Enough With The Hitler Crap Already
If I were more actively engaged in Republican Party issues right now, I would be telling anyone and everyone one simple thing:
Enough with the Hitler Crap Already.
There are several main reasons why this is just ridiculous. First, only a select group of adults understands what Hitler was. The rest of the perception is based on ignorance. Second, it's a meaningless, kneejerk term now and the shock has gone out of it. Saying someone, anyone is Hitler is like saying something that illustrates nothing to people. Worst thing you can think of? Hitler. Great, so so-and-so is the worst thing I can think of, he's Hitler, blah blah blah. It has lost all meaning. It's hyperbole, and you cannot connect to people if you're spouting hyperbole. Third, it's a sign of intellectual neglect in the conservative movement. Really? Obama is Hitler? You spent how long thinking that up?
No, here's a thought for you. President Obama is more like what would have happened if George McGovern had won in 1972, and he resembles the worst of liberalism--good intentions masked as some bitter pill we have to swallow to feel better about ourselves. I say that as an example--President Obama is nothing like George McGovern, but I can instantly make people who are knowledgeable think if I make that comparison. I can draw that analogy because it is no where near as extreme as that of comparing Obama to Hitler. It doesn't shock, but it does make one think. What if McGovern had won? What if the stain of Watergate had never really hit the Republican Party the way that it did? It might have been merely the minor scandal of a post-election Washington, with President McGovern trying to finalize the end of Vietnam while bungling cops figure out what happened when the losing Nixon campaign tried to burglarize the Democratic National Committee.
You can legitimately, reasonably, and in a mature fashion, oppose everything about President Obama. Yes, that's your right. You can dissent and oppose his policies. But don't serve me that weak tea, trying to conflate Obama and Hitler. Was Hitler a Muslim? Oh, got you there, didn't I? Neither is Obama. What was that? Was that the sound of your ass being fitted for a hat?
Simply by being reasonable, I can probably make a person think. I can't get them to love me. I can't get them to follow me. I also can't shock them and grab the simpletons, however, by being thoughtful or reasonable. And that is my point--playing to the lowest common denominator is always a losing strategy. Playing to just above the middle, with some humor and confidence thrown in, that's where conservatives should be.
This just makes me roll my eyes:
Most of those there would have called themselves "patriots" (that "don't tread on me" flag was an early symbol of the American Revolution) who argue that their government is betraying traditional principles, CBS News Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports. Steve Butler, a physician from Indian, was handing out copies of the Constitution. "If you read the quotes of Thomas Jefferson, these guys were conservatives and they said that the control should be with the people and not with the big government." Ileana Johnson came to America from Romania 30 years ago:
"I find myself now, every morning when I wake up, what kind of freedom have we lost today?" You could also find plenty of signs of something else -- a rage that identifies President Obama with Adolph Hitler, or Stalin, that questions his citizenship, that seems to celebrate the death of a famous liberal. And among the main currents of the protesters here, a conviction that the media - -FOX News and talk radio excepted -- are deliberately concealing "the truth." It's a charge of bias the networks vigorously deny. But perhaps what most united these protesters was a broader discontent: a sense that they are not being heard, that their interests, and the national interests, are in the hands of a few. Dawn Neuman came from from Texas. "It's all a good old boy network, where they don't care what you think. You know, they're gonna - Everybody's in everybody's bed, you know. In everybody's pocket. And it's who's got the most money. It's all about greed and power."
Jeff, I thought it was Adolf? Something to think about as we bandy the name about.
Anyway, that's fine. You have populism, class envy, ignorance--everything you need to have a bonfire and a broken plate glass window. You don't have anything on which to base a political movement. You have inarticulate rage, but nothing reasonable, focused, legitimate or with potential.
How do you explain the basic ignorance of how supposed conservatives address the writings of Thomas Jefferson?
Jefferson was not a conservative, nor is he anyone a conservative should aspire to emulate. Jefferson was the sworn, blood enemy of a man all conservatives should emulate, and that man was Alexander Hamilton. Left to Jefferson, this would be a cash-poor agrarian backwater governed by pacifists. Thanks to how Hamilton influenced the direction of this country, we go from a client state of France to a world power in a hundred years, roughly, which is the time it took us to get from Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt. What's more, Jefferson was a believer in the chaos of the French Revolution. Hamilton believed it was just fine to have a King or Queen in England, so long as her commerce was sound and the right of regulated commercial trading and monetary investment could bring measured stability to all nations. Who was proven right in the end? Do we have a dictator in charge of France right now or does a monarch from the Hanover line (screw the name change in 1917) still rule Britannia?
President Obama is no Hitler. Anyone with an education can see that. Any conservative who says there is a connection is intellectually lazy, and cannot expess themselves clearly or rationally. There is no overarching threat to the American way of life--President Obama can serve for eight years and the Republic will endure, just as it has endured through double terms from Bush, Clinton and whoever else. This country is larger than any one man, greater than the sum of its parts, and too smart to fall for that Hitler crap.
