Andrew Cuomo and Reductio ad Hitlerum
At yesterday’s WBEN-sponsored gun rally in Albany, where we were meant to understand that a reduction of legal maximum magazine size from 10 to 7 is a Constitutional infringement, there were the predictable ad hominem attacks against Governor Cuomo. Some of the protesters likened the Governor of New York State to Adolf Hitler, the genocidal totalitarian dictator of Germany from 1933 – 1945, who waged total war against free peoples throughout the world. So, here’s a handy chart to help set that record straight.
I consider the hyperbole comparing Cuomo to Hitler far less egregious than his dictator-like creation called the NY SAFE Act, that was rammed through the legislature to further his political ambitions. A law that has been condemned by all 8 counties of WNY by votes of the democratically elected representatives. I am proud that NYS still has many people willing to travel hundreds miles, many by losing a day of employment, to protest a clear infringement of the 2nd Amendment. The law squarely targets law abiding citizens. If you really want to save lives, pass a law that bans anyone from driving if they have any contributory negligence in a car accident.
The protesters were correctly protesting something real and wrong. Your screed accomplishes nothing but misdirection and focusing on something meaningless.
You ever notice how right-wingers claim that every democratically passed law they disagree with was “jammed down our throats” or “rammed through the legislature”? Somehow, this is never the case when they have GOP majorities.
And to then, in the same paragraph, to be proud of the eight county legislatures that wasted time and money to pass non-binding referenda is a complete and utter fucking joke.
The way I see it, trivializing the eight county legislatures for expressing a much needed opinion goes hand in hand with disdain for the Constitution if it doesn’t support you knee-jerk to a problem.
Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly certainly acknowledged that the SAFE ACT may have been rammed down our throats.
If people have a fundamental right to breathe to sustain life, they certainly, by logical extension, have the right to defend that life.
Just because Cuomo passed a law you don’t like and think is unconstitutional doesn’t make him Hitler. Got it? It’s that cut & dry.
IIRC, there was some blogging on AV criticizing Gov Walker even though he’s in Wisconsin. I don’t recall if that was from you or Chris or both.
So if he’s relevant for policy criticism, I’m curious if the many comparisons of Walker to Hitler were equally as upsetting as Cuomo-Hitler comparisons? Or are the latter worse for any reasons?
Google image search here of: Scott Walker Hilter protesters shows many signs saying things like
“Walker = Hitler, Repubs = Nazi Party, The New Jews = Public Employees, ….”
“Scott Walker = Adolph Hitler, Don’t Let History Repeat Itself….”
Along with countless signs with Hitler stache on Walker’s face, swastikas, …
Some video here with interview of one of the sign carriers.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/scott-walker-compared-to-hitler.html
Hitler comparisons have become a very common dumb way to insult politicians of all stripes – Walker, Bush, Cheney, Obama, etc. – even Reagan. There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about some anti-Cuomo protesters doing the same.
So, are you saying it’s hypocritical that I didn’t write about Wisconsin? Even though I don’t think I wrote very much at all about Walker and Wisconsin? Or that I am selective, writing as a NYer about a NY protest versus a Wisconsin protest?
Do you surmise that I think it’s ok to equate any non-Nazi domestic politician or policy with Hitler, so long as it’s a Republican, despite having written several times that it’s never acceptable?
You’re literally the fourth or fifth person to use this particular argument, and I’m figuring you’re ok with the Hitler comparo because it’s Cuomo, and the “2 wrongs make a right” is the best you can do.
It’s never right to compare any domestic politician with Hitler. Not Obama, not Bush, not Cuomo, not Walker.
Grow up.
I don’t know what those other people may have argued to you, but I didn’t at all imply “2 wrongs make a right”. Quite the contrary, I wrote that it’s dumb on all sides. Multiple dumbs make a more widespread dumb.
And I mentioned that Walker had been blogged about on AV to show the relevance of me bringing him up now as context – not criticizing you for not blogging about (if you didn’t – I really don’t know) either the extensive Walker-Hitler comparisons or the ubiquitous widely reported Bush-Hitler comparisons from 2001-2008.
Those are the same thing as the Cuomo-Hitler comparisons, almost literally except for the other name being paired. I don’t see why pointing out the context is something anyone should be so sensitive about as if it’s an attack.
Because I have repeatedly written that comparing any domestic political figure to Hitler is beyond the pale and completely unacceptable. However, when I criticize its use against a Democrat, I get right-wingers whining about how “you didn’t say anything when they said Walker/Bush/etc was Hitler”.
Yet in 2009, I wrote this post, which is easy to find at our archives because the word “Hitler” appears as a search term not particularly often. I stand by what I wrote then.
Edit: and here.
That “because” answer would explain the sensitivity if reacting to a comment accusing you of never criticizing Hitler comparisons when done by Ds toward Rs or left toward right. My comment didn’t accuse or imply that. It asked without guessing an answer if comparisons toward Cuomo and Walker were equally upseting.
Yes, it was equal to what anti-Walker protesters did.
or
No, this was even worse against Cuomo because [?????].
or
[something in between?]
Context I added was toward the thread’s discussion regardless of what the answer would be, if any.
FWIW, it didn’t occur to me that a regular Google search for “Hitler” in the old WNYM blog’s posts wouldn’t return a massive pile including many uses of that word in years of comments there.
But now I notice from the 2009 link that you have a search box there at buffalorecord.wordpress.com – perhaps which orders results by each post’s keywords or search terms.
I guess you view yourself as the self-appointed arbiter of hyperbole.
It’s sort of funny listening to WBEN hosts rant about tyrannical government over public airwaves regulated by the same alleged tyrannical government.
It appears that those areas of NYS which are the most vocal in their opposition to the law, are for the most part, the most economically depressed areas of the state.
Worse than Hitler, NY State’s –Dictator Governor Andrew “Adolph Eichmann” Cuomo
launches fresh murderous attacks on babies in the womb-they can be
killed up to the last day of pregnancy and no hospital may engage in
business in NY State that is not willing to be part of his baby killing
machine.
Make no mistake it is Christian believers that are the target of the ire
of Democrats, they cannot stand them, they hate any opposition to their
socialist dreams and they are determined to crush the Christian faith,
no matter how many babies they have to kill or gays they have to help
get married to get the job done.
Hitler, Stalin and Mao are laughing in hell, they remember all the
uproar over the few millions they killed and how self-righteous the same
people are when they slaughter babies in the tens of millions.
What an asinine comparison.