For The New York Times economic scene section for March 31, David Leonhardt came across with one of the most amazing admissions about Obama that I’ve ever seen in the Times. Namely that Barack Obama is just like Hitler. Now, many of you may be solemnly shaking your head in agreement, but in so doing you would be missing why the Times was comparing Obama to Hitler. You see, Leonhardt didn’t mean it as an insult. He was saying that it was a good thing that Barack was being like Hitler at least in an economic sense.
Here Leonhardt is taking the trains-on-time track with his Hitler angle by saying that, despite that whole Holocaust and World War II business, Hitler’s policies were good for Germany. So good, in fact, that he celebrates the ways he sees that Obama is emulating the mustachioed mad-man’s economic prescriptions with the massive takeover of the economy and bloated government spending on “stimulus.”
You know the left has lost it when they are invoking the “success” of Hitler to prop up The One!
If I might rephrase Leonhardt’s opening sentence a bit: “Every so often, the left serves up an analogy that’s uncomfortable, a little distracting and yet still very telling.”
The telling thing here is that Leonhardt is willing to ignore the ultimate outcome of Hitler’s policies so that he might justify the destruction of the capitalist system, elimination of personal property rights, and to excuse away giving dictatorial power to an all encompassing government juggernaut here in the US. He so dearly wants the Keynesian theory to be the right one that he is willing to turn his face from genocide and world war to prove his wishes beneficial to man.
Here is how he sets up his absurd take on history:
More than any other country, Germany — Nazi Germany — then set out on a serious stimulus program. The government built up the military, expanded the autobahn, put up stadiums for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and built monuments to the Nazi Party across Munich and Berlin.
Oh, sure Germany became a powerhouse previous to the outbreak of WWII. But, what Leonhardt criminally ignores is that Hitler made Germany a powerhouse by stealing the personal property and wealth of minorities and business owners alike and remanding them to the state. And then, to sustain this wild growth, he launched a war of greed and acquisition on his neighbors that added to that power but cost the lives of millions. Germany built this empire on the destruction of God-given rights, oppression of religious and ethnic minorities, and widespread death and war.
In light of the final outcome, I’d wager that this Hitlarian bargain doesn’t seem very appealing to anyone but Leonhardt.
From here, Leonhardt segues into an appreciation of the policies of the most communist of presidents we’ve ever had, Franklin Roosevelt. Leonhardt rehashes New Deal apology by claiming that FDR’s economic plans helped the USA out of The Great Depression. He says it all proves that, “Yes, stimulus works.”
Of course, like many who admire FDR, Leonhardt glosses over the fact that none of FDR’s policies worked at all until the gearing up for war began. He also ignores the unsustainability of Germany’s economic “benefits” that dictated that it must go to war to expand the pool of wealth from which the state could steal to support its wild growth. In fact, that same war aim that helped FDR’s economic outlook was also unsustainable to the point that the singular goal was, indeed, war. At some point, it must be realized, the war will end and one faces either destruction — whether mutual or exclusive — or at the very least will discover a cessation of the activity involved in the run up to war and hence the economic “stimulus” that it entails. Leaving? Leaving an empty hole where that artificial war stimulus was and no stable economic activity to fill it.
In fact, the main reason that the US came out of WWII so strong wasn’t because we had spent ourselves to prosperity by gearing for war, but because afterward we became the supply house and construction company of the civilized world by helping re-build the many nations devastated by that war.
A little further in the piece, we realize just how benighted Leonhardt’s understanding of things economic is when he favorably quotes George Soros, a man that has admitted that his singular goal isn’t to improve the economy, but to destroy it in order to remake the world in his own image.
George Soros, the billionaire investor who was born in Budapest and works in New York, came to Washington last week and captured both the problem and the potential for a solution. “I think they can be brought around,” he said of the Europeans. “I am actually hopeful something constructive can happen.”
Leonhardt’s got to be kidding, right? This from a man that said that the world’s economic collapse was “the culminating point of my life’s work“?
Leonhardt’s Soros quote could certainly have been uttered by Hitler himself because there is no elucidation of the moral theme behind what being “hopeful” that “something constructive can happen” means. Like Hitler, what Soros means by “constructive” would NOT be an outcome that any humane person would agree is so wonderful! Yet, from Leonhardt’s treatment we have to assume that he imagines that Soros’ “constructive” must obviously be a mutually beneficial good for us all. Leonhardt truly does not understand Soros’ apocalyptic point.
Anyway, Leonhardt’s ridiculous exposition on the benefits of the socialist model is replete with so many misunderstanding of history, so many bald faced denials of truth that it boggles the mind.
But, it was interesting to see a slavish Obamaite trying to assure us of how wonderful The One is by favorably comparing him to Hitler. I laughed right before I threw up a little in my mouth over the reality of it all.
Steve Maley
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
So, we're going to annex Canada...
Moe Lane (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 8:47AM EST (link)…reoccupy the Philippines, and start a war with Mexico over the actual borders of the Gadsen Purchase and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Real bright there, New York Times. *Real* bright.
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Don't forget that population report out in Britain
djemi (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 8:58AM EST (link)What did it say, 30 mil brits and 150 mill Americans by 2030 to be eco balanced.
Think I read showthing about it over at the telegragh
“If I can’t shoot rabbits,then I can’t shoot fascist”
“With age, comes Wisdom, but only if you are paying Attention, son” my ‘Old Man’
RS Help files (h/t JLenardDetroit) Grassroots in Michigan
Moes Strategy
I was thinking
Jack_Savage (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 9:41AM EST (link)Maybe we could talk Canada into annexing Vermont, for starters…
I *Want* This Picture As a Bumper-Sticker!! (nt)
IJB Monday, April 6th at 8:59AM EST (link)And I got (wrongly) taken to task
TobyToons (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 9:35AM EST (link)by someone last week for comparing Obama to Hitler. I had done an illustration of Hitler and his policies, and the emailer assumed I was comparing Hitler to Obama). So, once again, the left’s double standard is on display.
“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” -Adam Smith
If only Hitler had killed as many as Mao or Stalin, we could compare Obama
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 9:46AM EST (link)to Hitler at will…
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com, Charlotte Observer and The Minority Report columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
One People, One Nation, One Leader
Achance (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 9:50AM EST (link)has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?
In Vino Veritas
Marcus Garvey could dance to it.(NT)
blooch Monday, April 6th at 10:43AM EST (link)“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”
Doesn't translate well into Austrian. nt
Steve Maley (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 11:11AM EST (link)The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer? nt
Achance (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 11:15AM EST (link)In Vino Veritas
Sorry, gotta run. Boss keeps reminding me, "Arbeit macht frei!"...
Steve Maley (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 12:37PM EST (link)…whatever that means.
The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
Or, as they say in Austria, "G'day, mate!"
Steve Maley (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 12:38PM EST (link)“Merci, beaucoup”, my @$$.
The blogger formerly known as ‘Vladimir’.
Well, Vladimir, we do all have to sacrifice. nt
Achance (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 1:20PM EST (link)In Vino Veritas
Add on "One World" Art and I think we have...
penguin2 (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 12:52PM EST (link)Hitler. Wonder what our Jewish citizens think of the NYT today? this is incredible. In Germany, to this day, all things Hitler are Verbotten!
As it should be.
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. – Benjamin Franklin
When Good stands up to Evil, Evil blinks. – Vassar Bushmills
Conservative Education: Suggested Reading List
Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots
Neither good policy nor good politics.
Bioinformaticus_Maximus (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 10:02AM EST (link)It is one thing to point out the stupidity and source of the original comparison but as soon as Republicans begin to parody the fools, the double standard will be enforced to the fullest extent (remember David Ehrenstein).
It does bear mention that totalitarianism requires harnessing the full power of the state and that a limited government is incapable of tyranny to the fullest degree, but as soon as you start adding names it gets personal.
Let’s at least not be as nasty as the Democrats were for the preceeding 8 years, even that is setting the bar pretty low – I think that we can do much better. 3 years from now, SO will take that icon out of context and say that it was us who made the original comparison – why give them ammunition?
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.
-Attributed to Yogi Berra
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Better idea: let's stop worrying about what will be done to us...
Moe Lane (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 10:28AM EST (link)…and get on with *doing* things. Let ‘em scream; they’re going to do it anyway.
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Check out my blog at http://moelane.com/.
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My (combined) wish list.
The Hitler comparison is a huge stretch
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 1:38PM EST (link)Hitler was off the charts evil.
Chamberlain was not, but the consequences of his naive leadership were disasterous. That comparison to Obama is very appropriate.
Hope and Change
If someone wants to make the leap to a direct comparison, let them, but I don’t think it is at all helpful for us to be perceived as the originator.
Hitler was a genius.
Steph C (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 10:13AM EST (link)Admittedly an evil genius and quite insane to boot, but still a genius. People tend to forget that in the face of what he did.
Obama is using Hitler’s methods but genius he is not. If he were a genius in his own right, he wouldn’t be using Hitler, would he? In fact, much of Obama’s policies are borrowed from someone else; a little here of this fellow, a little there of that fellow all mixed up like a salad and not a very palatable one.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Some Berliners, ever alert for a gag even in tragic circumstances, would do graffiti
streetwise (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 1:16PM EST (link)of Hitler’s quotes in the rubble as the Soviet troops approached. My favorite:
“give me twelve years and you won’t recognize Germany!”
food for thought, no?
Sadly the comparison should be half Hitler, half Col. Klink nt
AKSteveB (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 1:49PM EST (link)Hell is other people – Sartre
Obama forgot that whole rearming part
robmikpet (Diary) Monday, April 6th at 2:35PM EST (link)Obama wants to be a fascistic domestically but Swedish militarily.