Host Incorrect During MSNBC Interview with NJDC’s David A. Harris

David Streeter — October 19, 2009 – 8:35 am | Abusive Holocaust Rhetoric | GOP Hypocrisies | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

This morning the National Jewish Democratic Council’s President David A. Harris appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the “cavalcade of Nazi rhetoric” that has reached “epidemic proportions.” The video can be seen with this link.

Harris’s interview successfully communicated the seriousness of the situation to a broad national audience and MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski rightly agreed. They both condemned the use of Nazi rhetoric by any politician or political party. However, there are some issues from the interview that need to be addressed.

First of all, Scarborough and Brzezinski incorrectly asserted that the American left wing is equally guilty in using Nazi rhetoric to describe their opponents as the right wing. To prove this, instances of Representatives Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) using Nazi related rhetoric we mentioned. But for the record, Nadler never used the word Nazi in his depiction of town hall protestors and Grayson apologized for his insensitive remark about the exigency of health care reform.

Furthermore, Nadler and Grayson are two isolated incidents of Democratic officials using Nazi rhetoric. In addition to the right wing’s grassroots, Republican leaders significantly outnumber Democrats on this issue and their number includes:

• Representative John Linder (R-GA) who authored an op-ed piece that compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini
• GOP Senatorial Candidate Peter Schiff (R-CT) who compared his senate campaign to fighting the Nazis in WWII
• Virginia State Delegate Steve Landes (R-VA) who compared Obama to Hitler
• Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) who used the imagery of the Nazi’s euthanasia program to scare people into opposing Obama’s health care reform plan
• The National Republican Congressional Committee tweeted a video linking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Hitler
• Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said that Obama was going to use a pandemic to declare martial law and rule by dictate
• Broun also labeled Pelosi as a “domestic enemy of the Constitution”

This is all in addition to prominent right wing pundits Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter using Nazi comparisons in part to sell books and drive up their ratings. Beck and Coulter are both best selling authors and Limbaugh is one of the most popular radio commentators in the country. Clearly, they have a dedicated audience that consumes their hate filled propaganda on a daily basis. Just look at the Tea Baggers who showed up for Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project. The crowd was full of Nazi signs!

Second, Scarborough’s and Brzezinski’s dismissal of Beck and Limbaugh as products of the fringes is simply not accurate. They represent a growing faction of the GOP. Their words need to be taken seriously so that our country can put a stop to the threats and the vandalism that result from this epidemic of innaccurate and inappropriate Nazi comparisons.

The Nazi rhetorical movement can have dangerous consequences and treating it as a benign reaction to our leaders’ policy preferences places our national welfare, prestige, and security in jeopardy.

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