On The 75th Anniversary Of Hitler Coming To Power , The Haters Are Still With Us
I had an interesting Super Sunday, if you can call it that. Lynn Gold-Bikin, the great thinker and radio host on the big talker, WPHT , invited me to chat for an hour about the upcoming election. It was a lot of fun and most interesting to hear the views of so many listeners. During the course of the conversation, I offered some analysis on the Tuesday mega-Primary. As most of you know, I say it like I see it.
As the afternoon progressed, I read some intriguing columns , perspectives on the 75th anniversary of Adolph Hitler coming to power, and how people reacted to his dynamism in the first few years. We all know what came later. What was so interesting was the reaction of individuals in the 1930’s to the kinds of hatred and demonic messages of violence and “justice” that Hitler preached. They followed him. They started with words. And they ended with murder.
Before the game last night, I studied for election coverage, and read all I could about the news of the week. Two stories piqued my interest. The first was Ann Coulter’s blast at John McCain. In her usually hateful way, she berated McCain’s “liberalism”, and said she would support Hillary Clinton. That’s good news for McCain, and bad news for Senator Clinton. I mean, this is the same woman who verbally assaulted victims of 9/11 and made negative comments about everyone, including Jewish people. I take that very seriously. The second was the story, a few days ago, that Moveon.org was endorsing Barak Obama. Moveon.org you know is an extreme liberal group that is so way out it discourages dissent, and has been near hateful in its attacks on Israel. I have friends who support Moveon.org and I have warned them that there’s not much difference between Ann Coulter’s brown-shirt fascism and Moveon’s screaming left wing rhetoric. They both come from the extreme, and the extreme on both sides has left our nation divided.
The story is not over.
After the football game, I checked my email and was shocked to find some notes that had come through this website. They were from people who listened to my rather tame conversation on the radio earlier in the day. The language was so foul and hateful, it surprised even me, a veteran of 50 years in newsrooms. The reference to my religion were disgusting.
Now, I’m a thick-skinned guy. But when I see that kind of hate anywhere, it makes me wonder how people can really be that way. And I understand the affect of left wing and right wing haters.
To those who write to this address, I want you to know that anything goes, except raw hate, racial and religious bigotry, and foul language.
I’ll leave that to nasty Ann Coulter and her enemies on the left.
And to think that some of you don’t really get it, 75 years after the monster took power and launched the world into genocide and mass murder.
Larry,I too have been reliving Hitler’s takeover, up close, through the German media. And the one thing that strikes this American is the candid way today’s Germans acknowledge their former failings and vow to never let it be repeated. Americans, by and large, fail to admit earlier disasters, and every once in a while, reveal how their hearts remain corrupted, as in the recent Jena Six flap.
Larry I am with you. The loonies of the left and right have to be put back in their box. Those of us in the middle have lost and the division of the country is driven by the fact big contributions come from the extremes on extreme issues. This election is about the middle and clearly McCain and Obama are great candidates to pull America togeather.
Of course there is a constitional solution to the issues of the extreme left and right. It is high time we use it. It is called a referendum. We need to get the issues of the far right and left off the backs of our elected officals. America’s population will be at 400m by 2035 which is a doubling in my life time. Planning, infrastuture, hospitals, airports, schools and dull unemotional issues need to be dealt with to meet the needs of our growing nation. It is serious stuff, it takes 8 years to build an airport runway, 10 to build a power plant. We are at the limits.
Why not let the loonies of the left and right talk directly to the voters. Put Roe v Wade on an national ballot along with gay marriage, gun control and emotional issues of equal stripe. That way those who froth at the mouth will have to touch every voter via advertising and PR. Let the politicans get the countries dull issues under control and leave the emotional ones to the voters.
Moveon.org and anne coulter are equivalent?
Wow. Moveon.org was the only group standing up to Bush and the madness that is Iraq, tax cuts for the wealthiest, and the destruction of the middle class.
One poor decision about a New York Times ad’s wording does not put the critics anywhere near the Anne Coulter part of the spectrum. She is in a ‘league of her own.’
You want hate language? Here’s Annie!
MoveOn.org is way too tolerant of people and groups that make hateful comments about Israel and Jewish people. Ethnic and religious bigotry has no place in this country. It goes against the very ideals on which this country was founded.
We must never forget what Hitler did and must do everything in our power to see that it never happens again.
The most profound moment of my life (includng the birth of my childrn) was a visit I made to Dachau while stationed in Germany with the Army. I had no agenda, I’m a white, male Catholic, just intersested in history. The testament to hate, in pictures and walking around the site, certainly made me realize that “hating” anything was a dangerous mindset that I should never copy. To this day, I still think about what happened there. I may disagree with other’s opinions and actions, but I have tried to take hate out of my mindset. Was hard to do on 9/11, I admit.
People like Coulter and Moveon are whack jobs, not worth mentioning, they are dangerous.
Hang in there Larry, the sicko’s that e-mailed you are the fringe of humanity, that hide behind their keyboards.
Larry
Why didn’t you tell us you were going to be on the radio? That would have been a hoot. So you’re telling me the listeners e-mailed you with hate messages. What did you say that generated such a response? Based on your “I say it like I see it” maybe you predicted the Giants would lose. That might have upset a few listeners having pre game cocktails.
Since you checked your mail after the game maybe it was all those NE Patroit fans who needed to vent their frustration. But why take it out on you?
Maybe you said something about Rush or god forbid Mel Gibson. Rush and Mel have a lot of fans. Anyhow I’m sorry your day ended on such a sour note, but you have to admit the Giants win was pretty entertaining.
All you need is love…
Oh boy, here come the Hitler comparisons and the “hate speech” protests. All you left out was McCarthy and Mussolini.
There will always be tough and mean-spirited debate in the public square. Deal with it. We can handle it as a society without resorting to alarmist rhetoric.
Larry’s got to be smarter than to take Ann Coulter seriously. She’s a TV personality/author/publicity hound who says outrageous things because it’s guaranteed to get a rise out of people. I’d take her no more seriously than Bill Maher. I’m not sure what Moveon.org’s motives are beyond political anarchy, and I wouldn’t group them with Coulter and Maher, who at least have points to make behind the bluster. And it appears from watching the Democratic primaries that moveon.org may be losing their lustre among the left.
When someone calls speech “hateful”, that’s a code word for sanctioning or prohibiting it. Let’s agree that Coulter and Maher’s mode of discourse can be less than helpful, and leave the completely inappropriate Hitler comparisons out of it. Last time I checked, Coulter and her ilk hadn’t caused anyone to be imprisoned or murdered.
Anyone in the public eye is going to have to put up with moron e-mailers. They, like the Coulters and Mahers, are the exception, not the rule. Such has always been the case with “haters.”
I am a committed Jew and supporter of Israel and you’ve provided no support whatever for your comparison of MoveOn to Ann Coulter. What MoveOn has tried to do is move this country from the track it’s on, where it’s run by rightwing evangelicals who’ve mired us in a terrible war and who don’t like Jews or blacks (they like “Hebrews”, but I don’t consider myself a Hebrew). Not sure where you get Israel-bashing from that.
EB basically proves the point by declaring that the country is run by “right wing evangelicals who don’t like Jews or blacks.” Bombast, hyperbole, over the top smearing. The great MoveOn however has tried to “move the country from the track it’s on.” Another smear factory (General Betray-Us?) Come on get real.
EB are you in elementary school? I apologize if I’m actually attacking a child.
“Moveon.org and anne coulter are equivalent?”
One is a well funded political advocacy group and the other is a controversial pundit who makes tons of money irritating people on the left.
But of course, the first lefty poster defends moveon because they want to impeach the president….hard to believe Harry….hard to believe.
Give me a break, moveOn is just Soro’s little piece of crap group…. They’re so far left that they couldn’t even find the center….. Now, I agree Ann Coulter is “abrasive”, but that’s what she is paid to do, same as “Bill Maher”, whom you did not mention who is the same as Ann except on the left side, let’s give equal time here.
MoveOn, should just do that, move onto a socialist regime they can do business with such as Venezuela or Cuba.
But, seriously who takes Ann Coulter, Bill Maher or for even that matter Rush Limbaugh that seriously?
As far as it being Hitler’s 75th, we should not even acknowledge this hate-monger.
There is no comparison between Ann Coulter and Bill Maher. Bill Maher, like him or not does try to get things correct factually as opposed to Ms. Coulter who had never met a fact she couldn’t distort. I don’t alway agree with Bill’s views on a number of issues but I like the fact that he promotes intelligent debate on the issues.
Also unlike Coulter, Bill Maher is not a hate-mongerer. Certainly he does rail against all religions but some of the points he make about organized religions are spot-on. As one of you said above, Ann Coulter uses her hate language because it keeps her in the news and helps her sell books.
I’m not a fan of Moveon.org but wouldn’t put them in the same league with Ann Coulter and some of the right-wing extremism organizations like the very secretive but powerful John Birch Society that still exists. I know because unfortunately, my late Uncle by marriage was an active member when he was alive. I debated with him all the time about his very hateful views about people of race and different religions and guns. In fact he made Ann Coulter look tame by comparison.
The bottom line is that there is no room for hate groups either from the right or left in our society but they are protected by our Constitution within reason to express their hateful views. The key thing we can do is raise our children to have respect for all races and religions and keep hate and bigotry out of our conversations in the home.
The John Birch Society is hardly powerful these days. It’s so fringe nobody even pays attention anymore. They would think Ann Coulter is a liberal, for crying out loud.
For the folks wondering about moveon.org, read some of the anti-Semitic comments that people leave. Look at some of the associates people involved with the group have.
It is important to remember Hitler’s rise to power so that something as vile as the Holocaust never happens again.
Bill Maher is about 1/10000000000000th as smart and witty as he thinks he is beneath his self-loving preening. Ann Coulter is a reactionary attention-mongering clown. MoveOn.org is an ineffectual club of ninnies. Its first Executive Director, Peter Schurman, went to Penn c. 87-91 and was “that dork who’s always protesting.” They’re meaningless.
facts: Moveon is notoriously anti_Israel. Ann Coulter’s words, any words of hatred, are dangerous.
I like free speech. That doesn’t mean I have to like bigotry.
Hitler’s movement began with words. You know hor it ended.
As far as Bill Maher…. well…
another time for that.
Larry, it is a new day so you better come up with a new way. These new posters on your blog have facts and intelligence to back up their arguments. They’ve figured Ms Coulter out for what she really is and confronted you with Mr. Maher. Your response …. ? Your Hitler reference is just a knee jerk reaction to the e-mails you received.
How many people mark the 75th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power?
Only you Larry, only you.
Ed: Keep on writing but get smart man.
I like knee-jerk reactions. If you saw some of this stuff, you would have reacted much stronger than I did.
As usual,thanks for writing.
PS ED– There is now way to compare Ann Coulter to any real human being.
“Moveon.org you know is an extreme liberal group that is so way out it discourages dissent, and has been near hateful in its attacks on Israel. I have friends who support Moveon.org and I have warned them that there’s not much difference between Ann Coulter’s brown-shirt fascism and Moveon’s screaming left wing rhetoric. They both come from the extreme, and the extreme on both sides has left our nation divided.
”
MoveOn is as liberal as you are centrist.
Unfortunately, to the right wing radicals anything left of Ronnie Reagan is “liberal fringe”.
I really wonder what you would do if you EVER encountered a true liberal, probably melt (like the witch in the Wizard of Oz…one can only hope)
This continued fantasy promotion that all who are “liberal” are so based on a stance against Israel…The anti-sematic rhetoric is a bit overplayed, don’t ya think? Race baiting on any side is just another attempt to divide the country and to instill hate and fear but that is what the Neo-Con does best….Read your boy, Leo some time…he was the king of the anti-zionists. The father of Neo-Conservatism was AGAINST the creation of a Jewish State. He wanted the Jewish population to rise up out of oppression and take control of the world. Creating Israel, he feared, would instill complacency