Bush Inside and Out
Here are a pair of stories about President Bush. The first, by John Chuckman, is specifically for Craig, whose eyes I can see rolling even as I speak, in that it’s a look at ways in which Bush is similar, personality-wise, to Adolf Hitler: Through a glass darkly: An interpretation of Bush’s character. The second, by Michael Katz, is a nice roundup of the ways in which the spinmeisters are burnishing Bush’s image: Image makers obscure president’s policy failures. Thanks to the Smirking Chimp, as usual, for the links.
May 29th, 2003 at 6:58 am
It’s actually a mixture of humor and concern to see these “‘insert name here’ is Hitler” articles that come out on a regular basis. The humor is to see the laughable analogies used to make the case. I’ve had Silly Putty that couldn’t stretch as far as some of these comparisons do to try to make their points! (If your President is wearing an American flag lapel and stands in front of a large American flag, can the gas chambers be very far behind?)
But its disturbing that so many people seem anxiously intent on trying to find the “new Hitler”. My God, wasn’t one enough for everyone?!
I’d write more about this grave issue, but the UPS man is here. Hmmmm, he’s wearing a brown uniform, has a hair comb-over, a cheesy little mustache wanna-be, and greets me with a suspiciously stiff arm wave.
Pardon me while I get my gun.
June 1st, 2003 at 3:27 am
Actually the comparisons with Hussein have been all too readily accepted by a gullible populace and media, surely it’s only fair to examine an opposite view.
The size and scale of Germanys military industrial machine as far back as ’35 was considerable and causing concern. By the late thirties it virtually dwarfed that of all the other European nations who were struggling to catch up by the outbreak of Dubbya Dubbya II. There is no comparison with what we now know to have been the case in Iraq. None.
People who speak of having witnessed Hitler personally, in the mid to late thirties talk not of a demonic and possessed mad man necessarily. Though even in Germany there was concern about some of the things he was saying, nothing could have prepared the world for what was to come. Indeed many of his speeches had reasonable elements given Germanys ‘perceived’ state as a result of the settlement after Dubbya Dubbya I.
Interestingly, Hitler used national security issues to stoke up national feeling and disarm international response when invading Czechoslovakia, and Poland. There are parallels here but not with Hussein.
Fear is a powerful weapon in the hands of a world leader and Hitler used it expertly. Both at home and abroad. There are parallels here too.
Hitler felt personal embodiment with the state, that only he had the will to make Germany a great nation again as it had been and that the exercise of power is in itself is of a greater good. Read the reports of cutting edge ‘neo-conservative’ thinking and there are striking parallels again.
In a world as media saturated as now, with the rest of the globe broadly speaking, hostile to your agenda, ask yourself how a budding Hitler would have operated today? Think carefully before you answer.