The right wing are masters of jingoism and simplistic but emotional "political marketing". Their repeated use of the symbolism of Nazi Germany is a case in point.
Last summer I forced myself to listen to Rush Limbaugh again, perhaps as some form of political rubber-necking. He was complaining about the left's criticism of his associating the Obama administration with Hitler's Nazi party.
Here's a general paraphrase of Rush's statement:
"I didn't mean that Obama's administration was involved in killing of Jewish people and invading neighboring countries, but rather that their excessive government services, such as health-care, were like that of the Nazi's." [paraphrased]
Rush could have compared the healthcare proposal to several dozen other country's government services, many an equal or better fit, let alone more recent. Instead, he chooses to compare it to 1940's Germany. While it may be technically true that the Nazi government provided what the right may call "socialized medicine", to use them as the comparison subject instead of say modern day Norway, is obviously emotion-based symbolic manipulation.
Comparing to Norway or Canada won't pack the same emotionally-stirring punch as Nazi Germany. Although Rush's statement is not an outright lie, it's certainly an offensive and misleading comparison. It can almost be compared to the fallacy, "You have a mustache, and so did Hitler. Therefore, you are evil like Hitler." It's cheap political marketing that borders on "evil", if you will.
Glenn Beck has topped this kind of sick manipulation when he talked about Nazi's eugenics program and cried on Fox News because one of the Nazi eugenics poster subjects reminded him of his daughter, who has cerebral palsy.
His argument was basically that socialized healthcare leads to a slippery slope down into Nazi-like eugenics. But, almost the entire industrial world has socialized healthcare. Yet they are not turning into mad Nazi's. (Letting people die in the streets for the crime of "being poor" is arguable fairly close to that, however.) Glenn is using child-like "playground logic". Using his daughter's illness as a tool for such sick public manipulation is, however, more than just a play-ground prank.
I don't know whether such forced associations are due to ignorance, self-deception, drama addiction, or some other pathology; but it is disturbing and the right-wind media keep doing it in excess. There are many poorly-educated and willfully-ignorant people in America who are susceptible to poor logic delivered with powerful acting.
Fox News should fire the bastard if they had any real standards. But, unfortunately, they don't. Rupert Murdoch appears to believe that the ends justify the means. If he has to destroy the left using misleading manipulation and emotional gimmicks, he will.
And, I hope Glenn's daughter gets well enough to slap her stupid, drama-queen father.
