws under the Nazi regime. You should be ashamed. And so should every single person who supports this post.”

Another commentator, Oonagh Danaan condemned the appropriation of the Jewish experience during the holocaust to perpetuate “your scare tactics” and closed by observing that the Nazis gained power because of similar “propagandist tripes [sic]”. 

Equating stricter gun control laws to the Jewish experience during the holocaust is hardly a new strategy for Republican supporters of the Second Amendment. During the last presidential election, then-candidate Ben Carson also made a similar claim. In his book A More Perfect Union, he opined, “Through a combination of removing guns and disseminating deceitful propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.” And according to Politico, he also reiterated this point on the campaign trail multiple times. Donald Young, a Republican Congressman from Alaska, made this point in February when he said, “How many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?” Young is also a member of the NRA board.

None of these claims actually hold up to basic historical scrutiny. They remain more about the ideological need for pro-gun advocates to justify their intractable positions as opposed to an accurate assessment of the conditions that led to the holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Despite the misleading claims, the majority of Jews who died in the holocaust were not German citizens, but citizens of the countries the Nazis invaded and occupied. The most basic historical understanding of WW2 would point to the fact that if the armies of those countries could not protect their own citizenry their Jewish minority stood little chance of escaping Nazi terrors – armed or not. None of which takes into account that Jewish partisans, including those who rebelled in the Warsaw Ghetto, fought fiercely against Nazi aggression throughout the war years (using guns) and this still did not end the industrial genocide of European Jewry.

Poster Commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

RVA Mag reached out to the Republican Party in VB about this post and received this statement from Tina Mapes, the chairwoman of the party, “The VB Republicans page is not an official page of the committee and does not reflect the views of the official party in Virginia Beach. I frequently post reminders of that and did so as recently as last week. I do not condone such inflammatory posts nor do we make endorsements of candidates prior to primaries/official nominating proceedings.”

After this inquiry, they informed RV Mag that they updated their Facebook page to reflect this statement.

While the Virginia Beach Republicans FB page is not the official page of the Republican Party in VB, the messaging tactic of some elements of the conservative base have fully adopted this messaging narrative. So much so that the Anti-Defamation League as far back as in 2013 had this to say about the comparison in a press release, “Concerned over the proliferation of remarks comparing gun control legislation in the United States to policies upheld by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on critics of gun control legislation to stop using references to Hitler and the Nazis, saying they are ‘historically inaccurate and offensive,’ especially to Holocaust survivors and their families.” In the press release, they cited multiple examples of conservative Republicans using this rationale including writers from the Drudge Report, Fox News, and Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Joash Schulman, a Jewish lawyer and businessman in VB who reached out to RVA Mag echoed the ADL’s concerns. Speaking about the Virginia Beach Republican’s post-Schulman said, “Not only is the post incredibly offensive and inaccurate, it’s just one example of how dangerous and deceptive the messaging tactics have become from the fringes of the Republican Party.” He finished by expressing indignation that a political party would use an image depicting the holocaust to “advance a completely irrelevant political agenda” and that it was troubling that the Republican Party is willing to give political top cover to those who would spread “falsehoods and half-truths”.

*As of Sunday evening the FB page from Virginia Beach Republicans has been taken down. 

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