Ben Wilson

I'm perfect.

Uh, you guys have all made the mistakes.

We're all putting our mistakes behind ourselves.

It's just such a brilliant moment of getting people who were the bitterest of enemies.

I mean, really bitter enemies who had told each other that they would never reconcile to actually get them to reconcile and get them unified behind him.

And, um,

It's a smart way to do it, to make him the thing that unifies everyone.

He had said earlier in a previous speech, speaking of the National Socialist Movement, quote, I could join only on the condition that the political struggle be placed exclusively in my hands.

But that was not impudent or immodest of me.

I am rather of the opinion that when a man knows that he alone can do a thing, he must not be modest.

And he's not modest in this moment.

This is a man who has completely internalized the concept of his own indispensability to the movement.

So he doesn't view it as arrogance to say, hey, everyone has to line up behind me.

It's just a conviction that this is the only way that people can move forward in unity.

Okay, so now he's got this movement unified behind him.

It's got political headwinds.

It's not gonna be able to grow very quickly, but it does have that ideological consistency, that passion behind it.

People are excited about it and it's got unity and that counts for a lot.

He makes some other strategic moves during this period.

He demotes the stormtroopers, the SA, from a paramilitary force to essentially an athletic and ceremonial wing of the party.