Anne Arundel GOP Women compare Obama to Hitler
Legum’s New Line has an excerpt of a letter from Joyce E. Thoman, President of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County:
Dear Friends:
Obama and Hitler have a great deal in common in my view. Obama and Hitler use the “blitzkrieg” method to overwhelm their enemies. FAST, CARPET BOMBING intent on destruction. Hitler’s blitzkrieg bombing destroyed many European cities – quickly and effectively. Obama is systematically destroying the American economy and with it AMERICA. First the banking/investment industry, next private enterprise (GM and Chrysler) and now HEALTH CARE. And he is working on grabbing more of the American economy with his environmental extremism!
We too CAN fight back. Contact everyone you know. Start a blitzkrieg of our own. Shut down the Capitol switchboards and the White House switchboards! Say NO to the Obamination of Obama Care!
As of right now (6:59 PM on June 23, 2009) the letter is still on the organization’s website here.
Judd Legum called on former Governor Bob Ehrlich and other Republicans to denounce the letter.
HuffPo has also picked up the story.
11 Comments »
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1
There could not possibly be a more wrong-headed approach than Thoman’s letter. Jesus, have these people already forgotten how THEY howled when George W was compared to Hitler?
The intelligent approach to Obama would be to quit all the crappy plays on his name (“Obamination” and the use of his middle name) and focus on what he is doing. We are starting the fifth month of his presidency. Someone needs to compile a day-by-day time line that includes claims he’s made and power grabs he has attempted (mostly with success). Such a tool would make it easy to demonstrate how something the POTUS said on one particular day contradicts what he said on the same subject only a few days earlier.
There are many who are so infatuated with the guy that they will never see this, unless it can be graphically demonstrated how much bullshit he is spreading, without regard to whether anyone’s paying attention.
Comment by Blogger1947 — June 23, 2009 @ 10:24 pm
2
The last time I checked, there was a First Amendment. I don’t see the comparison of Obama to Hitler as being completely off base insofar as the strategies are concerned. Judd Legum needs to lighten up and get a life since his ilk had no problem comparing Bush to Hitler and in truth his party’s tactics more closely resemble that of Der Fuehrer. After all, it was the National Socialist Party.
Comment by Michael Swartz — June 24, 2009 @ 12:00 am
3
First of all, I am pretty sure Joyce spells her last name with two ‘n’s (Thomann). Second, she and her husband have been tireless advocates of liberty and truth for Marylanders and all Americans since Judd Legum was a baby. She probably knows more about Hitler and the blitzkrieg than Legum or anyone writing for HuffPo will ever know.
Her husband, Chuck, is a selfless, highly decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Joyce is known throughout the GOP by her calls to action and her in-depth knowledge of state and national political history. The Thomann’s are national treasures who have earned the highest respect from their fellow Marylanders.
Now, I have learned that if Joyce Thomann says we need to employ the blitzkrieg tactics that have made both Hitler and the Obama Democrats so successful in their early days in laying waste to vast swaths of land, wealth and people then I am inclined to agree.
She and her husband have witnessed over and again the tragic consequences of our failure to act in the face of evil. From this deep and poisoned well she draws buckets of inspiration and energy to lead her fellow Republicans with her calls to arms and action.
Comment by Mike Netherland — June 24, 2009 @ 7:18 am
4
I’m not entirely sure what their service to the country has to do with the silly analogy they used. And beyond that, what “evil” did Chuck fight in Korea and Vietnam? The “evil” communists? Spare me.
Her statement was loaded. Comparing someone’s actions to those of Hitler will always get you a response. That’s what she wanted. That’s what she got.
The funniest part of this whole debacle is just how inept her analogy is. First of all, Hitler was not the one who came up with the concept of a blitzkrieg. Second, it was an American journalist that coined the term. Third and most importantly, Hitler never intended to fight in a blitzkrieg style. He made several statements about preparing for the long war, but limited industry forced him into making bad tactical decisions, and he fell back on those tactics faced with the industrial might of the United States. The vast majority of the German army was not in shape to be a blitzkrieg army.
So if her analogy is a poor one, based on conceptualizations of WWII from the 1960’s, we’re left with the insult of being compared to Hitler. That was her intent, to insult the president and rally her supporters with her own desperate blitzkrieg of emails and phone calls.
I don’t think Republicans should have to do anything in this situation. These renunciations and apologies are just as silly as the rhetorical blunders they address.
Comment by Jeremy — June 24, 2009 @ 10:36 am
5
After years of the left comparing George W. Bush to Hitler, they’re now upset that someone on the right made a very veiled reference to similar tactics? Aye carumba. Hypocrisy at its finest. Legum is one of those very offenders too and his comments are still out there talking about how the right is nazi-esque (as if national ownership of industry is a Republican idea…let alone that one of the biggest defenders of appeasement to the nazis in wwii was none other than Joe Kennedy)
Comment by Lol — June 24, 2009 @ 11:06 am
6
Apparently in everyone’s rush to repudiate the first paragraph of my comment, all of you neglected to read the subsequent paragraphs.
And apparently I failed to communicate what I intended, which is that this tacit of name-calling does stir up and polarize those who already believe the POTUS in question (be it W or O) is destroying the country. But as a tactic for changing the minds of those who are either undecided, or who only mildly support Obama, it’s counter productive.
Comment by Blogger1947 — June 24, 2009 @ 11:29 am
7
Mrs. Thomann:
Your comments comparing President Obama to Hitler have to be among the most senseless I have seen, even from right-wing Republican wingnuts.
I can think of just a few differences between the two, foremost of
which was that Hitler was effectively able to dismiss the Reichstag and rule by decree. I believe the U.S. Congress is still functioning.
Another major difference? Hitler sold the German people on ridiculous racial superiority claims which enabled him to slaughter millions of Jews as well as “subhuman Slavs” captured in his wars with Poland and the Soviet Union. Obama had made much of the fact that he is biracial, and thus unlikely to promote either black or white racial superiority.
And by all means, if you’re going to talk about military matters,
please get your information from something besides a World War II
comic book. You seem to be unable to distinguish between the terms
“blitzkrieg” and “blitz.” Blitzkrieg was the term for German land
warfare featuring tanks, mobile artillery, motorized infantry and
tactical air support. It had nothing whatever to do with bombing
European cities, with the exception of an aerial attack on Rotterdam early in the 1940 campaign, which while causing severe damage, hardly leveled the city.
The blitz was a term referring to relentless German bombing attacks on London and other British cities from from Sept. 7, 1940, to May 10, 1941. The blitz and blitzkrieg were very different events whose only connection was that they were both waged by the Germans.
“Carpet bombing” was never waged by the German Luftwaffe. It was a
technique used by the United States Army Air Forces during Operation Cobra, which was an operation in which the U.S. Army forces were able to break through the German defenses in Normandy and roll across France. Carpet bombing also had nothing to do with bombing cities. It was tactical saturation bombing by heavy and medium bombers on a relatively small portion of the German lines designed to disrupt the German defenses ahead of the U.S. advance.
The next time you make such daffy comparisons, please try to form at
least the vaguest idea of what you are talking about.
Comment by David Claypool — June 26, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
8
My paternal grandmother, born in 1926, grew up in Nazi Germany. She has told me on many occasions, that most of Obama’s policies are the exact same as Hitler’s.
And David, carpet bombing was used by the Allied Air Forces, because the VAST majority of German anti-aircraft defenses, military bunkers, and even factories, were placed in, around, and under, hospitals, churches, houses, and other civilian buildings. During WWII, we really had no effective meas of guiding munitions. It was largely BECAUSE of the massive collateral damage that HAD to be inflicted, that the military began working on guided munitions. Late in the war (spring of 1945), some early TV, and radio guided munitions were developed, but they suffered from problems due to the complexity of the guidance systems.
Comment by Jon — June 26, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
9
My point is not whether the comparison is accurate, but whether it’s a good tactic. Let’s agree that too many Americans are politically unaware, and do not understand the future ramifications of what’s been done by the feds over the last decades, much less the unintended consequences. THESE are the people whom we need to engage, and motivate to think about politics and become active. They’re the folks who wait until election day to decide how they’re voting, and they largely have determined the outcome of the last several elections.
I don’t think we will engage this group of people by name-calling from either side of the aisle. Comparisons to Hitler that are supported by FACT are another story. Take the 1968 gun control law, which started the whole morass we’re in now regarding crime and self-defense. JPFO has done research that reveals that the text of this law was translated from, and follows almost word for word, the German gun control law enacted in 1936. THAT is a supportable assertion.
The idea should be to draw the apathetic majority into the political discourse, not drive them away by making a lot of embarrassing noise.
Comment by Blogger1947 — June 26, 2009 @ 9:41 pm
10
[...] Our original post on this subject was borne out of reading a post by Judd Legum, which in turn was based on a Paul Foer post. [...]
Pingback by More fallout regarding GOP women and Obama-Hitler comparisons | Inside Charm City: Baltimore, Maryland blog — June 30, 2009 @ 8:11 am
11
I just read a book by a man who was a Hitler Youth…and Obama is the exact “reproduction” of Hitler all over again. It been time for people in America to open their eyes and try our utmost to get Congress to impeach this man…of course Congress is who today? We have to defeat the totalitarian lie!!!
Mrs. Thoman is correct in what she have stated. Wake Up America before it is too late. Remember the millions of Jews and Christians who died under the leadership of Hitler and Nazis…and Nazi-Muslims SS. Do we have it in America in shadows..unseen for right now.
Comment by Cher — July 3, 2009 @ 5:49 am