who blogs at Dirigo Blue and Kennebec Blues
“Hey, Hitler.” That sounds informal but it can never be so. There are word choices that are beyond the pale and cannot be used in either good taste or good sense. Words invoking comparison to the Nazi Führer or the institutions of Nazi oppression are such a set of words. In our collective memory of the terrible genocide and oppression visited upon millions of Jews and many minority religious, racial, ethic, and political citizens of Germany and its conquered lands, the use of such comparisons forms a slur of horrific proportions.
Maine Republican/tea party Governor Paul LePage committed such a slur in his weekly address of July 7, 2012:
“This decision [Supreme Court on ACA] has made America less free. We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo – the I.R.S.”
Comparison of the I.R.S. to the Gestapo is a very far fringe right charge that Governor LePage is embracing. The charge is not simply about the tactics of the I.R.S., who certainly do not employ abductions, forced confessions under duress, threats to harm family members, removal of citizenship, physical and mental tortures, disappearances, beatings, murder, and expulsion to concentration death camps. The charge is also about extending the slander of the I.R.S. as an arm of a government, currently with President Obama as its executive, as oppressive and evilly motivated.
Governor LePage in one fell slanderous slur has painted the image of a government that must be resisted and must be overthrown or the consequences will be monstrous. With the lessons of Nazi history in mind, the charge of a government institution being “the new Gestapo” certainly incites resistance that invokes the imagery of nondemocratic action against overwhelming insidious government forces of darkness and terror. That is the picture the Governor gave voice to in his use of the imagery of the Nazi political police state.
It is very telling that thus far the Governor has only made a non-apology public remark on the matter by saying:
"It was never intended to offend anyone and if someone's offended, then they ought to be goddamned mad at the federal government."
This was followed a short time later with an official statement:
"It was not my intent to insult anyone, especially the Jewish community, or minimize the fact that millions of people were murdered. Clearly, what has happened is that the use of the word Gestapo has clouded my message. Obamacare is forcing the American people to buy health insurance or else pay a tax. Our health care system is moving toward one that rations care and negatively impact millions of Americans. We no longer are a free people. With every step that Obamacare moves forward, our individual freedoms are being stripped away by the federal government. This should anger all Americans."
And
both the Maine Republican State Chair and Republican Speaker of the Maine House are standing by him.
All this apparently means that Paul LePage, who has an extensive history of saying inflammatory things, gets a pass on anything he wants to say, no matter how offensive or inaccurate, from his party’s operational and institutional leaders. When such failures to object to, call for correction, or censor an out-of-control Governor who strays beyond common decency occurs, then the trust that party has been given to lead has expired. Republicans are not holding Paul LePage accountable so we the people of Maine must elect those who will starting with the legislature in 2012.