Elie Mystal, editor of legal website Above the Law, on Sunday compared Republicans to Nazi Germany after the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
In an MSNBC segment flagged by Mediaite, Mystal said Republicans sought a "thousand-year reich" by maintaining control of the government, a reference to the Nazi Third Reich that ruled Germany in the 1930s through World War II. Arguing that "these people" who support Trump and Kavanaugh are seeking to oppress women and minorities, Mystal said Democrats have to "join the battle" by voting out Republicans.
"Democratic turnout doesn't need to be high for a midterm. It needs to be high for a presidential election. That's what we're about to see," Mystal said. "We're going to see if this reign—that [Republicans] now have control over all three branches of government—we're going to see if this reign lasts for 30 days or two years, or a thousand-year Reich."
"Reich," German for "realm," is a word used by Nazis for propaganda purposes as they referred to Hitler’s regime as the beginning of the Tausendjähriges Reich, a "thousand-year Reich." Mystal is one of many left-wing critics of Trump who have accused him and other Republicans of practicing some kind of neo-Nazi politics.
Kavanaugh was confirmed Saturday by the Senate to serve on the Supreme Court, after a long and bitter confirmation fight in which he was accused of a litany of sexual misdeeds that ultimately went uncorroborated. On the left, Kavanaugh has been attacked for being a vote against precedent on abortion and other hot-button issues, although he has said he respects precedent and will not judge cases ahead of time.
Mystal offered a questionable interpretation of the common parable of "making a deal with the devil" to say Republicans are getting what they want under Trump.
"The thing about making a deal with the devil is that the devil backs up his bargain. The devil does not welch," Mystal said. He continued:
Trump has delivered for these people on the things that they care about most. he has delivered racism for these people. He has delivered misogyny for these people, and now he's delivered the Supreme Court for these people, which is something they've been trying to get for a generation. So then the question now becomes not so much will this stick for Republicans, I think it will stick for Republicans. This is what they want. The question is: What are Democrats going to do?
Mystal said the moral question at the heart of this political conflict is simple.
"That is what these people have set themselves up for," he said. "It's simply a question of whether or not the Democrats are going to join the battle and meet them at the polls."