Lately you cannot turn on the TV without hearing or seeing the comparing of President Obama to Hitler. Glenn Beck is constantly referring to Obama as Hitler or a Nazi, Limbaugh does it regularly as well. If I am not mistaken, O’Reilly has gotten into the game. Here's Limbaugh, for example:
Limbaugh: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908060021 Was Pelosi So Wrong About Swastikas?
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/was-pel... Then there are these anti-health care protestors with their signs and pictures:
http://images2.dailykos.com/images/user/30... A feature and staple of these protests, as was the case with the tea baggers marches, were Hitler and Nazi imagery of Obama as well. They regular refer to Obama as Hitler.
Now, flash back to the 2004 campaign between John Kerry and G.W. Bush. The group Move On sponsored an ad contest, “Bush in 30 Seconds.” One of the ads submitted had Bush morphing into Hitler. The NY Times editorialized on it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/us/the-2... Here’s what the GOP’s RNC chairman had to say about it at the time:
“This is the worst and most vile form of political hate speech,' Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in one of several statements he issued. He urged the nine Democrats running for president to repudiate the advertisements.”
The Anti-Defamation League weighed in, as well they should have:
“’Their lack of discretion cheapens the level of political discourse in America.’ said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
As I recall, the mainstream media, political leadership in both parties all rose up to slap down Move On, even though Move On didn’t make the ad, and also, even though Move On had selected 15 ad finalists that did not include the Hitler ad submission. Democrats expressed outrage but of course the GOP still blamed the democrats for the ad and accused them of the “sacrilege” of comparing Bush to Hitler. The democrats, chumped as usual, fell all over themselves in condemning Move On for the ad even though, again, Move On neither made the ad or sponsored it, and condemned it as well.
This was just one ad in a contest that didn’t even make the cut. Today we have the de facto head of the GOP (Limbaugh) and other GOP supporters daily referring to our President as “Hitler” or a “Nazi.” The groups they sponsor and support regularly use this imagery and make these references to Obama. But where is the outrage now? Where's the pearl-clutching, hand-wringing editorials expressing concern for the political discourse from the media , now that this happening to Obama, as was the case when it was Bush?
Where are the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center on this today? It was clear to all why they spoke out when this happened in 1994; not because of sympathy for Bush, but for the hijacking of an incident as catastrophic and historically devastating to the Jewish people as Hitler was, only to trivialize it in a political dispute for partisan gain. And yet, that is happening now in ways that are far more direct and numerous than in 2004.
If anything, what we are seeing today in all these town hall disruptions, their sponsorship by these corporations to help them disseminate falsehoods and propaganda in order to maintain their ability to rake in obscene profits, and doing so in an environment that really is in dispute with the bottom line of capitalism – competition, is more reminiscent of the hooliganism that preceded Nazism in 1930s Weimar Germany. I don’t expect the dullards in the media to be able to make the connection. Their knowledge of “history” is limited to last year’s “American Idol.” But I would expect Jewish organizations, at the least, to be screaming outrage right now. To my knowledge, they aren’t. So I wrote them.
Here’s a letter I wrote to the ADL and a similar one to the Wiesenthal Center:
-----------------
In 2004 Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, had this to say about Move On's contest that resulted in an ad referring to Bush as Hitler:
"Their lack of discretion cheapens the level of political discourse in America."
Today we have seen President Obama referred to as Hitler by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck regularly on their TV programs. Groups working in opposition to health care reform sponsor protestors who create posters with Nazi and SS symbolism, and pictures and references to President Obama as Hitler.
The recent "tea bag" movement sponsored similar protestors who used Nazi and Hitler imagery to refer to our president and our government.
Where is the statement from Foxman expressing outrage at all of this? If it "cheapened the discourse" under a republican president, how do even worse transgressions than the Move On incident in this regard not do the same thing under a democratic president?
Why the silence now?
C. Maxwell
-----------------
I am also writing to the RNC, my own senators and congressional rep. They have to call this out. This double-standard cannot go unchallenged.
Posted By:
Friday, August 7th 2009 at 2:25PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
