WEEKLY COLUMN:
JDM vs the WORLD

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FINE PRINT

According to CBS.com, the upcoming sweeps week extravaganza, Hitler: The Rise of Evil, is a “four-hour, fact-based mini-series that explores Adolf Hitler’s rise to power during the years prior to World War II.” Meanwhile, TV Guide reports that the executive behind this network event, Ed Gernon, believes Hitler’s ascendance in a fear-filled post-war Germany is akin to “the Bush administration’s adoption of a preemptive-strike policy and the public’s acceptance of it” in the post-September 11th era.

Said Gernon in reference to the alleged Bush/Hitler parallel, “I can’t think of a better time to examine this history than now.”

And I can’t think of a better time to stop watching CBS.

No, wait. I stopped watching CBS years ago.

But that aside, here’s what I want to know: Exactly which set of facts is this “fact-based mini-series” based on? Ed Gernon’s? And, if that’s the case, does CBS expect us to take this thing seriously? I don’t know about you, but I’ve long since dismissed all those who say Bush is the Hitler Reincarnate. At this point, people who make this argument could tell me the sky is blue but I won’t believe a word of what they’re saying till I walk outside and see it for myself. They’ve lost all credibility with me.

So unless we’re supposed to head down to 7-Eleven for a grape-flavored Slurpee and a free pair of 3-D shades to watch this thing through the same prism that prompted Michael Moore to claim, “We live in fictitious times,” I’ll just operate under the assumption that Gernon’s mini-series has all the redeeming qualities of The Anna Nicole Show—which is to say it’s got none.

Simply put, the idea that Bush is some sort of modern day Mecha-Fuhrer is intensely absurd. In fact, I hesitate to even call it an “idea.” Inventing the wheel or buying a jacket in time for winter—now, those are ideas. Comparing Bush to Hitler? That’s just a copout. Half of the math teachers in my middle school were called Hitler, too, for example, and the comparison was every bit as unimaginative then as it is now.

But this is the kind of nonsensical gem we’ve come to expect from the Extra Left, isn’t it? After all, these are the same bright minds behind “No Blood For Oil” and “Regime Change Begins At Home,” which did for battle cries what “Whoomp! There It Is” and “Who Let The Dogs Out?” did for music and Mets games.

These people have made whole careers out of barking up the wrong trees. They’re quick to draw a mustache on a Bush poster, yet they ignore—or even sometimes support—ruthless criminals like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, men who legitimately follow in Hitler’s footsteps.

Just look at the Hollywood Left’s fascination with that fascist bastard Fidel Castro. HBO, for instance, has delayed a forthcoming documentary called Comandante, because it’s been peppered with pro-Fidel flavor by director Oliver Stone.

This Stone fellow loves Castro, see? Loves him. Looks up to him. Thinks he’s Lenin, Jefferson and Baldwin all in one. Yet this is the same Castro who recently jailed 75 Cuban civilians on the grounds of political dissent—even while American soldiers were working to bring free speech to an oppressed people across the globe.

It’s interesting how the Hate Bush crowd can gather right outside the White House every day without noticing how good they’ve got it. That’s what makes the Hitler analogy so annoying. I mean, if you don’t like the president, that’s fine. You don’t have to like him. You’re entitled to your opinion and no one’s going to hold it against you (void where prohibited; see pre-war Iraq for details). But if you think Bush is remotely close to the man who set the benchmark for bad behavior in the 20th century, then your opinion’s null and void—and that’s a fact.

Look at the compassion with which Bush has led America into war, with rhetoric in no way reminiscent of Hitler’s vicious tirades. We talk of liberation and human rights, not the creation of a master race. We drop rations and pamphlets. We cancel strategies that might endanger civilian lives. Hitler didn’t do these things. Hitler sent civilians to death factories. In this regard alone, the Bush/Hitler comparison is one which no fair-minded man, woman, child or alternate liberal life form can make.

Also, in case you didn’t notice, anti-Islamic sentiment never really swept America in the wake of September 11th—Bush himself saw to it. He called Islam “a religion of peace” despite the premonitions of many loyal supporters. If you think Hitler would’ve done this, you can forget about it.

Hitler would’ve used September 11th—coupled with the string of unanswered terrorist attacks in the ‘90s—as an excuse to send Muslims to internment camps. That’s what happened to Japanese-Americans under the watch of a big government liberal and great wartime leader by the name of Franklin Roosevelt. Nothing like that has happened under Bush. In fact, whereas Hitler was just getting started when he slaughtered six million Jews, Bush has liberated more Muslims in the last two years than anyone else in the world.

And as for the loss of civil liberties that the ACLU makes such a fuss about: I’ll take John Ashcroft’s knowing my library record over wearing a yellow star on my sleeve any day of the week and twice on the Sabbath.

In the end, I guess it’s best to take the Bush/Hitler comparison not as an insult but rather a compliment. I mean, if Bush is as much a threat as the Left says he is, then he’s obviously doing something right.

But while we’re on the subject, if CBS wants to air a “fact-based mini-series” that’s pertinent to our time, they ought to shift the focus from our fearless leader to that of the rising tides against the freedom of religion in modern America. If any current trend truly resembles the totalitarianism of the last century, this is it. That Bush’s faith makes him an extremist in some eyes—indeed, that it somehow makes him the Second Coming of Hitler—is proof enough that something’s gone terribly wrong.

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