My Take: Never forget the nationalistic past of the Midwest, America
On Oct. 22, 2018, Donald Trump announced that he was a nationalist. Most people assumed this meant he loved his country. That is not the meaning of nationalism.
Others remembered that both Hitler and Mussolini came to power on a nationalist platform. But few remember that 100 years ago, America's most powerful political party was nationalistic. That party was the Ku Klux Klan.
Around 1915, the Klan realized that if they shifted from a race organization to a nationalistic organization, they could expand into the north. In America, the central belief of nationalism is “all Americans are equal, but some people are more American than others.” For the clan, this meant that only white male Protestants were true Americans.
nullThe clan advertised itself as a Christian fraternal organization that promoted morality. A Klan essay stated “America must close the doors to the disease minds and bodies and souls of people of foreign lands. Immigrant invaders are composed of Italian anarchists, Irish Catholic malcontents, Russian Jews and other undesirable groups.
The Midwest was particularly susceptible."
The state of Michigan was rated the eighth-largest clan organization in the country with 93 chapters. Estimates of membership ranged from 80,000 to 260,000. However, because of its secrecy exact information about the Michigan Klan is not available. Indiana, which had the largest and most powerful branch of the northern Klan, yields more information concerning how the Klan functioned.
By 1925, 30 percent of all native white males in Indiana were members of the Ku Klux Klan. This was due in large measure to the charismatic leadership of a narcissistic Texas shoe salesman, D.C. Stephenson, who left two wives to come to Indiana.
Stephenson quickly saw the great potential in the Ku Klux Klan. He enlisted Protestant ministers to sell memberships to their parishioners. Ministers who resisted lost their jobs.
Stephenson's next step was a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. He used lies and misinformation to smear anyone who opposed him and replaced them with KKK puppets. Harassment and threats of violence were also used.
The Klan shunned established leaders and took over both state and local governments. By 1924, Republicans were powerless to stop the Klan from controlling both houses of the state legislature and the governor. DC Stephenson gleefully announced, “I am the law in Indiana.”
The Ku Klux Klan was finally unmasked when their most powerful leader, Stephenson, was arrested and convicted of kidnapping, torturing, raping and killing a young woman. At this point, the Klan’s atrocities came to light and good people quickly dropped their clan memberships.
The parallels between Trump and Stephenson are obvious. Both are con artists who used lies and misinformation concerning minorities and their opponents to gain power. They both hijacked the Republican Party and the Christian right. Furthermore, they both encouraged hatred and violence to suppress democracy. This was particularly evident in Donald Trump's attempt to discredit and overturn the valid election results of 2020.
These efforts discredit and cast doubt on our democratic electoral process and therefore our democracy itself. Trump and his collaborator’s attempts to pressure local election officials, their efforts to incite violence against our Congress and to disrupt the democratic process are illegal and a travesty.
At present, they are trying to install their puppets in many branches of our government. Most of these candidates’ only qualification is that they have sworn undying loyalty to Donald Trump. The Jan. 6 commission and the Country First Movement have stepped up to stop the destruction of our democracy. It is essential that they succeed!
“Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” — George Santayana
— Dr. Michael Ryan is a clinical psychologist in Grand Rapids.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: My Take: Never forget the nationalistic past of the Midwest, America
