Ultra: Rachel Maddow's New Podcast Reveals The Hidden History Behind The Far-Right Attempt To Overthrow The US Government . . . In The 1940s.
The 1940s: When Congressmen were taking money directly from Hitler's government to stoke ideas of armed insurrection among racist and anti-Semitic hate groups in America.
As I’m about to start reading David Corn’s new book, American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has released the first two episodes of an eight-episode podcast entitled Ultra:
Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. . . . [This is] the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks.
The book and podcast seem like appropriate companions.
Back in May, Maddow told Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo that Ultra was an
underappreciated story . . . that has resonance for all these things we’re dealing with today—the threat of authoritarianism and the question of whether or not criminal law is the appropriate venue, and has the right constitutional powers, to handle those kinds of threats. It’s about journalism and journalistic ethics, and the ability of powerful people to manipulate American systems. . . .
[T]he feel-good history [about World War II] is that all Americans were united against Hitler, and it was always inevitable that we were gonna get in the war and kick their butt . . . [However] the more nuanced truth of it . . . is that a lot of Americans not only didn’t want us in the war, they thought if we were gonna be in the war, we should be on the other side.
Fellow MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell told Maddow that he has done a bunch of “amateur” historical research into the 1940s and he admits — with surprise and awe and genuine excitement — he had NO IDEA about any of this.
I’m assuming O’Donnell’s excitement is at the idea of learning new things about a time in which he has a deep interest. I assume that because that’s how I would (and do) feel. I absolutely love hidden history, buried or forgotten events that have relevance to the present time — or don’t have any relevance to the current era — things that upend conventional wisdom. To be stunned by the existence of something you’ve never heard a word about — how could I not know this, why was I not taught this (a question that often has its own fascinating history), why is this not known by everybody? — and wanting to dive right in.