By Mark David Blum, Esq.
It is time to put to rest that other N word that so permeates modern day language. As a People, we are all mostly in agreement to end the use of the word “Nigger” given its highly inflammatory and offensive nature. Though “Niggah” has replaced “Nigger” in the vernacular of the street, it still is the same word and has the same meaning.
But I do not rise now in opposition to the word “Nigger”. Instead, the time has come to stop throwing around that other “N” word – “Nazi”. Nowadays everybody from both parties and their respective spit radio pundits refer to their opponents as “Nazis”. George Bush and his Administration are called Nazis. Sean Hannity proclaimed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will go down in history as the modern day Neville Chamberlin. Even Lou Dobbs likened me to a Nazi because I do not agree with his position on human migration in North America.
Americans are not Nazis. In fact, with the exception of a few hard core right wing Christians running under the label of Neo Nazis; the Nazi party and its ideology were wiped out back in the late 40’s. Leaders of the Nazi party were killed, imprisoned, or suicided. No one escaped; not even Eichman.
The bottom line is that Nazis do not exist in any recognizable form. Even more importantly is that Nazis did not hold the patent on tyranny or fascism. For thousands of years before and for decades since, Fascism and Tyranny have manifested in many places and under many names. Stalin and Mao used Communism as their political tool to enforce tyranny. The Janjaweed in Africa use no political ideology, just lust for power as a means to apply tyranny and abuse to the People. Christian and Islamic fundamentalists use their Holy Books as the source and justification for their cruelty.
It is not the fact that they were “Nazis” that made the 3rd Reich so dangerous or offensive. That was just the name of their political party. It was the leadership and their insane ideas about control, power, and riches that drove their policies. Nothing about National Socialism made that theory offensive; only those who interpreted and applied it.
The same holds true in the modern era. You do not have to be a Nazi to steal from your People, go around the world starting wars, killing and imprisoning millions on obnoxious and irrational laws, building camps for torture, creating a National Secret Police and spying on the populace, destroying a Nation and its’ military and political standing in the world, and operating on the principle of a single Imperial Leader who is veto-proof and unstoppable in his military forays. Nope, there is no reason to sling the word “Nazi” around when referring to such people. In the modern era, the word “Republican” fits the same mold.
While the Nazis are dead, people who lust for power, control, and stealing the riches of a nation’s treasury are found everywhere. They can hide under any political cover and will tell you exactly what you want to hear to advance their agenda.
There is a tale of Oscar Wilde was visiting a friend in Portugal and while there, went out one evening to a party. Upon his return, he was asked who was there. Wilde said there were communists and socialists and capitalists and libertarians and the right and the left. Folks from all over the political spectrum were present. When asked if any fascists were there, Wilde is purported as saying, “My dear friend, they were all Fascists.”
That is what the issue is all about. There is no Hitler to appease. Osama Bin Ladin is not the Fuehrer. Yet, there is no peace in our time nor is there peace with honor. Our nation is led by persons who are not the best person for the job, but because they told the electorate everything and anything necessary to get elected. Opponents were demonized. Democrats were portrayed as hapless sheep with angry wolves at the door. One party is always calling the other weak, soft on defense, and ignorant to the supposed real threat out there. The Republicans solution is more war, more invasions of our privacy and rights, and more depletion of our military and treasury.
But more offensive than all that was Lou Dobbs of CNN calling me a Nazi. He referred to me as a Nazi because I stand with millions of others who recognize human beings are not prisoners of the nation of their birth and should have the right to migrate. The irony is that when I get an image in mind of a real Nazi, I think of a white middle aged, pudgy faced, arrogant, single issue sycophant with a John Edwards $400 haircut, who sits unchallenged on television night after night pandering to the fears and whipping up fury against Mexicans. To me, that is Nazi-esque rhetoric. As a Jew, I couldn’t be more offended. Perhaps if we tortured Dobbs’ parents and skinned them alive to make lampshades he would understand the sheer outrageous nature of his statement.
Since Lou Dobbs and his ilk proclaim to not support the President, one must assume his ethnocentric arrogance is not Republican in nature, but personal. He, like so many others in positions of power and in control of the media, put out an agenda that rallies one person against another. They create chaos, call for war, call for mass arrests and prisons, call for social conflict, call for abuse, and insist it be their way or the end of the world as we know it is nigh. In other words, you don’t have to be a Republican to be a Fascist. Just being Lou Dobbs is enough.
Unfortunately, Dobbs is not alone. Congressional Republicans have now for 14 years, been the major obstructionists to freedom and liberty. The have stood blindly behind a President regardless of his failed policies. Even in the minority, they still march to that single drum. Yet, the more that people die, the more zealous becomes the President’s bloodlust and right wing support. By refusing to fund troops and blackmailing the American People, Republicans have made it very clear to all of America that our best interests do not align with their party’s. Instead of being the People’s servants, Republicans and Neo Cons are exactly what is meant in the definition of Fascist.
By definition, a Fascist is somebody who supports or advocates a system of government characterized by dictatorship, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism. While modern day Republicans argue they are all for Free Enterprise and are business oriented, their behavior is to the contrary. Rules, regulations, domination, control from the White House to our own County Legislature proves the point. Nationally, Republicans are about trade sanctions, closed borders, and ethnocentric shopping. Anybody who disagrees with them is called an “enemy” or a “traitor” and is Swift Boated into obscurity. Locally, Republicans want to monitor our weight and are advocating the requirement of a production of identification to buy or sell anything second hand. With the single exception of the Oil Industry, most of America’s business environment is choking from Republican oversight and intervention.
Left unchecked now since 2003, our Imperial President has thrown bodies at Iraqi bullets without remorse. He intends to continue to do so through the remainder of his Presidency despite the People’s demand otherwise. Our President views the role of Commander in Chief as being Supreme Military Commander. He has built CentCom; a military establishment meant to intervene and take control of the United States in the event of an “emergency”. He is surrounded by the Imperial Blackwater Guards and the “SS” (Secret Service). Since there are no conscripts, our President has an entire military of paid mercenaries at his disposal and for which he uses to settle personal grudges with folks who tried to hurt his Daddy.
As a Free Speech advocate, I personally do not care if you use words like “Nigger” or “Nazi” or “Nappy Headed Ho”. That is an American birthright. Using such rhetoric only empties the argument of any validity and shows the speaker as being dumber than a Caveman.
We live in a Nation whose leaders are constantly beating the drums of war, telling the People great lies, and keeping fear alert levels high and constant. As a nation, we are being terrorized by our President and the Republicans in Congress purely for political gain. To me, nothing could be more Hitler-esque (or should I say Dobbs-esque).
In the end, however, I call upon people to end this offensive and irrelevant use of the “N” word. It just does not apply to the modern world. Today’s fascists and tyrants are far more dangerous and abusive than anything concocted by governments of 60 years ago. Our nation’s leaders may have learned their love of war and the romantic notion of being conquerors from the silver screen. In driving their attitudes home, they have adopted the very same practices of fascist abusive government of the past. While I understand the Nazi comparison, ours is more dangerous situation.
At least Hitler was open and upfront with his beliefs and intentions. To the contrary George Bush and the Republican Party are still keeping their true intentions secret.
As for Lou Dobbs; he can kiss my big fat hairy unwashed Jewish ass. (I hear it tastes like chicken).
