Adolf Hitler is dead.
What passes for his spirit remains very much alive in the guise of contemporary political debate … although I hesitate to use such soaring terminology to identify much of the back-and-forth that’s been occurring these days.
The latest object of the Hitler comparison is Donald J. Trump, the leading Republican Party candidate for president of the United States.
Do not misunderstand me on this point: I find Trump to be among the most repulsive major U.S. political figures of my lifetime. With every idiotic utterance that flies out of his pie hole, he moves closer to the very top (or bottom) of my unofficial list of despicable American political leaders.
I am weary to the max, however, of the Hitler references.
Of all the beasts who have passed themselves off as human beings, Hitler stands alone. The Holocaust defies any human being’s ability to comprehend such a dastardly act. The murderous regime he led for a dozen years and the war he started in Europe produced a bloodbath beyond all reckoning.
Hitler is without question the 20th century’s most hideous tyrant.
Trump’s world view — such as it is — deserves to be critiqued on its own. That said, I do not care to see these Hitler references attached to anything Trump has to say.
To be sure, the current president of the United States has been demonized in this manner as well, as have have previous presidents of both major political parties.
Many politicians provide ample grist for criticism. Is it really necessary to invoke Hitler’s name whenever we disagree with what a contemporary U.S. politician has to say?
To my ears, doing so seems to fall into the category of foul-mouth comedians. Someone once said that comics who depend on verbal filth usually have run out of clever things to say.
Politicians and pundits who invoke Hitler’s name to offer criticism, then, might be falling into the same category.
