Hitler and OTB
A stroll by means of the archives.
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Thursday 21 December 2023
· 5 feedback
Looking the OTB database for photos to grace my earlier publish, “Evaluating Trump to Hitler,” I got here throughout these:
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It jogs my memory of how typically Hitler comparisons have been made for American politicians who, no matter one might consider them, have been actually not Hitler. And that despatched me down a rabbit gap that I made a decision to show right into a separate publish quite than derail the opposite one.
The earliest instance I’ve discovered of it being addressed right here was my January 2004 publish “BUSH – HITLER REDUX”, the title of which suggests I had addressed the topic beforehand. Regardless, it is about comedians Invoice Maher and Margaret Cho evaluating the forty third president to der Führer.
My June 2004 publish “Bush equals Hitler and Mussolini” referenced a 2nd Circuit choose and former Yale Legislation dean who argued that Bush got here to energy the identical manner as the 2 fascist leaders and should be eliminated to revive our democracy.
In my July 2008 publish “Obama = Charismatic = Hitler = Armageddon,” I tackle two columnists involved a few cult of persona round then-candidate Barack Obama. (An accusation that may resurface right here within the rosaries relating to his successor.)
The observe reached a fever pitch in 2010, at the very least if the OTB archives are any indication.
In Might, the late Doug Mataconis wrote about “Newt Gingrich And The Reductio Advert Hitlerlum.” Surprisingly, nobody in contrast the previous speaker to Hitler, however quite he did so to Barack Obama. He was not alone.
In “Hitler Comparisons and Unhealthy Historical past” (June 2010) and “The Return of Hitler” (July 2010), Steven Taylor laments the above picture evaluating Democratic Socialism to Nationwide Socialism and Marixst Socialism. In between, my publish “Obama and the Highway to Tyranny” (June 2010) uncovered a Thomas Sowell column claiming that the forty fourth president used rhetorical methods and in any other case mimicked dictators like Hitler and Lenin. In “Sufficient With Hitler Already” (Sept. 2010), Steven notes that individuals in contrast Sarah Palin to the one with the mustache.
Curiously, regardless of repeated claims by opponents that Trump was a fascist, there weren’t many Trump=Hitler posts on OTB till latest speeches made them inevitable. Nonetheless, there have been some who engaged with the broader subject early on.
Again in November 2015 — nearly a yr earlier than Trump was elected — Doug opined, “Sure, it is applicable to consider Donald Trump as a fascist and demagogue.” The subsequent month, Steven pulled again a bit with “Trump and Fascism”.
In July 2020, KingDaddy weighed in with “Fascism Is A Nationalist Aesthetic Motion” and adopted up in September with “Let’s Drop The ‘Proto’ Every little thing” and in November with “The Fascism Is Right here To Keep.”
Not too long ago, in April 2022, I mirrored on “Democratic Backsliding and the American Proper,” with no point out of Trump.
And naturally, we have written a ton of posts in latest weeks about Trump’s unhinged rhetoric, most lately my publish final Sunday, “Trump Doubles Down on Fascism.”
(As an apart, a stunning variety of returns on “Hitler” right here concerned Downfall memes that by no means appeared to get previous. Sadly, the entire related movies we embedded have disappeared, presumably on account of DMCA takedown requests ).