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Republican group mindlessly compares Obama to Hitler–then urges its supporters to start a “blitzkreig” of their own |
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People who turn Adolph Hitler into a political punchline are doing a disservice to political debate and diminishing the monstrous reality of what Hitler and the Nazis carried out: world war, murder of civillians, torture, and genocide, for starters. Comparing anyone’s fiscal policies to the Nazi reign of terror is truly foolish, but that hasn’t stopped the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County (Maryland). They solemnly insist that “Obama and Hitler have a great deal in common…” Their “proof”? Obama’s policies are “destroying…America”–just like Hitler’s blitzkrieg destroyed European cities. (thanks to Think Progress for reporting on this).
“Blitzkreig” is German for “lightning war”. When you use this term in connection with Adolph Hitler, you’re talking about a tactic that was used to conquer countries and slaughter civillians–a sort of “trial run” was used to destroy the Spanish town of Guernica. Hundreds of civilians were killed. One military expert has described what happened in Guernica this way: “For the German air force, Guernica was a trial run on how one can spread horror and distress through attacks on cities and towns…Of course the bombing of Guernica was a blatant violation of human rights and had a terrorist character. It was accepted that civillians would be harmed.”
With Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939, the concept of “blitzkreig” was cemented as a method of warfare that included indiscriminate bombing of civillian targets. The tactic was also used in the Netherlands, and in the Battle of Britain. Thousands of civillians were killed.
There are times when comparisons work and there are times when they don’t. Comparing Obama’s economic and health care policies to a method of warfare that killed thousands of civillians is a good example of a comparison that doesn’t work, to put it mildly and politely.
One of the oddest things about the comparison made by the Republican group in Maryland was the conclusion they reached: they urged supporters to “fight back” by “Start[ing] a blitzkreig of our own!” Huh? Their message makes no sense–are they saying “blitzkreig” is an acceptable tactic, just not when Obama does it? Why would someone who thinks Obama is using the same despicable blitzkreig tactic Hitler himself employed think the correct response is to start their own “blitzkreig”? The group did make clear that the “blitzkreig” they envision involves contacting members of Congress, but this is not a term one uses lightly, especially after you’ve just gotten through arguing that Obama is like Hitler because he uses the blitzkreig method to overwhelm his “enemies” (Another very poor word choice by the Republican group, by the way. Supporters of Obama and critics of Obama are not “enemies”, and they’re certainly not “enemies” in the sense that Hitler had enemies).
Five years ago, then RNC chair Ed Gillespie said it was “despicable” to compare Bush with Hitler. He’s right–and I hope he, as well as Sean Hannity and John Gibson of Fox News (who also fumed about comparisons between Bush and Hitler) will call out Republicans and rightwingers (the Maryland group is far from the only example) who mindlessly compare Obama with Hitler.
Been telling you Chris– You folks are fascists. You are following the same business model that the Nazi%u2019s did. More and more people starting to wake up and understand it. The Liberal similarities with Nazi%u2019s are truly frightening. Please wake up before its to late.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement
that he had never failed a single student before but had
once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would
be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this
class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone
would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one
would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone
got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the
students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied
little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard
decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and
name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one
would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told
them that socialism would also ultimately fail because
when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great
but when government takes all the reward away, no
one will try or want to succeed
Could not be any simpler than that.