Watching MTG

8:15 a.m. CST December 8, 2026: I’m time-stamping this post for a specific reason: I watched the entire Marjory Taylor Greene interview on 60 Minutes last night, and I want to give my impressions before I see or hear any analysis from anyone else.  You can probably access the interview on-line for a short time.  I’d recommend it.

I’ve watched 60 Minutes for its entire history.  I rarely miss it on Sunday evening.  Sixty Minutes recently has come under new management – same talent, same kinds of shows, but under new management, which has as yet unknown implications.

MTG’s interview, leading the show last night, was a big deal for everyone.  Odds that this was a spontaneous conversation is zero.  What questions were explored, what portions of film were included or not in the 15 or so minutes, are unknown.  But in today’s politics, everything is stage managed.

The first think I noticed last night was that MTG was wearing a white sweater.  That’s all that was seen initially.  Not long after, the sweater was revealed with an American flag front and center, no other text.  Dress always has its own message, I thought.,

During the interview she was asked about her relationship breakdown with DJT.  No, she was no longer MAGA, rather she emphasized more than once “America First”.

“America First” has a history in the United States, a rather ignominious history.  It was our very close call with fascism and alliance with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, into the U.S. congress in the 1940s.  It was very strong in Minnesota.  It took root here, perhaps largely because of the large numbers of German-Americans in the U.S. (full disclosure: my mother was 100% German-American, third generation in America.  I recall no discussion whatsoever about this within the family.)

Let’s start the conversation here.  Absolutely those who pull the political strings have a role in mind for Marjory Taylor Greene.  It is how politics work.  We will find in upcoming months who the real MTG is, in the political sense.

*

Ironically, yesterday, hours before 60 Minutes, my friend Jim and I were having a short discussion about Charles Lindbergh and his active flirtation with Nazi Germany primarily in the 1930s.  Carlo had also commented that eminent Germans like Wernher von Braun had been recruited as scientists during the war.

The conversations are not relevant this discussion.  I had noted to both friends that former Governor Elmer Andersen, a great friend of mine and lifelong Republican, had an entire chapter of his book “A Man’s Reach” devoted to his friend, Charles Lindbergh.  The page in the book about America First and Lindbergh is 290-91 [Elmer Andersen on Charles Lindbergh 2000]; the chapter 286-301.

To this, Jim responded:

Well, I’m not surprised that Elmer Andersen would support a fellow Republican as
well known as Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh was the face of the America First
Committee in 1940; indeed, he was the keynote speaker at many America First
Committee events. But he was also a Republican strongly in opposition to
Roosevelt.
Lindbergh did go to Nazi Germany perhaps as a Defense (now War?) Department
agent. He was very impressed by what the Nazis had accomplished in war materials
and military training. He was convinced that Roosevelt would not be up to the task
of restraining Hitler, so he called for a surrender when Hitler declared war on
America.
As I wrote before, Lindbergh was also a fervent believer in eugenics. a theory of
human improvement that elevated the white race. Whites should breed more
often; other groups less so. Those with various abnormalities should be neutered.
Hitler was also a eugenics fan. It is believed that Hitler justified his prison camps
and sterilization measured forced on Jews, Eastern Europeans, and minorities
like gypsies strictly on eugenics terms. Theory resulting in barbarity.


Jim later added an amendment:

Complicated yes, but also easily convinced by simple, though wrong, answers.
Hitler was one of those wrongs. Yet, America had several pro-Germany (meaning
pro-Hitler) groups in the 1930’s. Most active in Minnesota were the silver shirts,
an organization modeled after the German brown shirts that supported Hitler’s
rise. Of course, all such American groups dissipated once America entered WWII.
The leader of one such group was sent to Germany to live in poverty after the war.

And the following:
I should have mentioned when writing about Charles Lindbergh that
having refused to fight the Germans, he did fight against the Japanese.
He flew several missions in Asia in WWII. It has been suggested that via
his eugenics thinking, the Japanese were an inferior race. Therefore they
possibly would be subject to elimination through a war started by them.

POSTNOTE: Here is a post I did about Fascism as viewed by the Army in the 1940s.
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