Nazis Everywhere

As a way of giving back to the community, Goldblog is going to start compiling lists of people who are not Nazis but who have nevertheless been called Nazis in public, as a way of proving the obvious point, which is that people reaching for insults should find something better than Nazi. Those people who are, in fact, bona fide Nazis, don't count, of course. This project, coordinated by Elizabeth Weingarten, the deputy director of the Goldblog Fake-Nazi Hunting Unit, was inspired by Fox News President Roger Ailes, who called NPR executives Nazis for firing Juan Williams. I disagreed with the firing of Juan Williams, but I've met many NPR executives, and I can say that they are not Nazis, in part because I don't think they would look good in uniforms, and in part because they're a lot of Jews over there at NPR (did I just say that?) and Jews tend not to be Nazis, except for a couple I won't name.

Here is the beginning of the list. I am including on this list not only people who have been labeled "Nazi," but people who have been accused of using Nazi-like tactics, or having Hitlerish personalities, or physical attributes that remind their accusers of Nazis, or who smell like Nazis. Feel free to mail in other examples of fake Nazis in America, and I will post them:

1. Before the midterms elections, California's Governor-Elect Jerry Brown said Meg Whitman was using Nazi-like tactics in her campaign. "It's like Goebbels...Goebbels invented this kind of propaganda," Brown said.

2. Josh Green called Rich Iott a Nazi impersonator...oh, wait...

3. In August 2009, Rush Limbaugh compared President Obama to Hitler. "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate," he said.

4. Rob Reiner, on Bill Maher's "Real Time," compared members of the Tea Party to Nazi followers. "My fear is that the Tea Party gets a charismatic leader," he explained. "Because all they're selling is fear and anger. And that's all Hitler sold."

5. Glenn Beck said, among other things, that George Soros helped "send the Jews" to "death camps," and "saw people into gas chambers." If I didn't know better, I would say he's calling Soros a Nazi.

6.  Ben Shapiro called Rahm Emanuel a "kapo," or a concentration camp prisoner who helped Nazis, in his syndicated column. 

7. In Newt Gingrich's latest book, he writes that President Obama's "secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did."

8. Glenn Beck also called the Chicago Bears' Brian Urlacher a "Neo-Nazi" this summer.

9. In April, Rep. Connie Mack of Florida said the enforcement of Arizona's immigration law reminds him of Nazi Germany. "This law of 'frontier justice' -- where law enforcement officials are required to stop anyone based on 'reasonable suspicion' that they may be in the country illegally -- is reminiscent of a time during World War II when the Gestapo in Germany stopped people on the street and asked for their papers without probable cause," Mack said.

10.Thomas Sowell, in his column, compared Obama to Hitler.

11. Richard Land, the President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said healthcare reform measures are just like "what the Nazis did."

12. Pamela Geller wrote an article called "Obama Goes Full-On Nazi," and once photoshopped Elena Kagan into a Nazi uniform. Also, I think she thinks that I myself am a Nazi, though the only thing she's actually called me is "Jewicidal Jihadi."

Please, Goldblog readers, send me more Nazis!