It is hard to fully comprehend the magnitude of the Nazi death camps and their impact on the lives of untold millions. But, even so, there are a few things I can say for certain: the Nazis, and the Holocaust they brought were nothing like Obamacare. Or the national debt. Or political correctness. Or criticism of economic inequality. Or the Tea Party. Or the Internal Revenue Service. Or the Obama administration. Or the Bush administration. Or any of the other masses of infinitesimal flotsam spewed up in self-pitying and hysterical analogies by vulgarians with more mouth than brain.
And, damn it, how dare so many of you politicians and political commentators and entertainers spit on the ashes of the earth containing the bodies of millions of the slaughtered, by making such asinine comparisons. How dare you belittle unspeakable suffering, how dare you brush aside the emotional torment of survivors, how dare you feed into the Holocaust denialism by pretending that some difference in political opinions is just as bad as the literal torture and destruction of millions of families.
How dare you?
Ben Carson, current darling of the Republican Party whose name is touted as a potential presidential candidate: You compared your feeling of being stifled by political correctness to the torment and murder of 13-year-old Sochi Piaskovski and millions of other children. (The American government and its institutions are very much like Nazi Germany. . . . We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe.) I will assume that, after you made those comments, the Obama administration responded by descending upon you, loading you and your family onto a train, and stuffing you into a gas chamber.
No? Then shut up.
Tom Perkins, multi-millionaire venture capitalist: You compared liberal criticism of income inequality and the excesses of the überwealthy to the slaughter of Jakub Piaskovskis entire family. (I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 1 percent, namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American 1 percent, namely the rich.) I will assume that the tortured and tormented corpses of every member of your family have been burned to ash by progressives, and that you have not had a good nights sleep for most of your life because of the guilt you feel for surviving.
No? Then shut up.
Ted Nugent, aging rock star, gun enthusiast, conservative spokesman: You compared Obamacare to the beginnings of Nazi Germany. I will assume you mean that you are now preparing to tear out your fillings in hopes of saving a family member while you are imprisoned, starving, cold, and awaiting your death.
No? Then shut up.
Yes, all of you. Shut up, and apologize for demeaning one of historys most unspeakable crimes. I mean you, Ted Cruz, Republican senator who proclaimed that fighting to defund Obamacare is like fighting to stop the Nazis. And you, Tim Donnelly, Republican candidate for California governor who likened Obama to Hitler because of gun control. And you, Rick Santorum, former GOP senator and presidential candidate who said that failing to fight against Obamas reelection was like failing to fight Hitler in 1940; he later justified the statement by saying he has used the World War II metaphor a hundred times. And you, Bill OReilly, political commentator who said the Huffington Post used Nazi tactics and that liberal supporters of gun control embraced the sort of state control established by Hitler. And you, Stephen Schwarzman, billionaire co-founder of the Blackstone Group, who proclaimed that some of Obamas tax proposals were a declaration of war, like when Hitler invaded Poland. And you, George W. Bush, whose campaign went all out with the Nazi analogy by releasing a video showing John Kerry, Al Gore, Howard Dean and other Democratic Party luminaries intercut with images of Hitler. And you, Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA who has used Nazi comparisons to keep gun owners frightened and has even raised the prospect that they may face mass execution. And you, Glenn Beck, who has compared so many people and circumstances to Nazi Germany so many times that the great comedian Lewis Black proclaimed l that Beck suffers from Nazi Tourettes.
And dont think that the political right has a monopoly on this abominable behavior. So yes, I mean you, Representative Keith Ellison, Democratic congressman who equated [then-President] Bush after 9/11 with Hitler after the destruction of the Reichstag, the German parliament. Or you, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who accused Republicans of using Nazi tactics during the 2004 presidential campaign. Or you, Linda Ronstadt, the singer who said in 2004 that newly elected Republicans were a new bunch of Hitlers. And you, Joy Behar, television personality who compared former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Hitler.
