The people in the 30s WERE Nazi sympathizers.
Please tell me that your brain is able to process that very clear and obvious difference.
Of course they are different. Comparison/analogy is always between two dissimilar things. The more important bit is if they're conceptually related or not. In this case, there's at least a loose conceptual relation.
If the comparison is explained, as Maddow did in this case, then the explanation determined the validity, not the presence of the word "Nazi".
And no, they were not all simply Nazi sympathizers. Their group was
infiltrated by the Nazis, not
orchestrated by it.
Further, President Trump seems to be a Russia sympathizer.
But let's look more at AFC's four basic tenets:
"
The United States must build an impregnable defense for America.
No foreign power, nor group of powers, can successfully attack a prepared America.
American democracy can be preserved only by keeping out of the European war.
"Aid short of war" weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad."
"It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.
No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution the Jewish race suffered in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them.
Instead of agitating for war the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation. A few farsighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not.
Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government.[14]"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee
Allow me to rephrase (from bolded above):
- We must build defense
- We can be safe from foreigners
- We claim to care about minorities, but then we make up an excuse to avoid following through (claiming that helping them would somehow hurt them more)
- And if you think differently, it's because bad people own the press and they're manipulating you!
Sounds pretty ****ing familiar to me.