Well, well, well. More Nazis. On Saturday, a different Nazi group showed up in Nashville. Not the bumblebee-looking guys at the Matt Walsh rally so many of our politicians went to, and not the guys with the gas station fight club whose friend ran for mayor of Franklin, and not the Nazi werewolf gym guys, and not the guys who wrote the public thank-you note to Gov. Bill Lee, but guys dressed in red and black carrying black flags that featured a white swastika. (Did they look like used tampons? I mean, yeah, a little. My apologies to used tampons, which at least have provided a necessary service to the community, for associating them with these Nazis, but I have to call it like I see it.) These guys took to the streets of downtown Nashville over the weekend.
WKRN is reporting about various politicians speaking out against the Nazis. They put "Nazis" in quotes, like we can’t be sure from the giant swastika flags if they are real Nazis or not, which is mildly frustrating when you consider that Tennessee racists have had extremely close ties to the Nazi movement from the moment Germany shit them onto the world. J.B. Stoner down in Chattanooga was pen pals with a Nazi propagandist before World War II. George Lincoln Rockwell spent some time here helping to organize the National States Rights Party before he got the American Nazi Party up and running. Nazis helped Gladys Girgenti plot to bomb The Temple in Belle Meade. These guys are racists in Tennessee flying a Nazi flag. I don’t think we need to hedge our bets on whether they’re “actual” Nazis, WKRN. We can just believe them.
State House Majority Leader William Lamberth posted on Twitter/X about the rally:Â
Go away Nazi thugs. This is Tennessee and you are NOT welcome here. Btw, why not show your faces so we can all see who you are? I would be willing to bet that none of you are from anywhere near here.
Little more than a year ago, William Lamberth was standing in front of a crowd of Proud Boys at a rally on War Memorial Plaza bragging about achieving their shared goals of persecuting trans people and denying them health care. And now he’s insisting on social media that Nazis aren’t welcome here? Too little too late, dude. You welcomed them. You and Marsha Blackburn and everyone else who spoke at the rally featuring Proud Boys sent the clear message that they are welcome here — and worse, that our politicians share their goals and aren’t ashamed to be seen with them. If they’re really not welcome here anymore, go tell them to their faces (or their masks, I guess), just like you instigated this problem by speaking directly to them about your pride in being able to help them achieve their goals. Otherwise, your statement means nothing. It’s just the words of a coward covering his own ass now that the evil of his acquaintances is becoming too hard to deny.
Still, it’s better than the feckless wonder that is our governor. I now sincerely believe that a balloon half-filled with helium floating around the governor’s office could be a better leader than Bill Lee. Hell, someone go down to Shiloh, dig up Ray Blanton, and hand him back his pardoning pen. It wouldn’t be worse than this.
We have, yet again, literal Nazis in the streets of Nashville. Let me say it louder: AGAIN. And Bill Lee is posting about how he supports Israel: “Nazism and antisemitism should never be tolerated in any form. As Jewish people around the world continue to face persecution, Tennessee remains unwavering in our support for the nation of Israel and her people.”Â
Examining the history of white supremacy in Nashville, modern far-right hate groups, and Williamson County as a seat of right-wing politics
Dude. What? First off, the Nazis are here, in Nashville, in the state you govern, which is home to many, many Jewish Tennesseans. You know Jewish people don’t de facto belong to Israel, right? Offering your support to Israel and its citizens does nothing for the Jewish people here, when the Nazis are here. Also, the Nazis here aren’t just antisemites. They hate trans people and Muslims and liberals and gay people and most women. When the Nazis wrote you their thank you note, it was because of the state's work persecuting LGBTQ people. Remember?Â
And these assholes weren’t marching through our streets to try to intimidate Israel. A WKRN employee caught them chanting “Deportation, save the nation.” Gov. Lee, I’m asking you this sincerely: How is that sentiment different from what you said last week in Texas?
I wish with my whole heart that I could believe you are just too clueless to see how you and the Nazis agree. I wish I could believe that you were startled awake from your afternoon nap by someone yelling, “The Nazis are here!” and you just blurted out your support of Israel as a knee-jerk reaction that is weird, but otherwise inconsequential. But I can’t.
You have to act as if the Nazis are in our streets because of Israel, because if you respond to what they’re actually saying, you can’t explain how your opinions differ. And I believe you’d rather gloss over how much you and the Nazis have in common rather than reflecting on it and doing the hard but necessary work of changing.
