NJDC Condemns Governor Sarah Palin’s Promotion of Abusive Holocaust Rhetoric

David Streeter — June 25, 2010 – 12:48 pm | Abusive Holocaust Rhetoric | Environment Comments (1) Add a comment

Last night former Republican Governor Sarah Palin tweeted about the BP escrow fund saying, “This is about the rule of law v. an unconstitutional power grab. Read Thomas Sowell’s article.” The inflammatory article - to which Palin provides her followers a link - makes a clear comparison between the BP escrow fund and Nazism. In encouraging her supporters to read Sowell’s article, Palin promoted the type of abusive Holocaust rhetoric that the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) and others have repeatedly spoken out against.

In response to Palin’s actions, NJDC President David A. Harris today issued the following statement:

“Over the past year we have seen the continued use of abusive Holocaust rhetoric by political candidates, pundits, and activists - particularly from the conservative end of the spectrum. NJDC has consistently repeated its position that using this type of language to promote a political agenda is inflammatory, offensive, and detrimental to the political process, regardless of who invokes it.

Yesterday, Sarah Palin joined the ranks of her right-wing colleagues who haven’t thought twice about invoking the Holocaust or making comparisons to Nazi Germany to drive home a point. President Obama has rightly demanded that BP make whole those Americans who have been directly harmed by this disaster in the Gulf; promoting comparisons of such executive actions to Nazi-era tactics - as Palin has done - is offensive and disturbing in the extreme, As a likely future candidate and GOP leader, Governor Palin should be speaking out against the use of this type of abusive rhetoric - not encouraging her supporters to read it.”

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