The Smears Sink Lower
I want to bring to your attention an article by Thomas Sowell at National Review Online that contains one of the slimiest, most contemptible innuendos I have seen in a long time. I want to say that I was alerted to this by a post at the great website, Sadly No. I generally try to mine wingnut sites myself, but this particular remark is so abominable that I can't avoid bringing it to your attention.
As you may know, in discussing his imminent Supreme Court selection, President Obama remarked that he believed justices should have some degree of empathy with the people affected by their actions. This was not a casual remark (Obama's remarks rarely are) but at the same time it wasn't some massive statement of principle. Any decent person, one would think, would find nothing to complain about in this statement.
Not Mr. Sowell. Here is his response to that comment:
"Those people who just accept soothing words from politicians they like are gambling with the future of a nation. If you were German, would you be in favor of a law “to relieve the distress of the German people and nation”? That was the law that gave Hitler dictatorial power.
He was just another German chancellor at the time. He was not elected on a platform of war, dictatorship, or genocide. He got the power to do those things because of a law “to relieve the distress of the German people.”
In Obama's first three months in office, we've already heard a number of right wing liars pushing their ludicrous hatemongering comparing Obama to Hitler. This, however, is a new low- taking an absolutely irrelevant remark of Obama's to make the assertion that he is a Nazi. And this is based on a comment about empathy that had absolutely nothing to do with "relieving the distress" of anyone, certainly not in Hitler's sense.
This is what we have to expect for the rest of Obama's time in office. Republican ideology, and Republicans themselves, have proven to be corrupt failures. Obama seems to be turning things around. And you know what? It's not because he is the greatest statesman of all time. It wasn't that hard- all he had to do is try to make things better for the vast majority of us who are not rich. That's really all it took, but it's something that the Republicans would never think of. It's so much easier to scream about Hitler.
Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at one of the oldest and most prestigious right wing foundations, the Hoover Institution. I guess that shows what it takes to be a conservative intellectual in today's world.
As you may know, in discussing his imminent Supreme Court selection, President Obama remarked that he believed justices should have some degree of empathy with the people affected by their actions. This was not a casual remark (Obama's remarks rarely are) but at the same time it wasn't some massive statement of principle. Any decent person, one would think, would find nothing to complain about in this statement.
Not Mr. Sowell. Here is his response to that comment:
"Those people who just accept soothing words from politicians they like are gambling with the future of a nation. If you were German, would you be in favor of a law “to relieve the distress of the German people and nation”? That was the law that gave Hitler dictatorial power.
He was just another German chancellor at the time. He was not elected on a platform of war, dictatorship, or genocide. He got the power to do those things because of a law “to relieve the distress of the German people.”
In Obama's first three months in office, we've already heard a number of right wing liars pushing their ludicrous hatemongering comparing Obama to Hitler. This, however, is a new low- taking an absolutely irrelevant remark of Obama's to make the assertion that he is a Nazi. And this is based on a comment about empathy that had absolutely nothing to do with "relieving the distress" of anyone, certainly not in Hitler's sense.
This is what we have to expect for the rest of Obama's time in office. Republican ideology, and Republicans themselves, have proven to be corrupt failures. Obama seems to be turning things around. And you know what? It's not because he is the greatest statesman of all time. It wasn't that hard- all he had to do is try to make things better for the vast majority of us who are not rich. That's really all it took, but it's something that the Republicans would never think of. It's so much easier to scream about Hitler.
Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at one of the oldest and most prestigious right wing foundations, the Hoover Institution. I guess that shows what it takes to be a conservative intellectual in today's world.
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