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Führer furor

Nazi imagery in the presidential campaign? That's got to stop!

Date published: 7/14/2004

By the White

Dems and GOP need to silence the Nazi talk

IT'S TIME for both sides in this presidential campaign to lay aside the Nazi imagery. They're starting to sound like two kids, on vacation, arguing in the back seat of a car, and we're sick of it.

On June 24, speaking to an audience at the Georgetown University Law Center, former Vice President Al Gore (having apparently found a place in the Kerry campaign as the Democrats' attack dog), loudly attacked President Bush for "misleading" the American people on Iraq. Decrying the failure of the media to press the White House, Mr. Gore said, "The administration works closely with a network of rapid-response digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for undermining support for our troops."

For anyone who's taken leave of history for the summer, the Brown Shirts were thugs who roamed the streets during Hitler's rise to power, providing "security" at Nazi meetings and beating up Socialists. Mr. Gore coined the phrase "digital Brown Shirts" to describe conservative Weblog commentators who take the media to task for perceived liberal bias. (His concern about online commentary makes one wonder: Is Mr. Gore sorry he invented the Internet?) In his speech, Mr. Gore quoted New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who claims that after 9/11, anyone criticizing the president would have to "expect right-wing pundits and publications to do all they could to ruin your reputation."

How frightening! Imagine that! Ruining one's reputation! That's enough to make reporters and editorial writers stay silent. Furthermore, are Messrs. Gore and Krugman saying the Democrats are above all that? Have they seen "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

Meanwhile, the Bush campaign is not off the hook. Several months ago, the left-wing MoveOn.org sponsored a bash-Bush ad contest. One of the entries used footage of Hitler, clearly drawing a comparison between der Führer and Mr. Bush. Although MoveOn.org removed the offensive footage from its Web site, the Republican campaign is using it in ads depicting Kerry supporters as "The Coalition of the Wild-Eyed."

Enough. Using Nazi imagery does nothing to foster reasoned debate, and reasoned debate is precisely what the American people need and deserve this election season. Whither the budget? Whence the troops? What about foreign aid and foreign policy, AIDS and Alzheimer's, kids and catastrophes? What would Bush do? What about Kerry? On whom can we count? Who's right to lead this nation at this time?

It's time for both sides to chill out. Give inflammatory images a rest. Let intelligent thought arise. And we'll all be better off.

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Date published: 7/14/2004