To most people, Nazi analogies summon up images of the Holocaust and a ruthless dictatorship. To the left however, any populist reaction against their rule is Nazism. In their world, there is a battle between progressive and reactionary forces. Any movement that dares to run for office by challenging progressive policies is reactionary, fascist and the second coming of the Third Reich. Republican victories are lazily attributed by liberal hacks to mindless public anger being exploited by right-wing demagogues.
And so the only thing we can truly be certain of is that any Republican nominee will be Hitler. It doesn’t matter what he believes. It doesn’t matter if Democrats considered him a moderate 5 minutes ago. Accusations of Nazism remain the default argument for a Democratic Party turned far to the left.
Republicans aren’t progressive. Therefore they’re Hitler. It’s really that simple.
This tactic goes back to FDR.
I've personally experienced the ability to see anyone the Republicans nominate as an extremist.
(And amazingly, in a Bizarro World anti-extremist viewpoint, the Left celebrates President Obama as a non-ideological pragmatist. Which begs the question of why they would worship a man who is not the most left-wing president we've ever had.)
I know someone who, early in the 2012 election cycle, sadly complained to me that Republicans were leaning to Rick Perry of Texas when they could have supported a nice moderate like Mitt Romney.
By the autumn, this person was speaking of Romney as a dangerous right winger. There was no awareness of her mental evolution. The liberal Interwebs called Romney a dangerous right winger, and so he was. Although to be fair, I didn't hear a Hitler comparison, but the concept holds.
This is how the Big Lie works.
Projection. The Left might want to look into it. Perhaps start on college campuses where young Maoists demonstrate what they'd do with power if they got it.
Or look at how
“In 2006, Greenpeace USA mistakenly issued a press release stating ‘In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world’s worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]’.”
That howler is followed by a roster of less amusing cases in which media stunts were later found to be built on falsehoods or resulted in arrests, such as the case of Greenpeace Japan activists convicted in 2010 of theft and trespass. No corporation could get away with the tactics employed by Greenpeace and stay in business, but the organization has managed to play by its own rules for years. Until now.
Yeah. Just fill in the blank with the latest Republican. The script has been written for many decades now.
