Culture, Global, Identity, Politics

Manufactured Outrage: Using Holocaust Hysteria To Win An Election

This week right-wing media figureheads such as Matt Drudge, Abraham Foxman and Michael Medved, and publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post stooped to all new lows as they joined forces with the Republican party (RNC) to slander MoveOn.org and their Bush in 30 Seconds contest. Cynically, they used the Holocaust and anti-semitism as a tool to slander the entire Democratic party—and the left in general—and to try to distract people from the perfectly legitimate reasons for one to make a comparison between the Bush regime and the Hitler regime.


Here’s some quick background: MoveOn.org, a private organization founded by two silicon valley entrepreneurs, was given several million dollars recently by financier George Soros who was forced to flee Hungary to escape the Nazis as a child. Soros commented in an interview with the Washington Post regarding his donation to MoveOn, “When I hear Bush say, ‘You’re either with us or against us,’ it reminds me of the Germans.” Soros continues, “It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit (‘The enemy is listening’).”

Out of thousands of entries sent in by random web viewers unaffiliated with MoveOn itself, two submissions made comparisons between Bush’s use of the infamous pre-emptive war doctrine and the Third Reich’s use of the very same doctrine. After World War II, the doctrine of pre-emptive war was determined to be a war crime at the subsequent Nuremberg tribunals.

The RNC went into full Walter Winchell red-baiting slander mode and enlisted their right-wing Jewish minions to do most of the actual dirty work. Ed Gillespie, of the RNC falsely accused the activist website of “sponsoring” the two ads in question. Pundits Matt Drudge, Abraham Foxman of the ADL and Michael Medved—among others—helped distort and twist the situation around to further the Republican’s agenda. The tactics they used were incredibly cynical and manipulative and in a manner that in my opinion displays a total risregard for the lessons of the Holocaust.

The RNC, overlooking the disclaimer on every MoveOn commercial (“The viewpoints and opinions expressed in this ad are not necessarily endorsed by MoveOn.org Voter Fund, MoveOn.org, or the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest.”) put out press releases and pushed the angle that MoveOn stood behind the message of two submissions and that so did the Democratic party by extension. ADL’s Foxman put out a press release that said his organization was “deeply troubled that MoveOn.org had allowed an outrageous and highly offensive political ad that directly compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler to be posted on its Web site.”

Matt Drudge’s muck-raking scandal sheet Drudge Report treated this RNC propaganda push as if it was huge news, even breaking out his rarely used flashing police light graphic, which he normally reserves for only the biggest, most explosive stories—political resignations, massive terror attacks, etc. But this is total hypocrisy—The MoveOn organization had removed the two commercials the minute there were complaints. The copies of the ads DrudgeReport.com had linked to were on the RNC website! So the Republican party is equally guilty of hosting the commercials and—in fact—the majority of people who have seen them undoubtedly got them from the RNC website. Why isn’t Abe Foxman “deeply troubled” that the Republican party allowed the commercials to be posted to its site? If Matt Drudge is so offended that these commercials were posted on the web then why did he link to them at the RNC site? The fact that Drudge knew there were copies of the commercials hidden somewhere on the RNC site strongly suggests that they were the ones who passed the story on to him. Otherwise how would he know how to find them?

But that’s not my biggest concern. I’m more worried about the ADL here, so I want to know, where was Abe Foxman’s righteous indignation when Rush Limbaugh was calling women who dared to stand up for their rights “feminazis?” Where was the RNC’s outrage every time Neil Boortz, Michael Savage and Ann Coulter referred to Senator Clinton as “Hitlery?”

Where was Abe Foxman when Ariel Sharon was rolling out the red carpet for the head of the Italian far-right wing National Alliance party, Gianfranco Fini? Italy’s National Alliance party is the legal heir to Mussolini’s Fascist party—the same fascist party that was allied with Hitler and sent thousands of Italian Jews to their deaths in the camps.

Why is it OK with Abe Foxman that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger toasted his friend and former Nazi party member Kurt Waldheim at his wedding to Maria Shriver, and that Schwarzenegger to this day refuses to condemn Waldheim for his Nazi past? What about the fact that Arnold once said he admired Hitler? Shouldn’t he have been drawing attention to these facts during the recall election?

All this just makes me wonder who or what Foxman is working for.

On January 5, Ralph Peters’ New York Post column—likening Howard Dean to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and Dean’s followers to Nazi Brownshirts, got no comment from any right-wing media pundits. How come? Isn’t that horribly offensive? The Wall Street Journal demanded an apology from MoveOn, but made no mention of The New York Post article. As of 5:00pm EST, Wednesday, a Google News search returned more than 100 stories on the MoveOn.org fiasco, with the bulk of coverage casting a negative light on MoveOn.org. A similar search on Peters’ Dean-Nazi comparison returns only one story—The New York Post column itself.

And forget about getting the RNC to comment on Grover Norquist comparing the estate tax to the Holocaust.

As Mobius’ friend SNAFU noted on Jakeneck, an article from the Free Press details the Bush families actual connections to the rise of the Nazi party:

Because legal action was taken, Bush’s deeds have been a matter of public record since 1942. They were widely covered in newspapers and electronic media at the time. The history is readily accessible. But right-wing Bush fanatics continue to deny those ties existed. In a nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talk host Michael Medved recently claimed that Prescott Bush’s bank’s ties to the Nazis had not been established.

Why is Michael Medved covering for Bush’s family’s documented illegal dealings with the Nazi regime? How far would he stoop to help the Republicans?

Washington Post editor Bob Woodward’s book about Bush’s war-making apparatus (Bush at War) says that Bush’s master political strategist, Karl Rove, was said to have compared the post-9/11 display at the World Series in Yankee Stadium to a Nazi rally. The Republicans see the resemblance that was pointed out in the MoveOn commercials too, only they revel in it.

Forgive me for saying so, but the Republicans, the growing legion of Jewish Uncle Tom-like RNC minions, and most of all the ADL, don’t seem to have as much (if any) interest in defending Jews or the victims of the Holocaust or in preventing real anti-semitism as they do in using the Holocaust to further their right-wing political agenda of pre-emptive war. In time, such things will only damn the Jewish people, but most certainly, they will not help them.

25 thoughts on “Manufactured Outrage: Using Holocaust Hysteria To Win An Election

  1. yeah, afghanistan, unprovoked. 11 of 15 hijackers were from saudi arabia, not afghanistan. and, factually speaking, there is still no evidence linking osama bin laden nor al qaeda to september 11. just “intelligence” which could be just as faulty as that claiming the existence of WMD in iraq.

  2. well..then how about the fact that bin laden declaration of war in 1996 ->”against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.”
    A hotel bombing in Yemen targeting U.S. troops in 1992
    The World Trade Center truck bombing in 1993
    The bombing of a U.S. military housing facility called the Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, in 1996
    The bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998
    The bombing of the USS Cole in 2000

  3. ” well..then how about the fact that bin laden declaration of war in 1996″
    bin Laden is one person, and he is not and never has been a recognized representative of any government. Therefore he cannot declare war on behalf of any country.
    A hotel bombing in Yemen targeting U.S. troops in 1992
    The World Trade Center truck bombing in 1993
    The bombing of a U.S. military housing facility called the Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, in 1996
    The bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998
    The bombing of the USS Cole in 2000

    All of those are crimes. None of them amount to a declaration of war by Afghanistan against America.

  4. Uh huh. Well I’m here to tell you that your neighbor said something bad about me and now I have to take it out on you.
    See, It’s my policy that the neighbors of anyone who slanders me is also my sworn enemy, even though they didn’t say it and the offensive person also bullies them. They harbor criminals in their apartment building, so as far as I’m concerned, they all slandered me even though I’ve never spoken with any of the neighbors before.
    j/k

  5. http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=225
    “In an interview with the Associated Press, Richard Clarke, President Clinton’s coordinator for counter-terrorism outlined the administration’s strategy. Clarke said that the U.S. could bomb government facilities or civilian infrastructure in countries that knowingly harbor terrorists. The State Department was careful to distinguish between countries fighting an internal terrorist presence; and countries–such as Sudan and Afghanistan–that willingly give safe haven to terrorists and defy international efforts to bring terrorists to justice.”

  6. I forgot to tell you about my other policy.
    Richard Clarke said that the last resident of my apartment broke the rules, and therefore I should also be allowed to break the rules. Hey what if Charlie Manson once lived in my apartment. Does that mean…
    Almost makes sense if you accept that Clinton’s wag the dog bombing scandal was legitimate and legal. I however do not, so I don’t care what Clinton did – that doesn’t seem to be relevant to the basic legality of attacking a country that has not attacked you first under the UN Charter (Article II, Section 4) and the Nuremberg Charter.

  7. so is what your saying, i can set up a government who harbors terrorists, and allows them to do anything they want/attack whomever they want, meanwhile i can just say, hey its not the state, its these terrorist organizations who live here..oh and by the way, i am not gonna do anything about it..
    wonder what that would be like…oh wait..

  8. so is what your saying, i can set up a government who harbors terrorists, and allows them to do anything they want/attack whomever they want, meanwhile i can just say, hey its not the state, its these terrorist organizations who live here..oh and by the way, i am not gonna do anything about it..
    Well no I didn’t say anything close to that, now did I
    in fact
    1) The Taliban warned America of 9/11 and America ignored the warning.
    Revealed: The Taliban minister, the US envoy and the warning of September 11 that was ignored, By Kate Clark, The Independent [UK] – Sept 7, 2002
    2) The Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial even though no extradition treaty existed between the two countries.
    New offer on Bin Laden, by Rory McCarthy – The Guardian [UK]- October 17, 2001
    For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the US without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the bombing, a source close to Pakistan’s military leadership said.
    But US officials appear to have dismissed the proposal and are instead hoping to engineer a split within the Taliban leadership.

  9. ok..what were you saying then. how should countries that harbor terrorists be dealt with.
    isn’t it possible that the u.s government though that it was more effective to bring down the once ruling taliban government which was a safe haven for al quida, and would probably continue to be so, than just getting the one person – bin laden. much like the capture of saddam has not put an end to the violence in iraq, would the capture of bin laden put an end to al quida and their planned attacks.

  10. it’s a valid point; but if you really want to ‘cut the head off’, why not go right to the source–saudi arabia?

  11. i agree – all about the oil no doubt.
    be that as it may, i still don’t agree with the statement
    “Its unprovoked attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq have prompted thoughtful comparisons to the unprovoked Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.”
    so if the point is valid, then in what way was afghanistan unprovoked?

  12. How do you even begin to compare Bush with Hitler? Did you ever even take a history class, let alone read a book about the Nazis? Apparently not, because then you wouldn’t be making a comparison between a killer bent on ethnic cleansing and aryan world domination with a national leader focused on the defense of his country against acts of terrorism that are based in the same ideology Hitler purported- that Jews, and all infidels must be destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. Your remarks are illogical, unfathomable, and unjustified by both history and current events.

  13. from t r u t h o u t:
    ” My family was one of Hitler’s victims. We lost a lot under the Nazi occupation, including an uncle who died in the camps and a cousin killed by a booby trap. I was terrified when my father went ballistic after finding my brother and me playing with a hand grenade. (I was only 12 at the time, and my brother insisted the grenade was safe.) I remember the rubble and the hardships of ‘austerity’ – and the bomb craters from Allied bombs. As late as the 1980s, I had to take detours while bombs were being removed – they litter the countryside, buried under parking lots,buildings, and in the canals and rivers to this day. Believe me, I learned a lot about Hitler while I was growing up, both in Europe and here in the US – both my parents were in the war and talked about it constantly, unlike most American families. I spent my earliest years with the second-hand fear that trickled down from their PTSD – undiagnosed and untreated in those days.
    …snip…
    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.”
    The Bush Hitler Thing
    t r u t h o u t | Reader Submission

  14. “” My family was one of Hitler’s victims. We lost a lot under the Nazi occupation, including an uncle who died in the camps and a cousin killed by a booby trap.”
    There are families who will never know whether or not their loved ones survived September 11th, because their bodies were never found, or because they died as John and Jane Does in the hospitals hours after the attacks.
    “I remember the rubble and the hardships of ‘austerity’ – and the bomb craters from Allied bombs. As late as the 1980s, I had to take detours while bombs were being removed – they litter the countryside, buried under parking lots,buildings, and in the canals and rivers to this day.”
    And we’re supposed to be uneffected because we were able to clean up the craters left by the Twin Towers within a few years?
    There’s a vast difference between national defense and world domination. Don’t get sanctimonious and think you’re saving the world from terror by repeating “Never forget” and saying it can really happen here. It HAS happened here, and the purpose of Bush’s national security plans are to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

  15. the t r u t h o u t essay continues:
    “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.”

  16. “A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an “unnecessary” war in Iraq and pursuing an “unrealistic” quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat.
    The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is “near the breaking point.” . . .
    Record’s core criticism is that the administration is biting off more than it can chew. He likens the scale of U.S. ambitions in the war on terrorism to Adolf Hitler’s overreach in World War II. “A cardinal rule of strategy is to keep your enemies to a manageable number,” he writes. “The Germans were defeated in two world wars . . . because their strategic ends outran their available means.”
    More, with link to report, at: Study Published by Army Criticizes War on Terror’s Scope

  17. Truth is, the Right is co-opting both sides of anti-semitism now. It’s much more than feigning offense at these ads. Take the Brooks editorial from the NY Times the other day, drawing a connection between disagreement with neocon policies and antisemitism (neo = Jew). They are treading very dangerous ground. Ground we must tread now too.

  18. The irony is riveting. You accuse the right of making up this unbelievably false accusation of the Left comparing Bush to Hitler and then you go ahead and validate it.
    Are you for real?
    Mo, lets get real frank here. You are far too intelligent for this Crap. Bush and Hitler have in common that they have two legs and thats about it. It is a disgrace to the victims of Hitler to even make the comaprison and it is an insult to your own intelligence to try to defend it.
    Try not to do things in your youth which you will regret as you mature.

  19. I wonder, if there’d been a Hitler before Hitler, if anyone who tried to compare the latter to the former would get blasted for disgracing the memories of the victims of the former.

  20. Never compare Bush to Hitler. It does not even come close. My grandpa survived Dachau and he voted for Bush. So why not you shut your sorry excuse for a mouth before you say something else stupid.

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