Acceptable for Politico's "Ideas" section: Comparisons of Obama to Hitler and Mussolini
October 07, 2009 1:48 pm ET by Media Matters staff
On October 7, The Politico published an "Ideas" piece by Rep. John Linder (R-GA) that compared President Obama's administration to "Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy." From Linder's Politico piece:
Progressivism and its progeny all believed in the fairness and wisdom of decisions made by the state - often at the expense of the individual, who, it was believed, made selfish decisions. All demanded that the state have an increased role in raising children. Adolf Hitler scoffed at those who remained opposed to him, saying he already had control of their children.
All believed in the minimum wage, state control of private property for the public good, unionization and environmentalism. And they believed in eugenics to purify the gene pool.
It is now fair to wonder whether we are returning to a belief that only a powerful central government can fix all of our problems. Victor Davis Hanson wrote in the National Review that President Barack Obama is governing as though the United States were a university and he its president. Governing by czars fits that example. A diversity czar, environment czar, pay czar, science czar, manufacturing czar and, of course, health czar could deal with the "whole" of an issue rather than looking at it piece by piece. This is not unlike the women's studies, black studies, diversity studies, environmental studies and other obsequious studies in most academic settings.
And with the Obama administration, just as in Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy and Wilson's America, the leaders of major corporations are falling in line. Whether it is climate change, executive pay, automobile manufacturing or bank buying, CEOs step right up and wait for the tax benefits to surely follow their pandering. And the CEOs stood mute while bondholders saw their investments given to the unions.
[...]
The principal sin in politics is overreaching. Americans have in the past repeatedly voted for freedom and the supremacy of the individual over the state. It will happen again.
Previously:
Limbaugh yells "Nazi" (and the press yawns)
Breitbart's Big Hollywood: Same old birtherism, comparisons of Obama to Hitler
Conservative media ignore their own long history of invoking Nazis to smear progressives
The other right-wing media mogul you should worry about
Palin's book and Obama's bow: a media week to forget
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
I blame the corporate media and the educational system that has encouraged the acceptance of such substitutions.
I wrote to C-SPAN a couple times about lopsided reporting of Politico's, and eventually C-SPAN cancelled their Capitol News website, which had been relying a disturbing amount on Politico.
From the wisest political humor tome ever printed:
"At election time each of these two Caucuses meets to select for nomination those members of its own party who are most likely to be mistaken by the Non-placets for members of the other party. The best results are achieved when the nominees get mixed up in such a way that the acutest of Non-placets cannot divine which ticket represents which party. The system secures that the balance of power shall be most happily maintained, and that all the Young Men in a Hurry shall be excluded."
Microcosmographia Academica by F. M. Cornford
After all these above comparisons, he finally gets to his message which is that" 85% of the people are happy with their health insurance." I assume that means he against heath care reform.Notice that no evidence is provided for this statement.
Is this the Republican argument against health care? As Jed Clampett of Beverly Hillbillies used to say, "Pitiful-Pitiful"
But it is quite okie-dokie for an (R) to write piece comparing the President of the United States to Hitler.
Good grief, Politico is embarassing ...