Holocaust hypocrisy from RedState's Erickson
October 01, 2009 1:04 pm ET by John V. Santore
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) recently made headlines by bluntly attacking conservatives for lacking a systematic health insurance reform plan. The following day, he returned to the House floor and called for an end to what he termed a "holocaust" caused by the failings of America's health care system.
While Grayson's language was certainly provocative, his passion and sense of urgency are understandable. A new study conducted by the Harvard Medical School estimates that 45,000 Americans die every year because of our system's flaws.
Despite such realities, Erick Erickson, editor of the leading conservative blog RedState, was incensed by Grayson's language. "The holocaust was real with a real meaning," he wrote yesterday. "Roping it into the health care debate cheapens what it was all about."
Which means that we should all look forward to Erickson's upcoming denunciations of the following conservative media figures:
- Rush Limbaugh, who has "compared Obama's health policies to the Nazis"; likened Obama to Hitler; claimed that the "Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo"; and said the White House was embracing the tactics of the Hitler youth movement. He has also defended such rhetoric and dismissed the idea that it is politically harmful to the conservatives who employ it.
- Glenn Beck, who has connected health care reform proposals to the work of the Nazis and denounced those who criticize tea party protesters as purveyors of Nazi propaganda.
- G. Gordon Liddy, who uncritically read a column written by Pat Buchanan drawing a parallel between health care reform legislation and Nazi euthanasia.
- Pat Buchanan himself, who has gone out of his way time and again to defend Hitler.
- Sean Hannity, who didn't challenge a town hall protester who claimed on his show that "National Socialism is very much what we see in this administration." The protester had also told Rep. Brian Baird that Nancy Pelosi should check her arm for a swastika, a statement which Limbaugh said left him "beaming with pride."
- Fox News' Gretchen Carlson, who uncritically interviewed that same protester.
- Michael Savage, who described the FCC's Mark Lloyd as a "Nazi czar."
- Tammy Bruce, who said that the White House appointed a "Nazi, fascist health czar."
- Jim Quinn, who has repeatedly referred to White House regulatory czar Cass Sunstein as a Nazi.
- The National Review's Jonah Goldberg and Andrew Breitbart for ignoring the swastikas at tea party protests -- and The Washington Times for doing the same.
Media Matters: On health care reform, the Fox News noise machine is cranked to 11
The media myth of Obama's "falling poll numbers"
How to annoy Glenn Beck in five minutes or less
But the hypocrisy is correctly pointed out here. What would we expect from someone on the right except for hypocrisy. They own the patent on it!
Same goes to Abortion Protestors. NOT A HOLOCAUST.
I've been a little disappointed in the left's response to this latest bit of phony outrage from the right over Grayson's comments. Rachel Maddow did a bit last night, showing the condemnation of Grayson by Republicans, followed by clips of many GOPpers (in congress and official speeches by politicians, not just radio yakkers) using language every bit as extreme regarding seniors being put to death, etc.
Which would have been enough to show the hypocrisy,even if these were equal.
Of course, they're not the same, it's another false equivalency that the right is being spotted a few points on.
There are no such thing as Death Panels, there was never any plan outside of the minds of crazy wingnuts to kill old people, there is no reality-based evidence that providing more people with proper health care will result in more death, in fact, common sense says the opposite is true.
People dying because of a lack of health care, despite what Rush Limbaugh "believes", is a fact. Grayson's remarks, while pretty blunt, were at least based in reality, unlike the right's completely fictional speculation about the horrors of health care reform.
Wow Col, how BIG of you to admit that the murder of 11 million people is "sort of" diminished when used to score Cheap points in a political debate. What a stand up guy you really are! Takes a real man like your self to go so far as to say it is "sort of" a problem. I see a Profile in Courage award coming your way any day now!!! Congrats
No, I used another posters comment to help you understand where you're confused, without being redundant.Thank you for noting that the typical liberal approach is to help those in need.
I'm not sure why it seems important to you that bintx's comment was made after mine, but I probably don't really want to know.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Grayson using that word. He used it in the right context and with the right definition. He was not comparing the death of 40+ thousand people a year to what we refer to as The Holocaust, he simply called this unnecessary loss of life a "holocaust."
You're quite right that there is a difference between "a" holocaust and "The" Holocaust and that Grayson's use of the word was accurate.
I still think it was a mistake because no matter what its actual definition, when used in a political debate the word "holocaust" carries a lot of baggage, baggage which gives the right and the media an excuse to focus on the words he said rather than on what he said.
However, I also think that having registered our objections, we should drop it and move on. There's no reason we should be supplying ammo to the political dirtbags trying to change the subject and the mewling media more interested in conflict than content. ("Pressure continues from both sides, demanding Rep. Grayson apologize. More after these commercials for Cigna.")