Congressman Paul Broun has gotten himself into hot water this week by referring to President-elect Obama as a 'Marxist,' and saying Obama's plan to create a civilian security force as strong and well funded as the military is what "Hitler did in Nazi Germany and what the Soviet Union did." He did, however, go on to clarify his comments, saying "I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler." Of course, the Congressman has now come out and apologized to whoever was offended.
I realize it is tricky to bring up the Nazis and not get caught up in the emotional aspect of it, but it should be obvious that the Congressman was not saying 'President-elect Obama is just like Hitler.' Forget for a moment whether his original analogy is a good one. Is it not a good thing to be able to learn from history, the good and the bad? If we can't model our society after the good that came before us, we are doomed to guessing games about which policies might work. Conversely, if we cannot try and avoid policies in the past that have proved unwise, how are we supposed to make sure our civilization doesn't travel down paths that have proved to have bad consequences?
There have been many leaders in many governments that existed on this earth who have done some horrible things. Are we only able to learn from their bigotry? Can we not also learn from the failures of their structure of government as well? The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were gigantic failures, would it be wise to understand why? How else are we to know whether we're on the same path? Even if President-elect Obama had a policy similar to one of Hitler's or Stalin's it doesn't mean he IS Hitler or Stalin. After all, Germany was a democracy when it elected Hitler, just as we are a democracy. Does making that comparison mean I am saying all Americans are Nazis? Of course not.
Unfortunately, I believe we are so partisan now that we're all just waiting for someone on the 'other side' to say something we can twist and make into a political victory for 'our side.'. We have lost the ability to have civil conversations. The Congressman could be wrong about how President-elect Obama's civilian security force will be structured, I don't know. Or he could be wrong about how Hitler's was structured. His comparison could be entirely in-accurate. But he should be able to make the comparison. Especially since he isn't even talking about Hitler's bigotry, but rather his rise to, and consolidation of, power. If we can't have a dialogue about that, we're damning ourselves to repeat the same mistakes those before us did.
Lets all just calm down, take a breath, and more importantly stop looking at each other as though we are enemies just waiting to be exploited.
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