Steven Hayward Sinks To New Low

At Power Line, mindless, idiotic liberal bashing is John Hinderaker’s specialty. Hinderaker must have the day off because today’s garbage is coming from Steven Hayward. And after several years of repetitive Limbaughesque “liberal bad, conservative good” posts, he has finally fallen victim to Godwin’s Law and compares progressives to Hitler. I’m not kidding. He really did. Read it for yourself.

The Atlantic last week reran a piece it first published in 1932 on “Ten Things You Should Know About Hitler.”  It mentions Hitler’s “violent hatred of Marxian Socialism.”  Yes, that would have gained him a frown in faculty clubs.  But many of the other salient aspects of Hitler’s ideology sound just like what you hear from American “Progressives”:

4. His concern for social betterment (‘true Socialism’) as a necessary prerequisite to the acceptance of his ideals by the masses.

5. His contempt for the intelligence of the ordinary man and for a democracy based on faith in his development to higher levels.

6. His contempt for parliamentary institutions as the organs of such a democracy, which substitutes for the decision of a competent leader the majority vote of the incompetent. . .

Doesn’t this sound much like Tom Friedman, et al, complaining about our “dysfunctional” political system, the Senate filibuster, etc?

7. His insistence on the power of personality and on the entire concentration of authority in the hands of one leader (up to now, himself).

Cue the “hope and change” poster for “The One.”

8. His economic nationalism, with its distrust of international capital and its preference for small, locally controlled business organizations. Hitler fears the banks and all newfangled ideas for controlling credit. He objects to stock companies and stresses the value of personal ownership. In short, he believes in the ruthless subordination of economic interests and economic leaders to racial and national considerations.

Now you know why the Left goes bonkers when you point out these parallels.

Barack Obama and Hitler, two peas in a pod. This post sets a new low for Steven Hayward that will be hard to beat. But I’m sure he’ll try.