At the risk of angering some of my Twitter followers, I wish to disagree with what most of the pundits--professional and amateur--are saying about Rep. Steve Cohen's speech. Fox News has played the relevant part of the speech several times, and it seems to me there was no comparison made between opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or Republicans) and Nazis. Here's what I heard:
- Opponents are lying.
- Like Goebbels famously said, if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, people will believe it.
- This was done with the recently-in-the-news "blood libel" in times past.
- This was done by the Nazis to justify the actions that became the Holocaust.
Rep. Cohen may not have stated his points in the best way, but I prefer not to attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity--or in this case, clumsiness of speech. I may be wrong, as I've heard reports that he has not tried to clarify his statements or retract his words. But
it seems to me the "big lie" is something a member of the national socialists' party would know all about.
Er, the Socialist Democrat party.
The socialistic Party of the Democrats.
You know what I mean.