The left is the personification of that crazy, drooling old man you see standing on a street corner in his underwear warning about doomsday. When the day of apocalypse comes and goes, he immediately clings to his next prediction and tells us, “This time I’m right!” This is how the left operates.
This has been on display anytime a Republican is president, a conservative has a genuine chance of winning the White House, or a libertarian is winning the hearts and minds of millions of people.
Anytime the left loses power over the population, or there is a legitimate threat that they might, they employ all of their resources – the press, professional protesters, and George Soros funds – and embark upon a campaign of hellfire, doom, and frenzy.
You should never be surprised when this happens. What else can you expect when the left applies Saul Alinsky’s ninth rule from his seminal 1971 book, Rules for Radicals? According to Alinsky, “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself,” adding:
“Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)”
Remember, other Republicans were “literally Hitler” before it was cool to be compared to a dictator.
The Coming Apocalypse
During the 1964 U.S. election, then-President Lyndon Baines Johnson made history by releasing one of the very first iconic television campaign advertisements. Called “Daisy,” the ad effectively told the American people that a vote for the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), was a vote for a nuclear holocaust. In the end, Johnson garnered 61% of the vote and 486 electoral college votes.
While U.S. politics has always been a bitter and ruthless arena, even dating back to the era of the Founding Fathers, it really metastasized into a WWE Hell in a Cell match on a daily basis in the 2000s.
Once President George W. Bush received the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the left tried to exact revenge for Al Gore, the Messiah of Global Warming, and his election loss. They pulled out every stop, from hinting that he was somehow connected to racist murders in Texas to suggesting his administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina was really a racist plot. The Nazi comparisons were ubiquitous, too, with prominent individuals claiming the Bush team used “Nazi tactics” to win elections, the administration collaborated with “digital brownshirts,” and the Bush White House’s response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was the same as the Reichstag fire.
No matter what you say about Bush – he will certainly go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history – it eventually became nauseating when he was routinely compared to Hitler.
Of course, the left’s famous descriptors were absent throughout the reign of his successor, President Barack Obama, despite maintaining a lot of the same Bush policies, from foreign policy to domestic surveillance.
The parade of attacks returned when former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) secured the GOP nomination in 2012. In addition to accusations of racism, Islamophobia, and homophobia, Romney was given the Nazi treatment at times.
Mitt Romney
David Axelrod, chief strategist for President Obama’s re-election campaign, compared Romney to Hitler in a tweet. Then-Vice President Joe Biden warned black Americans that Romney was going to put “y’all back in chains.” Author Dan Savage accused Romney of being “100% anti-gay.” The former governor’s wife, Ann, was not immune from the Hitler comparisons, as The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg likened her to Hitler and Josef Stalin.
Even Republican candidates who had no shot of winning the nomination or the presidency were targets of hysteria. When former Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) was introducing millions of Americans to libertarianism in 2008, and then making gains in the GOP primaries in 2012, the mainstream media panicked, misrepresenting his views, reporting fake news, and suppressing exposure.
Every CNN broadcast featured anchors, hosts, and panelists calling Dr. Paul an isolationist, when he really advocated for a non-interventionist foreign policy. The corporate press routinely attempted to link Paul to racists and white supremacists. When Paul would make it to the top of surveys, straw polls, and primary contests, the media suppressed the coverage, which was hilariously highlighted by Jon Stewart.
And then there’s President Trump.
Trump Derangement Syndrome
Here a few headlines from some mainstream publications over the last two years”
Philadelphia Daily News: “The New Furor.”
The Sacramento Bee: “As Trump consolidates his power, the history of 1930s Germany repeats itself.”
The Washington Post: “It’s not wrong to compare Trump’s America to the Holocaust. Here’s why.”
Foreign Policy: “Donald Trump Is a Nazi Sympathizer.”
The Baltimore Sun: “Trump-Nazi parallel is, sadly, all too real.”
If so many respected and esteemed intellects are declaring Trump as a Hitler incarnate, then it must be true, right? The main problem is that the left has cried wolf so many times over the years that it can’t be taken seriously.
While the left is trying to follow Alinsky’s ninth rule, they are also forgetting about Rule Seven: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
Some of Trump’s biggest opponents are beginning to declare that we have reached peak Trump-as-Hitler, noting that these comparisons are only helping his administration, not hurting.
Unfortunately, every time there is a hint of sanity returning to the left, they scrap that good faith and pounce on the littlest thing as a sign that the KKK has taken over the White House.
This Time It’s Different
In the days following the historic 2016 election, HBO host Bill Maher admitted that “liberals made a big mistake” when they attacked Bush, Romney, and other Republicans like they were “the end of the world.” Maher was one of those who regularly resorted to Nazi analogies.
The left will never learn its lesson, though. Yesterday, Bush was a reprehensible war criminal, but today Bush is a likeable hero for standing up to Trump. Yesterday, Romney was an iniquitous slave master, but today he is an admirable man because he opposed Trump. Today, Trump is literally Hitler, but tomorrow he will be missed because the next Republican candidate or leader will be a fascist dictator ready to toss blacks, gays, and women into ovens – we promise!
Remember, if everybody’s Hitler, then nobody is. There will only be one Hitler, and no politician, Republican or Democrat, is proposing the extermination of a race or the installation of concentration camps. If you think the okay sign is a hidden message for these policies, then it is time to toss out your inventory of tin foil and stop reading Keith Olbermann tweets because they are poisoning your mind.
Is Saul Alinsky’s ninth rule working? Let us know in the comments section!
