"Now the subject of President Obama's health-care plan has given us yet more examples to add to this sorry list (Rush Limbaugh is a particularly vivid entry). Given the enormity of the evil perpetrated by Nazi Germany, it seems reasonable to suggest a moratorium on the deployment of Third Reich imagery and language in domestic political conflicts that, while important, fall immeasurably short of Hitler's territorial ambitions and his Final Solution.
"I am not suggesting that we forget the past and consign Hitler to history. Quite the opposite: we must always, always remember. That a seemingly civilized nation in the center of Europe committed such crimes is a perennial reminder that the human capacity for evil is bottomless. The further we move in time from the events of the Second World War, the more remote it all seems, as though the rise of National Socialism, the persistence of American isolationism, the cynicism of the Soviet Union, and the appeasement chic of the British upper classes are relics of an ancient era. But these forces are not antique. They are permanent. It could all happen again tomorrow—all of it.
"That is why the example of Hitler should not be invoked lightly or often. In this case, less is more; to deploy Nazi imagery as a matter of course diminishes one of humankind's most potent lessons of its meaning and its power. The summer of 2009 has not been our finest hour on this front." -Jon Meacham, Newsweek Magazine
Head nod: Joe Gandelman
Like what you see? RSS FEED | TWITTER FEED | HOME
The Pajama Pundit - Founder/Editor
