The use of Holocaust rhetoric -- of likening people you don't agree with to Hitler and government agencies you don't like to the Gestapo, is not just bloodless, cruel and beyond the pale; it is growing by leaps and bounds. As they say in German, "Wieder . . . shon genug!" (Again, enough already!)

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Wieder . . . SHON GENUG!

A little over three years ago, I published an op-ed piece entitled Shoyn Genug! -- Yiddish for "Enough Already!"  In the essay, I excoriated a number of politicians and media figures for likening President Obama as well as various members of Congress to Adolf Hitler, and for comparing various policies, programs and proposals they opposed to the Holocaust.  The purpose of that article -- as its title easily indicates -- was to cry out "Enough Already;" to call out those who blithely inject their speeches and statements with such historically chilling terms as "Hitler," "Gestapo," "storm-trooper," or "Holocaust."

That 2009 op-ed spoke of three serial Holocaust rhetoricians: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Orly Taitz. That in 2012 one (Beck) is no longer on television and one (Taitz) could easily be the subject of a "Where Are They Now?" column is good; it does show a bit of progress.  Of Limbaugh, regrettably, we must say Ach, ist dass eselhengst immer noch bei uns -- namely, "Alas that Jackass is still with us . . ."

 

And yet, despite all the times he's been called on the carpet for comparing Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, or using Holocaust-tainted rhetoric, Limbaugh is unrepentant . . . and still earning more than $730,000 a week, 52 weeks a year. 

Just the other day, Rush was back at it, talking about propaganda versus truth.  He began by talking about a CNN interview in which DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz repeatedly mentioned how Paul Ryan's budget plan would "end Medicare as we know it." After referring to the DNC Chair as "Debbie 'Blabbermouth' Schultz," El Rushbo asked his radio audience, " Propaganda versus truth--which wins?" He then continued with "Well, what did--what was Hitler more concerned with? Propaganda. Did Hitler succeed for a time? Yeah, he did."  Then, going totally off the deep end, Rush got to the heart of the matter:

What was Clinton more concerned with--truth or propaganda? What's Obama more concerned with--truth or propaganda?  Who would you say is winning? Is propaganda winning or truth winning? We, the virtuous ones in our society--we think truth wins. We have this investment in the truth. We think it's holy. We think that it is profound, and we think it's persuasive.

I guess when someone pays you $146,153.84 a day, five days a week for spending a mere 15 hours behind a mike, you feel empowered to say anything you damn well please . . . and believe yourself to be traveling the moral high ground.  And if it were only Rush Limbaugh -- who after all, has never been elected to anything -- who was making these idiotic comments, it would be far too many.  But sadly, regrettably, outrageously, it is not; using Nazi and Holocaust comparisons has been a regular growth industry over the past three years. Included on the roster of rhetorical reprobates are:

• Ohio Congressional Candidate and micro-celebrity opportunist Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher (R) released a campaign video in which he blamed both the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide on gun control.  Mr. Wurzelbacher's video features footage of him on a shooting rage blasting fruits and vegetables with a shotgun. As the clip draws to a close, Mr. Wurzelbacher, gun in hand, proclaims, "I love America.' The description of the video describes gun ownership as "our last line of defense' from tyranny. (It also poses a rather existential question about Mr. Wurzelbacher's produce shooting hobby!)

 

The arguments I made back in early August 2009 are the precisely the same as I now make in Mid August 2012: 

• Using Nazi or Holocaust-era terminology for political gain is more than insensitive or callous; it is monstrously bloodless, cold-hearted, and crass.
  
• The flippant use of such terms as "genocide," "mass murder," "extermination" and "Third Reich," in any discussion of contemporary American politics desecrates the memory of  the millions upon millions of men, women and children who were exterminated.  It also transmutes the very horrific reality of history's darkest, most barbarous period into nothing more than a rhetorical club with which to attack the people with whom one disagrees. 
  

If I were in charge, I would make it mandatory for anyone using such vile rhetoric -- whether in political speeches, video or print ads or on radio talk shows -- to tour Auschwitz, watch all 9 1/2 hours of Claude Lanzmann's epic film Shoah and then spend a minimum of 12 hours at Yad Vashem , the Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem.  To my way of thinking, this is the prescription for disarming and disabusing die historisch gefordert -- the "historically challenged."  

Rush: Barack Obama is not Adolf Hitler; he has not and will not kill tens of millions of people regardless of what you say or think.

Governor LePage: The I.R.S. is not the Gestapo; I.R.S. agents do not round up people in the middle of the night and then whisk them away to crematoria.  They do make sure we pay taxes . . . that's about it.

Joe the Plumber:  Your notion that the Holocaust was caused by gun control laws is beyond the pale.  It also proves that you are a schwachkopf -- a "moron." Even if every Jew in Germany owned a Luger or a Mauser, it would not have stopped the Holocaust from happening. Or perhaps in your extensive study of history you never learned that the majority of Jews who were murdered came from Poland . . .

And so, in Mid-August of 2012, I say -- this time in German, rather than Yiddish pretty much the same thing I said in early August of 2009:

WIEDER . . . SHON GENUG! 

Once again . . . ENOUGH ALREADY!

-2012 Kurt F. Stone

Authors Website: http://www.kurtfstone.typepad.com

Authors Bio:
Kurt Stone is a rabbi, writer, lecturer, political activist, professor, actor, and medical ethicist. A true "Hollywood brat" (born and raised in the film industry), Kurt was educated at the University of California, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and the Hebrew Union College, Stone holds a B.A. in American Political History, a Master of Hebrew Letters, and a Doctor of Divinity. A resident of South Florida for nearly 30 years, he is currently spiritual leader of the North Broward Havurah in Coral Springs.

Kurt has published 2 major works in the field of American political history: the 2001 best-selling "The Congressional Minyan: The Jews of Capitol Hill," (KTAV) and most recently, "The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Members of Congress" (Scarecrow Press.) This latter work investigates the lives, careers, and accomplishments of the 200 Jewish men and women who have served in Congress throughout American history. Kurt contributed nearly 40 essays to the Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture (2009, Greenwood Press), and has written extensively for the new Encyclopaedia Judaica.
From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, Kurt served on the staffs of various office holders including Alaska Senator Mike Gravel and California Governor Jerry Brown. In this latter position, working in conjunction with Bill Press, he published "As Their Land Is: A Theology of Ecology."


Stone teaches courses in American Political History, Biography and Cinema at both Florida Atlantic and Florida International University. He received Florida Atlantic University's "Lecturer of Excellence" Award in April 2005.

A widely sought-after lecturer, Stone gives more than 175 lectures a year. Anyone wishing to book Kurt should contact his agent, Art Galietti at One Take Productions, 954-493-7889
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