Attention Newt Gingrich: can you possibly — just possibly — give pulling out the Nazi card to use against Barack Obama a rest? I mean, maybe for just a few days until you get into a polemical 12 step program? Are you and some other Republicans now in danger of developing severe carpal tunnel syndrome from pulling this card out so much? You may soon need some of THIS to reduce your wrist inflammation.
On the other hand, Gingrich deserves a bit of credit. He didn’t only use the Nazi card — but he also used the old Soviet Union card.
So does that make Barack Obama a commie Nazi?
Or a jack-booted pinko?
The only accusation not hurled at Obama these days is that Obama doesn’t wear underwear.
But wait: that’ll come (you heard it here first..).
Mr. Gingrich — who I always truly admired and read since he was a least an ORIGINAL thinker, a historian who seriously pondered the future and seemed excited about ideas… one of the more original rhetorical partisan bomb throwers — is falling into the trap some GOPers seem to be leaping into: the GOP may be winning over independent voters now but increasingly strident rhetoric could well scare off a portion of voters who aren’t entirely pleased with Obama and the Democrats this November. Have GOPers started drinking caseloads of Monsters energy drink?
Are Gingrich and other GOPers morphing into the segment of liberal Democrats who called George W. Bush a Nazi when he was president? (And yes did happen: go HERE and HERE.) Except in the case of Gingrich and some others (perhaps inspired by the party’s tone-setting talk show hosts), it seems to be occuring at higher levels of the party, either articulated or not challenged and tacitly being accepted as a valid comparison to make to whip up followers.
Here’s the Fox News segment where Gingrich uses the card (again) so you can judge for yourself. Notice how anchor Chris Wallace uses a journalistic techinique I also used to use: if an interview subject says something outrageous give him a genuine chance to correct the record, particularly if you believe other news outlets blew it out of proportion. But Gingrich largely stands by use of the term (although he finesses it somewhat):
Gingrich and other GOPers who are seemingly scrambling to get their rhetoric on the same track as slash-and-burn talk show hosts, internet sites and “high concept” sound byte champion Sarah Palin might ponder the impact of this if they hope their party will pick up more support than its already mobilized base. Independent voters can be moody and they can can abandon one side as quickly as they’ve told pollsters they support them.
Just consider the context.
There are a lot of informed predictions now from serious analysts that the Democratic party is headed for a very unhappy election night in November. Perhaps the most significant sign of how much trouble the Democrats could be in can be seen from the comments of longtime Clinton and Democratic party operative James Carville — who has said the Democrats could well lose control of Congress.
There are many reasons why the Dems are in trouble and they’ve been stated often. Just a few: the still-ailing economy; the overall lousy job situation; huge government debt piling up under Obama on top of the George W. Bush debt that many GOPers try to mention as little as possible or get off the subject as quickly as possible so they can talk about Barack Obama as if all the problems started in January 2009; authentic ham-handed overereach by Democrats (WAS the election REALLY about Americans thirsting to usher in a new progressive era or was it about firing the Republicans and the kind of government Americans wound up with under Bush?); the Democrats’ perpetual inability to match the GOP in winning long-term strategies and power politics savvy (Democrats in the past 20 years have come to power with great hopes only to be tossed out and replaced by longer stretches of GOP White House control). And more.
A big factor, most analysts agree now, is that Democrats are losing a good chunk of the independent voter support they garnered to win in 2008. Independent voters have never been a monolithic group — but he who wins the bulk of the independent vote often wins elections in a country that is sharply divided in terms of the two parties.
However, there is a monkey wrench Republicans need to ponder: just as the Dems may have overeached Republican political rhetoric is getting so heated that the party could well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory….or snatch enough defeat from the jaws of victory so a victory isn’t as full bodied as they hoped or thought.
You can’t talk about the bar being lowered anymore. It has been lowered so far that it’s looking up at the BP broken oil well under the Gulf Ocean.
Talk like this by Gingrich and others could wind up scaring away some independent voters — particularly some folks with backgrounds like yours truly who had huge chunks of their families wiped out by REAL Nazis.
Can I make it more clear and emphatic than this:
In no way, shape or form do Barack Obama, the Democrats, or the Republicans resemble the Nazis in terms of actions, intent or draconian policies.
P-E-R-I-O-D.
[You can follow blog discussion of this news story HERE.]
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.