Last night, President Bush presented his third State of the Union address to the nation at a time when the political tensions surrounding his January policy statement are perhaps even higher than his inauguration in 2001.
It's an election year, U.S. military forces are engaged in several missions around the world, Bush's positions on the issues are being called into question by individuals across the political spectrum, and some intense campaigning is to be expected. What is not to be expected, however, is the form of speaking out against Bush that seems to have increased in popularity over the past weeks ÷ the comparison of the president of the United States to Adolf Hitler.
The liberal Web site, MoveOn.org, played an integral role in bringing this form of protest to the attention of a wide-scale audience when it sponsored a contest called "Bush in 30 Seconds." The object of the contest, to be judged by a panel of celebrities, was to produce a commercial spot that best sums up the first term of the Bush administration. The winning ad would be aired on television by the Web site.
Contained within the many submissions were multiple ads likening Bush to Hitler ÷ ads which were subsequently placed on the MoveOn.org Web site. The Republican Party, the Anti-Defamation League and even the American Civil Liberties Union spoke out against the act of publicizing the ad. Interestingly enough, the Democratic Party declined to do so, even after a healthy dose of Republican pressure.
One of the ads posted on the Web site closed with, "What were war crimes in 1945 is foreign policy in 2003," which should lead everyone to question whether or not the people who produce these ads even stop to analyze the position they are espousing. This claim is baseless. The war that Hitler led against Europe was purely a war of aggression, not something that had the dual goal of increasing national security and the spread of true democracy to a long-oppressed people.
It's unfortunate that there is still an inability to separate military actions that liberate from those that only try to amass more power with a blatant disregard for human life.
Beyond that, the ideals that Nazi Germany stood for are not compatible with mainstream American ideals. The Nazis executed a comprehensive program of ethnically motivated murder and full government control without accountability. The U.S. government and its policies are subject to review by the courts, and the prevailing social climate in the United States effectively eliminates such institutionalized murder as a possibility. Nazism and the swastika are repugnant to the vast majority of Americans for a reason, and to give you a hint, it's not because they elect Nazis to the highest office in the nation.
Perhaps a bigger issue than the pathetic attempt to equate the two leaders is the readiness on the part of many to simply overlook these comparisons as a problem, if not believing that they are acceptable. Where was the Democratic establishment to stand up and say that the ads were in poor taste? How can students, even on our own campus, be so ready to place images of Bush as a Nazi in the public forum as a means of conveying their anti-Bush sentiment?
That is not to say that the Democratic Party believes that the two leaders are on the same level or that all college students would have a difficult time with the question of who is more evil ÷ I surely hope neither is the case. The fact is, if these two things aren't the case, then there's no real reason to make such comparisons ÷ it's an exercise in emotional manipulation. Those who see the ads are supposed to be ridiculously afraid that the United States is going down the same path that Germany did in the 1930s.
Finally, it's important to realize who's responsible for the comparisons. I remember controversy arising in the United States a few years ago over whether the Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina Statehouse was appropriate. The campaign to have it removed because many saw it as an emblem of slavery was driven by the political left.
It is the very same segment of the population who today doesn't think twice when they see an image of Bush dressed in khaki and carrying a Nazi flag who was pushing to remove the Confederate flag because of the historic evils it represents ÷ where's the consistency?
Aaron Okin is a regional development and political science junior. He can be contacted at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.