[stumble]
Many partisans may love our politics, which has pretty much become to thoughtful, serious discussion of policy and the debate of ideas into what professional wrestling is to real sports. But to Americans fed up with hyperventilating politicians that have to hurl the worst and most outlandish comparisons, the comments of Indiana’s Republican Treasurer Richard Murdoch are one more sigh inducing polemic that shows how inaccurate and bone-headed partisans on the attack can be.
This statement holds a much water as a sieve:
FORT WAYNE – Reaction ranged from anger to shock to befuddlement after Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock compared the nation’s direction to Hitler’s Nazi Germany during a farewell speech at the Indiana Republican Convention on Saturday.
“The people of Germany in a free election selected the Nazi Party because they made great promises that appealed to them because they were desperate and destitute. And why is that? Because Germany was bankrupt,” he said.
Mourdock, who has stoked outrage with incendiary comments in the past, then alluded to the 70th anniversary last week of the D-Day invasion during World War II, saying, “The truth is, 70 years later, we are drifting on the tides toward another beachhead and it is the bankruptcy of the United States of America.”
The comparisan suggests Mourdock either flunked ornever had history. He’s comparing bad apples (the history of Nazi German) to baloney (his comments):
The speech received a standing ovation from the nearly 1,700 delegates from across the state.
And why not?
They are programmed to applaud and cheer when the other side is attacked, no matter how inaccurate, bone-headed or political damaging it is to their own party among non choir members, who vastly outnumber the choir.
But this isn’t to say partisan are as straw-brained as the guy who made the comment:
But by the end of the day, even the party’s state chairman was distancing himself from the treasurer’s comments.
His references Saturday to the Nazi regime drew sharp objections from Democrats, members of the Jewish community and even some Republicans.
Indiana Democratic Chairman John Zody said Mourdock’s words were “ugly” and should be denounced by Republican leaders.
Shelby Anderson, president of the Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council, said comparing the rise of Hitler and the heinous acts of the Nazis in comparison to America’s national debt is “highly offensive and trivialize both the suffering and memory of the six million Jews and millions of others who perished under the Nazi regime.”
Uh ho: here come the emails (again) from Neo Nazis insisting the Holocaust never happened (we got a flood after this post which explains the REAL Nazi Germany).
Stephen Klapper, vice president of the council, called it “deplorable to suggest that a nation in debt is somehow one step away from perpetrating crimes reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And it’s outrageous to equate our nation’s legitimate public policy challenges, and the way we choose to address these issues – ideally through civil discourse and rigorous debate – with the way Hitler and his Nazi regime propagated one of civilization’s most reprehensible atrocities through lies, terror, and ultimately genocide.”
That statement is good, we’ll run it again:
Stephen Klapper, vice president of the council, called it “deplorable to suggest that a nation in debt is somehow one step away from perpetrating crimes reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And it’s outrageous to equate our nation’s legitimate public policy challenges, and the way we choose to address these issues – ideally through civil discourse and rigorous debate – with the way Hitler and his Nazi regime propagated one of civilization’s most reprehensible atrocities through lies, terror, and ultimately genocide.”
AND:
Even some Republicans blasted Mourdock.
No. the “even” is no surprise:
There are MANY thinking Republicans (and many Jewish Republicans) who’ve opened a history book or passed middle school history lessons.
I think Mourdock is the child left behind.
And if his state’s voters were wise, they’ make sure he is in future elections.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.