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In the days following Tucson, lawmakers and the press monitored each modicum of political speech to see if a moment of intemperate rhetoric would signal a break in a “new era of civility” ushered in by the tragic shooting.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Looks like: Yup.
In a little-noticed floor speech last night (flagged today by ABC News), Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee invoked Nazis, the Holocaust, Germany’s infamous Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, and – yes – blood libel in describing how Republicans have characterized the health care law as a “government takeover.”
“They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like Goebbels," Cohen said. "You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it. Like blood libel. That's the same kind of thing, blood libel. That's the same kind of thing.”
Referencing “blood libel” – the anti-Semitic false accusation about which Americans received a history lesson last week – Cohen added: “The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it -- believed it and you have the Holocaust.”
(Cohen's remarks didn't get picked up until today because they were delivered to a nearly empty House gallery. Members of Congress can give speeches on almost any topic after legislative business is finished for the day. Many members use it as their way to “revise and extend” their remarks with the hope that it will get picked up by their local stations or newspapers. These speeches tend to be given to not only empty press galleries, but empty seats on the floor as well.)
The last time a Democratic politician invoked Goebbels to describe a GOP rival (when California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown drew a parallel between the notorious Nazi politician and Republican Meg Whitman), First Read coined its own theory of what bringing up the Nazi party does to political discourse. Here’s what we wrote then:
You’ve heard of Godwin’s Law -- in an online argument, the person who brings up the Nazis or a Nazi comparison automatically effectively ends (and loses) the arguments. Well, here’s First Read’s Law -- bringing up the Nazis in American politics never does anyone any good. And guess what: The first one to bring it up always sees it boomerang.
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Republicans have a health position? As they teach in the Marines: lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. The Republicans are doing none of that.
The "You're a Nazi (or Socialist, or Communist or Fascist)" thing is getting VERY TIRING. The people who were afraid of Nazis are dead or old! At least update it to Al Qaida or something.
On the other hand, let's not detract too much from the FACT that Republicans HAVE BEEN LYING about the health care law. Come on, stop calling me a Socialist and look it up. There's a public record.
My opinion is, stop the name calling!! Besides, the latest Wall Street Journal poll shows the Country evenly divided over the law, so this idea that there's a mandate to repeal is YET ANOTHER LIE!
Feisty Redhead in the Peoples Republic of Illinois (where your representatives jacked up your income tax 2% while you slept): Try to listen to the message Mr. Beck brings and don't close your mind. All he was saying is that we have to take responsibility for our actions. Where in the chronology of our nation did that notion go by the wayside? The "Great Society" from Lyndon Johnson? Stop the political labeling. I'm a Republican and listen to both sides to make an intelligent choice or have meaningful dialogue with whom I may not 100% agree. Again....open your mind.
Feisty Redhead in the Peoples Republic of Illinois (where your representatives jacked up your income tax 2% while you slept): Try to listen to the message Mr. Beck brings and don't close your mind. All he was saying is that we have to take responsibility for our actions. Where in the chronology of our nation did that notion go by the wayside? The "Great Society" from Lyndon Johnson? Stop the political labeling. I'm a Republican and listen to both sides to make an intelligent choice or have meaningful dialogue with whom I may not 100% agree. Again....open your mind.
HEY DIPPIDY DUE TO YOU...What are you complaining about. The people of illinois chose to pay there own bills not make the rest of us pay. Taxes in Indiana, Wisconsin are still higher than IL..
BECAUSE I AM NOT PAYING EXTRA IN FEDERAL TO BAIL THEM OUT SO YOU SHOULD STOP WORRYING ABOUT ILLINOIS....They are paying for all of the stuff they get.
FYI there libraries are still open and Glenn encourages reading...
" Mr. Beck brings and don't close your mind. All he was saying is that we have to take responsibility for our actions."
I AGREE WITH BECK AND I watch him regular. And paying your bills last time I checked was being responsible. Like he says don't FOLLOW EVERYTHING HE SAYS.
Research it yourself.....Beck does not dictate what you should think....
Glenn-2013624
Feisty Redhead in the Peoples Republic of Illinois (where your representatives jacked up your income tax 2% while you slept): Try to listen to the message Mr. Beck brings and don't close your mind. All he was saying is that we have to take responsibility for our actions.
We did that's why have a Democratic governor and house.
FYI: FOX NOISE took you off script . This is what our legislatures have to say...
Illinois is very low tax, ranking 46th in total state and local tax burden as a percentage of income, including every tax or fee charged by every unit of state or local government. The bottom line: our rich state can’t afford to even be a bottom feeder when it comes to funding the most basic public services like schools and caring for the elderly and disabled, and the main culprit is insufficient tax revenue, not poor priorities, not waste and certainly not profligate spending.
This Cohen is a real "whack-job" and they criticize the right on their views. Throw the bum out.
Isn't the new civil tone simply delightful?
It just shows us all ....what a political hack the "GRIM WEEPER is ..and no leadership below him either !
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Maybe a banner with this bibilical quote could be hung across the floor in the house and senate. There are loons on both sides of the aisle.
They lie....who didn't know this?
One should still be able to say if it quacks like a duck and it waddles like a duck it's a duck. Goebbels did say those who control the message control the masses and ever since the Fairness Doctrine disappeared 25 years ago seems like our politcal discourse has indeed been coursened by those who have an ideological agenda based on dividing the public into "us" vs "them". As for "holocaust" and "Nazism" the Representative would have been better off using the more appropriate term "fascism" and define it accordingly.
Given the need for hip boots to negotiate the cowflops, I'm only surprised that the polls have the electorate evenly divided on HCR.
Look we have reached a point in this country where 47% of all children are in single family households.
Do you think the single parents have healthcare NO...WE GIVE THEM MEDICAID AND THEY DON'T PAY FOR ANYTHING...OK SO THE YOUNG FOLKS WORK AT MC DONALDS
THEY NEED TO PAY SOMETHING
Maybe if we didn't have a bunch of medical freebies available ONLY IF YOU DON'T GET MARRIED AND HAVE A CHILD OUT OF WEDLOCK we wouldn't have the problem with yOUNG PEOPLE NOT GETTING MARRIED.. insurance covering pregnancy. EVERYONE NEEDS TO PAY FOR THE BENEFIT...Last time I checked MOST PEOPLE HAVE AT LEAST 1 CHILD..A trip to the maternity runs 30,000 dollars..
Did you pay 30,000 dollars over the life of your insurance policy ?
Think about it...
I UNDERSTAND PEOPLE THINK HEALTHCARE IS FREE. ITS NOT
FINE THEM ON THE IRS IF THEY DON'T PAY...
Is the bill perfect no but it does require deadbeat individuals to get coverage instead of waiting to run to the ER and let the hospital absorb the cost.
Do we cut benefits for medicare MEDICARE IS OUT OF CONTROL AND PEOPLE GET MORE OUT OF IT THAN THEY PAY IN..ITS A HUGE PONZI rip off SCHEME..Life expectancy was 67 when the figures were tabulated. Folks going into retirement in the next 5 years NEED TO PAY MORE RIGHT NOW OR THERE WON'T BE ANY MEDICARE..
Healthcare cost money and its time people started being acountable and paid a minimum every year.
I pay for a private policy and have had enough with subsidizing people who refuse to pay.
I know a nurse who did not buy insurance and got pregnant. Guess who paid for her babies delivery.
If we don't start MAKING ROOM FOR HEALTHCARE FOR THE YOUNG AND START MAKING EVERYBODY PAY SOMETHING, THE BABY BOOMERS ARE GOING TO TAKE EVERY LAST DOLLAR FOR THER HEALTHCARE PRIORITIES
VIAGRA BOTOX AND LIP INJECTIONS HAIR TRANSPLANTS THATS WHAT WE WIL BE PAYING FOR
But trust me THEY WILL STILL TAKE OUT FICA AND THEY WILL TAX US TO DEATH
12% IS the future for workers of today and 10 years from now..
So the bill being repealed is GENERATIONAL NOT PARTYLINE
THE ARGUMENT IS GENERATIONAL NOT ANYTHING ELSE
Wait a minute. I am a single parent and I pay my own way, including health insurance! I resent your comments....
And do you really think MOST SINGLE PARENTS ACTUALLY PAY FOR THERE KIDS HEALTHCARE ?
THE FEDERAL MEDICAID NUMBERS DO NOT AGREE..
captcrash you are an exception too the rule...SO GOOD FOR YOU !
My comment does not apply to people who PAY FOR THERE OWN HEALTH INSURANCE
Actually, if you look at Nazi propaganda some of the right wing's stuff IS like Nazi stuff. The cherry picking of convenient partial facts. The motivating of fear and social insecurity in the reading audience.
Sorry, but try reading Nazi propaganda (it's online), then read some of the extreme right wing rhetoric and then go to factcheck[dot]org.
This doesn't mean every right winger is a Nazi. But, yeah, they are similar.
Yeah Siara....The Right wants to kill Jews and gays and artists and burn them and do terrible experiments on them...You can't compare anyone to a Nazi unless you compare all aspects of Nazism and what they did...And if you do you are utterly ignorant...That would be like me saying the Left is so far left that they are Socialists or Communists...I mean have you read about Socialism and Communism and it's belief and then looked at the extreme left wing babble and then go to factcheck{dot}org.......
NEW RULE:
I just heard this one the other day on some guy's radio show-
If someone asks you to tone it down, or try to be more civil, the correct response from you is to be
"they will NOT shut me up- they CANNOT shut me up".
Got it? It HAS to be good. I hear this new rule was proposed by somene with the highest aspirations to be PRESIDENT one day.
Oh, boy. Don't go again in to this Nazi thing, we had one week of peace and it was kind of nice. People are jerks by nature, and there is nothing that you can do.
I don't mind the arguing and debating, but I have just one simple wish when it comes to politicians on both sides of the aisle: PLEASE, please, can you just please stop the name calling? Is it such a hard thing to remember. Using the term "Nazi propaganda" or invoking the name "Goebbels" is effectively calling someone a name or making a not so veiled reference to someone's character. It's like an elementary school playground. Can you, the elected, the chosen by the people, please set a better example? Or do you just need a time out....
Way to go, Steve, tarring the wide spread opposition to this 1/2 trillion dollar Obama health care fiasco as Nazis. Fortunately you're running in a district where people can read and write. And hopefully they'll show up on election day to show the door.
It would have been nice if my fellow democrat had managed to keep it reasonably civil for more than few days after Tucson. Whether it was an attempt at an analogy or hyperbole, his remark failed on all points. His suggestion that the obvious lying of the Republicans about the health care bill is similar to Goebbels' Nazi propaganda machine was painful to read. Instead of talking about the provisions of the health care plan and how the Republicans are having serious trouble addressing it honestly, we are talking about Nazi propoganda. Surely Rep Cohen could have come up with an analogy more on point and still be interesting. I dislike these kind of "gotcha" remarks by anyone, Republican or Democrat. It seems he just stuck his hand in the bag marked "insulting analogies" and used what he came up with instead of working to find something more apt and less historically painful. I'm sure Rep. Cohen knows that Goebbels' propaganda machine helped facilitate the murder of more than 6 million people, a historical reality we all know is much more important than this or any other law already passed. Frankly, I'm ashamed of his lack of serious work when he prepared his remarks for use on the floor of Congress.
The real issue is whether the comparison is accurate. There's nothing wrong with making an inflammatory statement if it is true. Sometimes the truth hurts. Why didn't the press do its job when Republicans were going around talking about "death panels", which was an outright lie? They did not challenge this, but treated it as a legitimate assessment of the health care bill. I don't give a crap about "civility". I just want people not to lie or invoke violence in their rhetoric. That's a pretty low bar, but Republican have trouble meeting it. Using gun metaphors all the time to an audience you KNOW has a hard-on for the 2nd Amendment is not cute, it's dangerous and irresponsible. That's the issue, not "civility".
It is a big lie. Period. And the GOP uses the very same tactics that the Nazis used. While it may not be beneficial to bring it up - it is absolutely true. They work with PR hacks to come up with the lies - they start over at Faux News and get the Faux News GOP agents to say the thing over and over, then the inbred trailer trash who thinks Faux News is real news starts believing it. It's the same tactic. And it's true. So why focus on the Nazi tie? Why not do a story that talks about the truth of the Representative's comments. He was right.
You dems are so blind it is truly frightening. I consider myself a conservative but I am definitely not too stupid to realize that all politicians lie (or the vast majority do) in order to sway people to their way of thinking. The fact that most of the dems on this vine think only repubs lie are taking blindness of ones own foibles to a whole new level. Until you realize that calling roughly half of the country stupid only makes you appear so. We on the right actually do know exactly what is being said and done. (Or most of us do - not saying that there are not extremes on this side of aisle either). I don't know about you but I listen to more than just one news agency, I read more than just one newspaper and web site to get my information. When I have questions, I research them. Don't think for a minute that because of what is said on or by Fox, MSN or any other news agency or individual affiliated with that agency, that I don't reseach issues for myself and make intelligent determinations on my own. That is mostly why I am not an extreme of my party. I am more centric but I do get mighty tired of being called a liar, a religious fanatic, a 2nd amendment nut, etc. by you people on the left. My grandmother always told me that cursing and name calling are the last resort of people with little intelligence. Just saying . . . .
Readhead from Roselle, IL: Please keep an open mind and step away from your keyboard. You live in a very socialist state (just raised income tax 2% last week), so your opinion toward the Prez and Senate may be skewed. I lean right, but listen to all arguments. Mr. Beck makes many good points. He stresses personal responsibility and less government. Where in our nation's history did we get away from those basics? The Great Lyndon Johnson welfare state of the '60's?
Tragedy should unite, not point blame at others. Didn't take lefties long to start anti-Bush warfare after 9/11. I thought we were all together when the towers went down. Should have taken action against treasonous turncoats.
Way to control the ol' Vitriol there Rep. Cohen. You better start listening to your President.
IF HCR is indeed a fiasco, it is because there were entirely too many foolish compromises made in it.The "Loyal Opposition" turned it into a one ton hummingbird instead of the streamlined plan the country needs.
I also am tired of both the Republicans and the Democrats using Nazi comments, they do nothing to help get their point across if anything those comments negait the point. I would also like to point out the fact that if voters realized the importance of all elections we would not have the recent Repulican take-over.
I'm a liberal person... but vote republican in general - actually I don't vote party lines, instead do my homework to vote for the best candidate in my eyes. Anyone using a reference to the Nazi's makes me sick to my stomach.
Having spent time in Europe visiting war memorials, battle grounds, museums, etc. I've been able to see first hand what the Nazi's did to people and to equate what our leaders are saying to any Nazi leader is worthy of being dismissed from office.
Representative Cohen is a disgrace to American values and a least should be censured... I'm sure his descendants are turning in their graves. And anyone who voted for him should now be ashamed.