Comparing the President to Hitler — Pot, meet Kettle
Perhaps up until this point I might have said nothing would surprise me. I mean, hell, we live in a crazy world where wild animals are at war with us, earthquakes are moving the Earth’s axis and God can speak to us through the Billboard top 100 chart. But then, on Sunday night what is commonly called Obamacare passed the US House of Representatives.
Currently I’m in Germany. I’m here on business and will be leaving soon. So I found it an apropos setting to write this missive. Being in Germany, you might think I am relatively removed from the fervor (good or bad) over the “historic” moment. Not so. CNN has an international channel and so does CNBC. I know more about the relative strength and weakness of the Euro now than I ever thought I might, but I digress. I’ve seen coverage up and down regarding this bill’s passage. And apparently the President has to “sell” it now. By the way, why does the President have to sell it now? He signed it. If we don’t buy what he’s selling does that make it not a law anymore? Is “selling it” somewhere in the Constitution as a duty of President when he signs a bill into law? I don’t remember that part from the School House Rock song.
Anyway, the thing that really jumped out at me was the coverage of how angry the Tea Party protestors were and the subsequent fallout. There were comparisons of Obama to Nazis and even Hitler himself. It isn’t these comparisons and insults that got my attention. Perhaps it should’ve been, but I’ve become a bit desensitized over the years. Nope… it was the righteous indignation of (in this case) the Democrats who were upset at the comparisons and insults. These were the same groups of people who were in each other’s shoes just a short time ago. My… how short our memories are.
I specifically remember the comparisons of Bush to Hitler. The pictures are all over the Internet. Google image search “Bush + Hitler”. I remember the consternation and gnashing of teeth at how the level of discourse in this country had sunk so low. And I agreed. I’m no historian, but I saw Schindler’s List. Hitler and Nazis were bad. Not just bad. Evil. Hitler might be the closest approximation we have in modern times to evil itself. And any comparison to him must surely be one of the most heinous of insults. But then why is it so commonplace? And if it is so commonplace, why are we still offended by it?
Alan Nothnagle wrote a great piece in 2009 about this very subject on Salon.com called 10 Reasons why Obama is not Hitler…and neither is anybody else. I encourage everybody to read it. It outlines why Hitler was… well …Hitler. And how nobody else can or should be compared to him. Plus, Nothnagle’s a much better writer than I.
But then again, as a libertarian (purposely spelled with a small “L”), I fully endorse the freedom of speech and the ability to use perhaps ridiculous and extreme comparisons to vilify an opponent or opposing viewpoint. Perhaps using the Hitler comparison is equivalent to using words like “fuck” for emphasis. Hyperbole. It’s certainly not an intellectual argument, but it is an emotional one. And emotional arguments are oftentimes more compelling to people than intellectual arguments. So conceivably the comparison of Bush to Hitler was the other side’s way of saying HOW upset they were. And yet I still agree that using Hitler as a way of describing how angry you are is — at the very least — in bad taste. But what really grinds my gears is that these are the same people who are feigning outrage at the comparison to their guy.
Hypocrisy apparently is a two-way street. The indignation expressed by both sides, at different times, seems a show. I’ve read many bloggers retort with schoolyard name-calling and shouts of “They started it with…” whatever. It’s all pretty juvenile and makes us all look like a gaggle of window-lickers. I think the Germans living here in Germany might know a thing or two about what it’s like to live under someone like Hitler. I’m pretty sure they don’t think it looks anything like America under Bush or Obama. But as for hyperbole and comparisons of American Presidents, these are my favorites.
“Why so Socialist?”
Latest posts by Jeffrey Maryak (Posts)
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- Comparing the President to Hitler — Pot, meet Kettle - March 25, 2010
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Good Hitler/Bush quote by Stephen Colbert:
“On Hitler’s approval rating: “99 percent thought he was on the right track. And today, there’s one thing everyone, Democrat or Republican, left or right, agrees about: there’s no one worse than Hitler. And with his approval ratings at a new low, President Bush is just proving, once and for all, that he’s the president least like Hitler.”
Reductio ad Hitlerum: one of the most annoying options in the lazy man’s argument tool box. It ends arguments, it takes the discourse to an unnecessary level of intensity, and just shows your friend is lazy, lame, and probably not worth having discussions with. Another lame one: if you don’t like X about America then why don’t you move to (insert country). Lame.