Man, the Repubnicants and especially the Tea Party sure do LOVE the Nazis, don't they? Anyone who is NOT a Republican is automatically an incarnation of Adolf Hitler or Josef Goebbels, and any law or policy NOT advanced by them, or at least with their tacit imprimateur is an immediate return of the days of the swastika and goosestepping. But, if we act as good consumers, even of ideas, facts and ideology, and do a little comparison shopping, how do things stack up in the real world. Follow me below the gossamer spaghetti plate and let's see.
The Early Days
The Nazis of early to mid 1920's Germany were a joke. A bunch of disaffected farmers and disgruntled low wage factory workers coalescing around an oratorical firebrand screaming about a return of the "good old days", and the purity of the Germanic culture. Sound anything like the modern Tea Party leaders like Half Term Palin, Pray the Gay Away Bachmann and Calgary Cruz screeching shrilly away about the good old days of a small government, unlimited liberties U.S. that never really existed?
In fact, the Nazis of the "Republican" German political system never achieved a plurality of seats in the German Parlaiment, or Reichstag. In fact they were one of the smallest factions in the German Reichstag and were widely derided and shunned by mainstream politicians and media. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sound anything like the howling and growling baboons of the Tea Party Republican freshman congressional class of 2010?"
The Goat
The ONE sure way to rile up the base is to offer them a scapegoat. In the case of the Nazi party of Germany, it was the Jews. Hooked nosed, earnest, not at ALL like real Germans, actually able to count to 20 without taking off their shoes and socks, hard working, they became the antithesis of ALL things German. The moochers, the thieves of all the good things that the true German turnip farmers and widget assembly workers were entitled to. Something to be erased from the national landscape at all costs. Is it just my wild imagination, or does this sound eerily like the current ranting and raving from the teabaggers about the Great Scourge of the Republic, the "Brown Horde". Shirking their responsibilities, sneaking and skulking around under the radar, sucking at the federal teat, taking all the jobs that should belong to God fearing U.S. citizens goddamn it! No need to actually exterminate them, just get them out of here as soon as possible! Go ahead and put an ad in the newspaper advertising for someone to cut bushes, and trim lawn edges, and blow leaves into piles to be bagged up and see how many Anglo-American college graduates you get to apply for $8.50 an hour. Or how many of them with less than $70,000 in college tuition debt you can get to stand behind a fast food counter and sling burgers.
Propaganda
Under the Nazis, there was a HUGE propaganda apparatus headed by a human port-o-san named Josef Goebbels, named appropriately enough the Ministry of Propaganda. It's sole purpose was to determine exactly what the German people would receive as news and information, no dissemination from the approved text was permitted or allowed. All stories to be broadcast had to be read and approved by the ministry, believe it or not even the dispatches coming from foreign journalists reporting from Germany back to their OWN countries! Am I the only one who can connect the dots to the Rupert Murdoch owned, Roger Ailes managed slop trough of information called Fox News? And can there be any similarities to a sad and misanthropic group of individuals who are sooo incapable of an independent intelligent thought that they gleefully refer to themselves as "Dittoheads" while following the delusional ranting of a failed sportscaster?
The Money Train
One thing the Nazis understood very well was the smell of lucre. A good part of their pitch was heeled to ideas and policies that benefited the rich and successful in post war Germany. They had a concerted outreach to the private economic power structure in Germany, offering them very favorable terms and business policies in return for their political and financial support. Is there anyone who doesn't watch Fox who can't see the all too obvious fingerprints of the financial and political support for the Tea Party from groups like the Cock (oooooops I mean Koch) brothers and the Heritage Foundation, and other powerful conservative money groups to the various national Tea Party entities?
Intimidation
The Nazis were BIG on intimidation, both professional and personal. In a professional sense, professional security and goals were at stake. For a local government official the threats were simple and direct. The loss of your job and source of income, and possibly arrest and incarceration if you didn't toe the official line. Can we translate this in the modern day Republican Party to the threat from the Tea Party of a primary from the right in a future election if the votes are not right?
The Nazis were also sooooooooooo ALL about personal intimidation. And they had a very well trained and motivated bunch of brown shirted shitheels to carry out their threats. Step out of line and your family could be arrested. YOU could be arrested. Maybe something even worse could happen to you or your family, something shall we say, more permanent? I'm sorry, but does that sound somehow similar to the lunatic ranting of Republican Space Cadet senatorial candidate Sharon Angle ranting about "Second Amendment remedies" if the rest of the country didn't cowtow to the Tea Party scripture? Or the verbal farts of the half term disgrace of Alaska, Sarah Palin, pushing the twisted doctrine of "Don't retreat, reload", complete with sniper scope crosshairs over congressional districts?
Legitimacy
Sitting in a minority, no matter how well organized, it took several years for the Nazis to consolidate their position and rise to a place where they could control the government. During that period Adolf Hitler could not be the face of power. By a combination of bad luck and Nazi trickery that job fell to the President, a feeble and aged remnant of the old Germany, Von Hindenberg. Von Hindenberg was the ultimate caretaker, insulated from the daily running of the government, and ignored by almost everybody in the government for anything other than titular figurehead appearances. In public, Hitler was correct and differential to the President, in private, he continued to institute the programs that would strip the last of the legitimacy from the freely elected German government and make it possible for him to become the dictatorial head of state. Not all that hard to see the comparison between the old and feeble Von Hindenberg and the emasculated and completely helpless Speaker of the House John Boehner, is it?
Conclusion
I'm sorry, but after doing a little research and comparison shopping of ideas, statements and ideologies, I'm having a really hard time squeezing the Democratic principles of getting the government back to work, providing the elderly and disabled with decent, humane retirement and social benefits, providing those on the lower end of the social and economic scale with the means with which to literally save their lives with the ability to go and see a doctor to the basic tenets of the Nazi party.
Unfortunately, on the side of the Republican party? Not so much. So, let me ask each and every one of YOU. Who are the REAL Nazis today.
P.S.
While I am a rabid visitor to the Daily Kos (it's bookmarked on my work computer for slow periods), this is my first attempt at a diary. So I'll apologize in advance for any procedural, grammar or technical errors, and for the lack of visual or stylistic embellishments of our more experienced diarists. Thanks so much for reading!