Over the years, exploitation of the Holocaust to score contemporary political points has, unfortunately, been common. Among the offenders are Amcha, ADL, Focus on the Family, opponents of the withdrawal from Gaza, PETA, opponents of Mel Gibson, Jews for Jesus (and, were sure, many more). Now joining the list are Rush Limbaugh and Rep. Brian Baird.
Among the causes that, supposedly, are Nazilike, or the opposite thereof, are stem cell research, cruelty to animals, discrimination in a free society, withdrawal from Gaza, the theology of Jews for Jesus and rocket fire into Israel.
The tendency to use the Nazi analogy has its logic. Nazism was perfectly clear, perfectly black and white. Therefore, a way to shine a perfectly clear light on ones enemy, or on ones own policy, is to compare it to, or contrast it to, Nazism. Clarity, however, is not achieved by the analogy. Just the opposite. Nazism was not only perfectly clear, it was perfectly extreme. Nothing may accurately be compared to it, nor contrasted with it.
Not to mention the offensiveness. People toss around the word Nazism without, apparently, knowing much about it. A Nazi was a person who asked Jewish children if they wanted a lollipop and then, when the children opened their mouths, shot them in the mouth, dead. A Nazi is a person who oversaw the incineration of human beings, both dead and alive. A Nazi was a mindless individual who followed the leader, precisely, exactly, completely, regardless of the evil the leader implemented.
The latest to need to learn the lesson of the uniqueness of Nazism, and of the need to avoid any analogy to it, is a Republican, talk show host Rush Limbaugh, and a Democrat, Rep. Brian Baird. Their analogies to Nazis are quoted in full in the news story this week.
Though it should not need to be said, we must tell Mr. Limbaugh that there is no accurate comparison between the Democratic Party and the Nazi Party even if, as Limbaugh put it, the Nazis were against big business and so is Obama. We must tell Rep. Baird that there is no accurate comparison between people who come to town hall meetings and Brown Shirts (i.e., Nazis), even if, as Baird puts it, the attendees at the town hall meetings ambush him.
Democrats have made a big deal of the supposed moral obligation of Rep. Eric Cantor, a Republican who is Jewish, to renounce Limbaugh; and Republicans have made a big deal of the supposed moral obligation of Democrats to denounce Brian Baird. Actually, these you need to denounce campaigns only add to the stench already created by Limbaugh and Baird.
It behooves us all to make clear that Nazi analogies have no place in partisan political discourse, because all such analogies are inaccurate and offensive. They cheapen our lives and obscure the issues they supposedly illuminate.
