Friday Afternoon Roundup - A Letter from Goebbels
A LETTER FROM GOEBBELS
The Republican race is more muddled than ever as Gingrich's numbers fade a little without anyone to take his place. Either Gingrich recovers, Perry surges or it's Romney all the way. The establishment backing Romney had to damage Gingrich to limit the fallout from their backing of Romney. This way they chose between two evils, rather than choosing the man that they were always going to choose.
Congressional deadlocks continue as neither side can really move their agenda forward. But Obama can still abuse executive orders and he benefits from the appearance of a do-nothing congress. Meanwhile the NJDC has dumped a sputtering press release condemning Congressman West for his "shocking" Goebbels comment about the Democratic Party, complete with an ADL press release.
The comment may be a bit much, but is the party most associated with breaking Godwin's Law really pretending to be outraged by a Goebbels analogy? Let's just have a skip and a hop back to January when a Democratic congressman said that Republican criticism of ObamaCare was "a big lie just like (Nazi propagandist Joseph) Goebbels."
There's also a difference between a Nazi analogy and a Holocaust analogy. A Nazi analogy is about how totalitarian populism works. A Holocaust analogy is about the mass murder of millions. In some cases it is valid to make Nazi analogies, but not Holocaust analogies. Goebbels' Big Lie is an obvious example because it addresses the mechanics of propaganda, which is a valid point even when applied to people who are not mass murderers.
The Democratic Congressmen scurrying to condemn West for it is political opportunism at its most cynical, especially when the NJDC adds quotes from West's former opponent and future opponent. About the only sensible condemnation of the lot comes from Carl Levin, the rest of the condemnations misrepresent what West said and try to spin it for political gain.
This from Ted Deutsch isn't even a sentence: "By comparing the way Democrats defend our record to the way the Nazi Minister of Propaganda attempted to defend and even justify the murder of 6 million Jews is utterly outrageous"... and it also misrepresents what West actually said, not to mention that it misrepresents history.
This from Steve Israel is even dumber: "Congressman West needs to immediately apologize for insulting the memories of the millions who lost their lives during the Holocaust."
Nadler insanely accuses West of "latent anti-Semitism". West's future opponent is even more slipshod. "These remarks belittle the Holocaust, insult the Jewish community and the millions of American veterans who fought the Nazis in WWII." I have no idea how West's remarks insult millions of American veterans, I doubt Patrick Erin Murphy or whoever wrote this twaddle for him does either.
But to recap, West accuses the Democratic Party of being like Goebbels. Democratic Party responds by falsely accusing West of Anti-Semitism, insulting veterans and a whole raft of other lies that have nothing to do with what he actually said. If their goal was to suggest that West had a point, then mission accomplished.
If the Democratic Party really wants to rebuild some credibility with the Jewish community, they need to stop using Jewish members as "House Jews" for political gain and actually allow them to represent the interests of Jewish communities. The day that Jewish Democrats start coming out in support of school vouchers, ending US pressure on Israel and forming a committee to investigate Muslim Anti-Semitic violence is the day they can be taken seriously as representatives of the Jewish communities. Instead of as the Uncle Howards of the Democratic Party.
When Howard Gutman tried to set up two tiers of Anti-Semitism, one justified and one unjustified, then most of the same people sputtering over West's Goebbels comments had nothing to say. But Goebbels is dead, Muslim Anti-Semitism is alive and well.
I see nothing from Nadler on Gutman. I see nothing from Deutsch on Gutman. Which means they can shut the hell up about West. If they want to bark when Obama tells them to bark, then they're poodles and they have nothing to say worth listening to. If they won't stand up against the actual justification of present day violence about Jews, then no one wants to hear their mewling about a WW2 analogy.
In response to Gutman's victim blaming, The Forward published a piece in his defense. So did the Jewish Journal of LA. The Forward piece is the dying paper's usual sneering commentary. The JJ of LA piece by Michael Berenbaum is far more pernicious because it misrepresents Gutman's remarks and the responses to them.
