Harry Truman presents a bit of a conundrum with this classic item of raw demagougery.\u00c2\u00a0 In the great game of ahistorical Hitler references… The problem with Thomas Dewey is shown with a photograph:<\/p>\n
![\"thomasdewey\"](\"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/thomasdewey.jpg\" "\\"thomasdewey\\"")
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If I wanted\u00c2\u00a0to do that whole\u00c2\u00a0“Hitler” thing, would\u00c2\u00a0 I strip him of that mustache and replace it — or go ahead and scribble a differently colored “Hitler Mustache” over Mr. Dewey’s already extent mustache?<\/p>\n
For a more current example, we can turn to John Bolton.\u00c2\u00a0 Could I just color a big chunk of his white\u00c2\u00a0mustache brown, leaving the chunk of his\u00c2\u00a0mustache that hangs around his mouth white?<\/p>\n
![\"johnbolton\"](\"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/johnbolton.jpg\" "\\"johnbolton\\"")
<\/p>\n
John Bolton at least has enough of a crowbar to make a color swatch work.\u00c2\u00a0 Dewey just kind of flummoxes me.\u00c2\u00a0 (You’d have to — what? — color the two sides in and clip it off\u00c2\u00a0ever so\u00c2\u00a0slightly at the edges?)<\/p>\n
In the end, if I have to go ahead with the generically understood two factioned tribalist nature of the body politic, I will take “our”\u00c2\u00a0hyper-ventiliating\u00c2\u00a0rhetorically ratcheted\u00c2\u00a0ahistorical\u00c2\u00a0Hitler analogy\u00c2\u00a0over “their”s.\u00c2\u00a0 Ted Rall wrote a Bush = Hitler piece (one?) <\/em>which probably could have been proferred with only slight variations by an advocate for a war in Iraq with the typical always at the ready (and always tired)\u00c2\u00a0“If Hitler had been stopped at Munich” line.<\/p>\n Consider the Disruptors at the Town Hall meetings.\u00c2\u00a0 When not speaking of the “One day God’s going to stand before you<\/a><\/em>” (and his… um… right to leave?), we have (Can someone identify what the woman from :12 to :18 is trying to sell us<\/a>?), we have an allusion to the Socialism of Russia — Obama dismantling the nation, apparently — Maoist China.\u00c2\u00a0 Also please\u00c2\u00a0let Obama know he’s an American (for once, I can cheer\u00c2\u00a0Arlen Specter for something: “I think he knows that.”)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0To explain the problem of the incoherence, I can point to sometime in the Bush Administration, a bit annoyed by Hitler references I pleaded for some new infusion of Totalitarian Leaders through history — though with specific allusions for specific items, I therefor can’t get behind\u00c2\u00a0rolling them\u00c2\u00a0all into one.\u00c2\u00a0 Was Gerald Ford ever Hitler for anyone’s darkest impulses?\u00c2\u00a0 It seems like a weird proposition but consider for a moment one thing (on this, a few days after the anniversary of Ford’s ascension to the president, and as we come near the release of Squeaky Fromme):\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n A much reviled and despised man, the fury of public scorn through over two decades.\u00c2\u00a0 He had the honor of one hell of an electoral thumping, and then was kicked out of office in the lowest public regard.\u00c2\u00a0 He was replaced by a genial well liked man, who went out of his way to not offend the sensibilities of a troubled nation, who was impossible to hate, and not a terribly bitterly partisan official. “Mr. Dewey has pledged himself to an administration of unity and efficiency.\u00c2\u00a0 In our time, we have seen the tragedy of the Italian and German peoples, who lost their freedom to men who made promises of unity and efficiency and security.” […] \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When a few men get control of the economy of a nation, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4505"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4509,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4505\/revisions\/4509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor the Obama — Hitler analogy (Hey!\u00c2\u00a0 The Larouchies are getting around!)<\/a>, we\u00c2\u00a0are churned over\u00c2\u00a0to The Euthanasia Card — the Death Panel that might have voted down Sarah Palin’s baby and perhaps Steven Hawking<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It does feel\u00c2\u00a0like addressing that one is addressing a straw man — ’tis heavily compromised by its very nature — Obama bought out phrma to get Harry and Louise on board<\/a>, (something I see Jonah Goldberg couldn’t help but notice, though he calls phrma “naive” and profers that Obama can’t say “no” to the extremist leftist Henry Waxman and — I guess\u00c2\u00a0double crossing Big Phrma<\/em>?),\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Senator Johnny Isakson is in the artful position of having to push away at this\u00c2\u00a0while not allowing Obama to claim him for political purposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nRichard Nixon didn’t come particularly close to being assassinated.\u00c2\u00a0 The best we can do there is Samuel Byck<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Gerald Ford, on the other hand, had two attempts — at close range — in quick succession — on September 5 and then September 22 of 1975.\u00c2\u00a0 Those two\u00c2\u00a0particular assassination attempts\u00c2\u00a0were, I guess we can call sort of after-shocks after the that funny period of time we define as the 1960s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"