Leaflet Invokes Nazi Imagery Against Maryland Democrats
Listed in: Other Domestic Policy, NJDC News, Press Releases
Washington, DC: At a Maryland House of Delegates committee hearing on gun control late last week, Montgomery County Republican Party Central committee member Augustus Alzona, who was also a GOP candidate for the legislature in 1994 and 1998, distributed a flier that equated three Democratic gun control advocates with those who carried out the "Final Solution." The flier depicts the heads of Maryland Del. Mark K. Shriver, Sen. Brian E. Frosh and Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. on the bodies of three uniformed Nazi soldiers in front of a Holocaust victim, and proclaims, "Montgomery County Democrats have a final solution for all of Maryland's gun owners." Alzona, who said he was not the author of the pamphlet and said he will not resign his position, later defended the flier as "political parody," saying his critics were "taking political correctness too far," reported the Washington Post. Added Alzona, "I know what hate speech is, and this was not that. It appears that there is a thinly veiled attempt to drive pro-gun conservatives like me out of the party," according to the Associated Press.
"It is shocking in this day and age that a flier could be used to reference the worst horrors of the Nazi's "Final Solution" to advance a partisan political agenda," noted National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "We hope the Republican Party of Montgomery County takes serious action against those responsible for this unacceptable behavior. This flier insults all three of the Democrats portrayed, and it is an especially well-timed cheap shot at the expense of Del. Shriver and Sen. Van Hollen, who are running for the Montgomery County congressional seat. Not only does it trivialize the Holocaust and the memory of its victims, but it also does a disservice to the cause of civilized political discourse. Such hateful rhetoric has no place in American politics, and it should not be tolerated."
