cognitive dissident

Hi,

I agree. I've stayed away from that in the past. But for all of those reasons listed above, I think it's now a valid parallel.

Aside from reading that post from a Repub, I also read Naomi Wolf's "The End of America..." and I found that inspiring as well. It's meant as a primer for younger people, but most everyone interested in these things should take a look.

I am cautious about making explicit "Bush=Hitler" comparisons, which often strike me as both hysterically partisan and historically shallow. In January 2004, TruthOut printed a piece (by someone who lost several family members to the Nazis) which gave me pause. I quote liberally from it, "The Bush Hitler Thing," below:

"So why, now, when I hear GWB's speeches, do I think of Hitler? Why have I drawn a parallel between the Nazis and the present administration? Just one small reason -the phrase 'Never forget'. Never let this happen again. It is better to question our government - because it really can happen here - than to ignore the possibility.

So far, I've seen nothing to eliminate the possibility that Bush is on the same course as Hitler. And I've seen far too many analogies to dismiss the possibility. The propaganda. The lies. The rhetoric. The nationalism. The flag waving. The pretext of 'preventive war'. The flaunting of international law and international standards of justice. The disappearances of 'undesirable' aliens. The threats against protesters. The invasion of a non-threatening sovereign nation. The occupation of a hostile country. The promises of prosperity and security. The spying on ordinary citizens. The incitement to spy on one's neighbors - and report them to the government. The arrogant triumphant pride in military conquest. The honoring of soldiers. The tributes to 'fallen warriors. The diversion of money to the military. The demonization of government appointed 'enemies'. The establishment of 'Homeland Security'. The dehumanization of 'foreigners'. The total lack of interest in the victims of government policy. The incarceration of the poor and mentally ill. The growing prosperity from military ventures. The illusion of 'goodness' and primacy. The new einsatzgrupen forces. Assassination teams. Closed extralegal internment camps. The militarization of domestic police. Media blackout of non-approved issues. Blacklisting of protesters - including the no-fly lists and photographing dissenters at rallies.

There isn't much doubt in my mind - anyone who compares the history of Hitler's rise to power and the progression of recent events in the US cannot avoid the parallels. It's incontrovertible. Is Bush another Hitler? Maybe not, but with each incriminating event, the parallel grows -it certainly cannot be dismissed. There's too much evidence already."

Wasn't sure where to put this, but what the fuck. I posted this at my blog, as well as in response to a myopic buzzard on the local newspaper board:

Came up on a thread where a neocon was warning, in the context of Woodrow Wilson, that we "progressives" should be careful what we wish for...to this I replied:

Watch out what you wish for. Let's see...

When I was a young Nazi, I wished for a State and Party to be elected, just like in the Homeland, that would eventually erode all my civil liberties and fuel hate and divisiveness among my peers. I wished for a handsome Texas Nazi, one much like my hero, to saunter onto the political stage and raise a paramilitary army that operated independently of the State in situations of foreign wars, natural disaster and "emergencies," when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I hoped that there would be a party that hated queers and black people as much as I did, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I prayed to Jesus for a State that would be indistinguishable from Corporations, and that there would be total cooperation between the two for the consolidation of wealth and power, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I implored God to raise a nation of Christians who thought exactly as I did, and if not, we'd ridicule them and ostracize them on TV, radio and the Internets, when I was a young Nazi. I wished for them to forget their savior was a political prisoner, unjustly imprisoned, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I aspired to torture my enemies, in prisons built in spaces untouched by International Law, where I would hot wire their genitals and flush their religion down the toilet, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, most everyone was my enemy, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I dreamed of a president who would sign over to arbitrary arrests on his whim, where they could be tortured and "tried" by a secret military tribunal, when I was a young Nazi. When I was a young Nazi, I dreamed of an America, one just like the one we have today, the one Neoconservative Republicans have worked so hard to create and maintain, yes, when I was a young Nazi.