Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma made some remarks that make me question how he ever got elected. He said that “If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election,” and that voting against Bush is equivalent to supporting Hitler in WWII.
Listen, fucknut. Electing John Kerry does not mean that terrorists will have free reign over the country. It means that the American public has had enough of the lying, the rampant unemployment and the discriminatory remarks and wants to replace the leader. And indirectly comparing Kerry to Hitler was a really classy move. Maybe later you can compare Bush to Gandhi or something.
It is just the beginning. This election is just going to be awful. The President may try to maintain a posture of dignity and propriety and keep the whole thing in the Rose Garden, but his surrogates, the windbag TV and radio commentators, the balderdash pundits, the sycophant Congressmen and the corporate cronies will be out in force with their knives drawn. This is going to be war to the knife and the knife to the hilt. And rightly so since this is a fight for the soul of this nation.
Remember, every bullet shot at a Union soldier boy was fired by a Democrat.
The hell of it is that Cole, as Bush’s surrogate, is resorting to a fascist tactic: skirt debate and difference of opinion by linking their man to righteousness and patriotism, and damning dissenting views out of hand. This is the kind of tactic I would expect of Hitler. The idea that questioning your leader is tantamount to following fascists is absurd and destructive.
If Bush himself tolerates this kind of rhetoric, then he’s complicit. Plain and simple. Not that Bush would earn my vote by turning on people who say things like Cole is saying, but by not policing such behavior, the Republican Party earns my disgust and contempt. Fascist tactics have no place in American democracy. Cole needs to apologize, and Bush needs to rebuke him. And, if he’s interested in changing the tone in Washington, he will. So it goes without saying that he won’t.
Second response and we are into the Adolf comparisons. A new record?
The last thing that Democrats and other reasonable and patriotic folks who think the future of the Republic requires the removal of the present unholy alliance of the Blue Noses, the reactionaries and the Robber Barons should be doing is surrendering to the impulse for name calling. Rational and straight forward plain talk about the need for the invasion of Iraq, the failure to prepare for the disorder that followed, the unthinking allegiance to free trade and cheap overseas labor, the dissipation of a budget surplus for the short term benefit of the uber rich, the failure to protect the environment, the sale of the country’s future to the highest bidder, the restriction of traditional personal liberty, reproductive rights, the subordination of science and medicine to politics and the tactic of scare politics is what we have to talk about long, loud and incessantly.
Hitler talk, while cheap and easy, is not going to get anything done but offend people who expect more of the election than waiving the bloody shirt and a grand war whoop for the starry flag and the great bird of liberty. Let the President and his lick spittles enunciate the defamatory connections and tilt at straw men. Against all expectations the American electorate can tell honest political argument from hysterical hyperbole. Give them a choice. Let people like the redneck Congressman pursue the low road. Reply to it, condemn it as the appeal to irrationality it is, but don’t start it.
Absolutely despicable. I’m not so sure Senator Kerry is the right man for the job, but so far as I can see, his loyalty, patriotism and integrity are unquestionable. This sort of rhetorical device has no place in intellectually honest discourse.
And shile we’re on the subject – brianjedi, what was your response to the moveon.org ads about President Bush?
The one with the kids working is not too bad. Several of the others are just too over the top, and I think they’re going to turn some people off with them if they push too hard. I admire their efforts to get some discussion going, but I’m afraid that they may be too strong ideologically.
Anyone have a link to a story on Cole’s remarks, other than a press release from the office of the Democratic Whip? Not that I doubt the gist of the story, but it would be interesting to see an account from a non-partisan source.
The over-the-top hyperbolic crap has been bad enough on the SDMB in recent months; it’s depressing to think of what it will be like as election fever takes hold.
So the “paraphrasing” of Cole’s remarks was just a bit inaccurate.
*“What do you think Hitler would have thought if Roosevelt would’ve lost the election in 1944? He would have thought American resolve was” (weakening), Cole said, according to a spokeswoman.
After local news reports paraphrased Cole as claiming a vote against Bush is a vote for Hitler, some Democrats demanded he apologize.*
Still moronic, just not as outrageously moronic.
Well, that’s a lukewarm condemnation at best – certainly a far cry from “Listen, fucknut…” in your OP.
Why in the world would you provide such a tepid response to ads that compare Bush to Hitler, and yet get so upset over a comment that compares Kerry to Hitler?
You will pardon me, Bricker, but what ad compares President Bush to Hitler? For that matter who, except the Oklahoma Congressman and then in only a tenuous manner, compares Senator Kerry to Hitler. Who am I supposed to be work up at, and why?
The stupidity, the irrationality, the partisan hyperbole is the contention that if President Bush is not re-elected (my God prevent) Osama will have won.
Maybe because NOT A SINGLE MOVEON.ORG AD COMPARED BUSH TO HITLER???
Dammit Bricker, you know better. There were ads submitted to a moveon.org contest that featured that argument, but they were never aired, and never used, and they were removed from web access as soon as they were discovered. :smack: (and no, I ain’t smackin’ MY forehead there)
I’m not surprised. The RNC can throw these guys out left and right to say everything outrageous to pander to the right wing idealogues. That way Bush can seem to be above the fray. You might get an “Oh…we don’t really feel that way” sometimes but the speaker will not be chastised.
I still wonder what Cole’s point was. If Roosevelt had lost in 44 I doubt the course of the war would be much different, if at all. If Kerry wins in 04, that won’t put Bin Laden in the clear either.
Why of course it would have made a difference. We all know that Dewey (Dewey?) Would have called the GIs back across the Rhine, cut off aid to the Russians, refused to give the Brits gasoline and started negotiating for a separate peace with Adolf. This is the problem with hyperbole, it cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
