A few days ago I opened my email inbox and was surprised to see a message, from a member of a conservative online publication, stating they\u2019d used my column \u201cSixty Years after Hitler\u201d but had forgotten to tell me \u2013 much less ask permission to use it.\u00a0 The member further noted that many people had posted insulting remarks disagreeing with some of my opinions about what Hitler would do if he were in charge of various countries today.\u00a0 I was asked to respond in writing, and spent a couple of hours crafting a letter that zinged the most insipid and historically imprecise objections.\u00a0 The member gleefully responded, \u201cTouch\u00e9, Mr. Clark.\u00a0 Too, too \u2018shay!\u2019\u00a0 I\u2019ll notify each of these posters of your replies.\u00a0 You are much too erudite to be pestered by these dolts.\u201d<\/p>\n
That marked the farewell of cordial emails between the member and me.\u00a0 In my next message I mentioned that I was liberal to moderate on most issues, and therefore \u201cshocked by the poster of Hillary Clinton wearing a swastika and saluting like Hitler\u2026 The swastika is a symbol of mass murder and aggression.\u00a0 Surely, most of Hillary\u2019s political opponents wouldn\u2019t approve of the poster,\u201d which, by the threads of posted commentary, was at least graphically linked to my column.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a (Democratic) party thinks it is acceptable to label the President of the United States \u2018Hitler\u2019 and other shockingly pejorative terms,\u201d the member responded, \u201cthen I suppose that whatever posters the right puts up, aimed at Hillary, are tolerable.\u201d \u00a0That was another jolt.\u00a0 Though some of the \u201cdoltish\u201d readers had oh-so-cleverly called the aforementioned New York Senator \u201cHitlery Rodham,\u201d or just plain old \u201cHitlery,\u201d I hadn\u2019t expected such truculence from an ostensibly reasonable citizen.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, I was obligated to immediately investigate her assertion.\u00a0 At that point I was starting to believe Bush really must have been \u201cHitlerized.\u201d\u00a0 I just needed proof.\u00a0 Thanks to the long reach of the net, I soon had two distorted images.\u00a0 The first is from a late 1930\u2019s photograph of a political appearance by Mussolini and Hitler.\u00a0 The uniformed Duce, with Dick Cheney\u2019s face superimposed, is saluting high with his right arm.\u00a0 And a determined Bush, left arm ablaze in a swastika, is standing erect by his ally.\u00a0 In the second, on a large banner, Bush and Hitler are pictured side by side, Hitler\u2019s torso bearing a swastika and Bush\u2019s part of the American flag.\u00a0 The caption reads: \u201cSame shit, different asshole!\u201d<\/p>\n
Assuredly, both sides are doing it.\u00a0 Rather, the most fanatical members of each fringe are doing it.\u00a0 And it\u2019s neither funny nor fair.\u00a0 For those who need a historical reminder, once Hitler acquired the requisite power, he was ceaselessly dedicated to conquest and genocide.\u00a0 Neither G.W. nor Hillary are within a light year of that, and wouldn\u2019t want to be, and you know it, and so do the people creating the images as well as those cranking out flabby essays that try and fail to link liberal or conservative behavior to Nazism.<\/p>\n
So what the hell is going on?\u00a0 I decided to write Jeff Danziger, whose editorial cartoons are nationally distributed by the New York Times Syndicate.\u00a0 Danziger last fall was himself bombarded by accusations of ideological excess when he portrayed Condoleezza Rice barefoot and grimacing like an ignoramus as she cradles a baby-like aluminum tube for (nonexistent) Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. \u00a0And she says, \u201cI knows all about aluminum tubes\u2026 (Correction)\u2026 I don\u2019t know nuthin\u2019 about aluminum tubes.\u201d\u00a0 Realizing he\u2019d inadvertently pushed parody into a racial stereotype, Danziger and the syndicate pulled the cartoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you feel about what seems to be an increasing tendency of liberals and conservatives to call each other fascists?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have only ever done Bill Gates and Tom DeLay as Nazis,\u201d Danziger wrote.\u00a0 \u201cAnd those were done in broad Hogan\u2019s Heroes-like form.\u00a0 My own feeling is that most human beings have fascist tendencies, and without the threat of getting caught, will exercise them readily.\u00a0 Not because they hate their fellow men, but because it makes decisions easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, fascist states often resolve disputes by jailing or killing opponents.\u00a0 In democracies, debate and compromise take the places of incarceration and murder.\u00a0 Elected politicians understand that, and shouldn\u2019t be branded with swastikas.\u00a0 Reserve those for people who really do dwell in the darkest corner of the soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few days ago I opened my email inbox and was surprised to see a message, from a member of a conservative online publication, stating they\u2019d used my column \u201cSixty Years after Hitler\u201d but had forgotten to tell me \u2013 much less ask permission to use it.\u00a0 The member further noted that many people had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,106,37,108],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n