Can I kick it? No, you can't.

Lockstep

We are once again being assaulted by a Republican party, which is predictably goose-stepping in unison to GOP-approved talking points. "Goose-stepping" is a loaded term, meant to convey thoughts of Nazi soldiers during the Third Reich. How dare I invoke such a thing!

Indeed, I will not do that. The president and his minions, most notably Rumsfeld and Cheney (powered by the machinations of Karl Rove, no doubt), have decided that the best way to distract Americans and the citizens of the world from our failed Iraq policy, is to compare Osama bin Laden to Adolf Hitler, and al Qaeda to the Nazi Party.

I resent this. As a matter of fact, I am completely offended by it.

Time and time again, for decades now, any time some perceived threat comes to light, the perpetrator must be compared to Hitler. You may recall that comparisons of this type were levied against Saddam Hussein in 1990 and 1991. He had committed atrocities, and was bent on world domination, we were told. "Another Hitler" we were warned. I suppose that makes Kuwait the Sudetenland, or possibly Poland. But I don't really think so. Not being old enough to remember, I can only guess that Ho Chi Minh must have received similar Nazification from American politicians bent on destroying Vietnam's nationalist movement. Perhaps just being communists was enough for our demagogues, but nothing would surprise me.

And those on the left are guilty of it as well. I have seen online, short-lived (and apologized for) ads where George W. Bush is morphed into Hitler. Let me just say this: George W. Bush is very likely the worst president the United States has ever had. He is without conscience. He has no concept of work, or how working people live. He, calling himself Christian, is the very worst type of hypocrite. In spite of all of these things, and dozens more, he is not Adolf Hitler.

I am sick of arguing this point. I expect neocons to be without conscience and to have no holds barred in their specious arguments, but I expect better from liberals and progressives. If you are confused, I would encourage you to visit the United States Holocaust Museum Memorial in Washington DC. If you can descend through this documentation of the absolute worst that humanity has to offer, and still believe that any living person can rightfully be compared with Adolf Hitler, then you may very well be the stupidest person alive who has somehow managed to not yet choke to death on your own spit.

To make arguments such as these is to render the Holocaust banal. I will not let attempts to make it so pass without comment.

While these spouted idiocies may suit the true beliefs of good fundamentalists like George W. Bush, it puts him in league with people like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran. This is not the sort of company which our leaders should aspire to keep.

To those of any political stripe, I will say to you, do not give in to the easy temptation of using the man who may easily have been the worst person that ever lived in order to make a point to which there can quite obviously be no comparison. The millions that died at his hands, and the millions more who died in defeating him deserve better than to be trotted out for the sake of political convenience.

Never again.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006