Could the next president of the United States be a man that compared this democracy, however flawed, to the despotic and criminal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany? Recent polls and Ben Carson’s comments aimed at firing up right-wing voters suggest the answer could be a frightening yes.
In March, Carson — a neurosurgeon-turned-conservative columnist — who is seemingly determined to make ludicrous statements to fuel Barack Obama haters and backwood survivalist types fired a shot in a battle that is likely the next front in an offensive meant to catapult him into the Republican party’s 2016 nomination for the White House.
In comments to Breitbart News Network, Carson said the U.S. government is becoming, “very much like Nazi Germany. You had the government using its tools to intimidate the population. We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe.”
On Wednesday, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer gave the off-his-rocker Carson the chance to backtrack from those comments he made back in March. He did not. Instead, he did his best to further deepen the gaping sinkhole right-wing political discourse has become.
Blizter also asked Carson if he still believed, as in earlier comments, that Obamacare was the “worst thing” to happen to the country “since slavery.” Carson replied that comparing the healthcare reform law against various catastrophes, like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 or the Great Depression is “not the point.”
When Carson was handed another opening to clarify or edit this ridiculous comparison, he obnoxiously found fault with the interviewer, telling him the question itself was “part of the problem.”
“What you were doing is allowing words to affect you more than listening to what was actually being said,” Carson said. “You are just focusing on the words ‘Nazi Germany’ and completely missing the point of what is being said.”
So are we to believe that words and an uncolored reading of history is not that important to Carson?
Of course, Blizter was right to focus on Carson’s words. They were appalling. Criticize, debate, hate the government or the president, but please, please, please stop comparing an elected president, government or any leader in a democracy where people vote to Nazi Germany or Hitler. Its incredibly offensive and a terribly faulty analogy.
And it really has nothing to do with a Jewish or non-Jewish background. Even brief study of Hitler’s life clearly reveals he undoubtedly helped create and propagate the Nazi regime, that he was a villainously evil maniac and that the Nazis were bent on world domination and bringing ethnic cleansing to far corners of the globe — which resulted in the murder and massacre of millions.
It’s one thing for street-corner crackpots to stand outside post offices with Obama posters comparing him to Hitler, complete with a super-imposed toothbrush mustache, but is this really what passes for discussion these days?
Sadly, apparently it is.
Noah Zuss is a reporter for TheBlot Magazine.
