This past weekend, I took the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum while I was in Washington, DC. As I recall, one of the earliest exhibits was devoted to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. The Nazis' repeated use of antisemitic propaganda eventually gained a foothold in a nation recently shamed and defeated in World War I. But to say the very least, there are no words, no reasonable justification for the unspeakable and horrid evils that the Nazis perpetrated upon the Jews, the handicapped, homosexuals, and various other groups in the Holocaust. If anyone has the chance to see this museum, I would highly recommend it. One of many benefits of visiting a place like this is having a chance to put our current state of affairs in perspective.
As a conservative, it has always bothered me when someone on the left evokes Hitler or the Nazi party in comparison to someone on the right. Since such a tactic has been employed by some on the left, I suppose I might have even used it as well. But rarely is this ever truly justified, and if I have used this type of rhetoric in a trivial manner, I readily apologize,.for by employing such a comparison, either the legacy of history is distorted or the most hateful of insults is being delivered.
To accuse someone, of either political persuasion, of being similar to Adolf Hitler or the Nazi party is to diminish the nature of what actually happened. When Ward Churchill refers to those in the twin towers on 9/11 as "little Eichmanns," he erodes the legacy of Adolf Eichmann. When anyone refers to tea party demonstrators as "brown shirts," they essentially belittle what the "brown shirts" actually were. And yes, even when Ann Coulter compares Obama to Hitler, Hitler is trivialized. But also, when Ann Coulter is compared to Hitler, Hitler is trivialized once more. As much as it may upset my friends on the right, when Obama is given a Hitler mustache, we are no better than those who put said mustache on George W. Bush. Neither makes a valid point. Both accusations make the bearer of such a message into a discredited fool.
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
Braden -
I agree that when we throw the 'Nazi' accusation at each other (and the right does it at least as much as the left), such is not helpful.
However, should we not also point out actions (crimes, really) by one side or the other that were also committed by the Nazis, with the express intention of alerting the other side of a possible 'slippery slope'?
For instance, not long after I first began posting on BC, I pointed out (with good reference) how the Bush administration's torture at Abu Ghirab was organized with less oversight and less protection for the tortured than a similar program (with almost exactly the same name(!)) in Nazi Germany in the late 1930's.
When the similarities are so close, I do not feel that it is a violation of "Godwin's Law", but an important lesson to remember lest we allow ourselves to repeat the horrors of one of the darkest times in human history.