Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
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June 24, 2005
Historical Fact

"Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Senator Durbin, certainly putting America’s men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
Karl Rove, 06/21/05

"It’s outrageous that the same Democrats who stood by Dick Durbin’s libeling of our military are now expressing faux outrage over Karl Rove’s statement of historical fact."
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, 06/23/05


(fullsize – original)

Wikipedia Dolchstoßlegende:

The well-funded Dolchstoß propaganda managed to conceal the key facts about the armistice and the Weimar Republic, so the meme of the stab in the back would prove to be highly effective in building a strong nationalist movement in Germany. Its emotional effectiveness stemmed from the manner in which it addressed the anger and confusion felt not only by the average German, but also by soldiers returning from the front. Many of these men, feeling detached from civilian society as a whole because of their experiences at the front, were only too willing to join the Freikorps to exact some sort of revenge. Latent anti-Semitism, intensified by the Jewish dominance of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, could be easily exploited and built upon to create a powerful ideology of racism.

Posted by b on June 24, 2005 at 12:34 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Notice how even the soldier’s helmet looks American ?

Posted by: khr | Jun 24 2005 13:07 utc | 1

And you can be sure the US will see a lot more of such talk after the Iraq War has been lost.

Posted by: khr | Jun 24 2005 13:13 utc | 2

what a coincidence, i just ran across the inverse of that.
I’ll keep it simple: I challenge any of those outraged by Durbin to demonstrate that the senator, in his heart of hearts, thinks our troops are Nazis. It’s painfully obvious that he was illustrating a point and used a hyperbolic analogy. In Durbin’s case the outrage is feigned, and a political tool. It defies common sense to think Durbin actually believes “all US troops are Nazis.”

Posted by: hello | Jun 24 2005 13:21 utc | 3

read the rest. he’s amazing.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jun 24 2005 13:23 utc | 4

It seems like the antecedants of the Neo Conservatives, the Straussians, the classic conservatives…all utilize the idea of the Decadent Weimar Republic as paving the way for Nazism.
I don’t think they recognize the cover they gave to the rise of fascism and that they probably thought they could tame the beast before it got out of control.
I think I’ll have to dust off the Jose Ortega y Gassett “Revolt of the Masses” to see where we are heading.
Sadly…to bring up fascism always ends in Godwins law and the thought that the Nazis were an anomoly.
I recall reading a 75th anniversary edition of Forbes Magazine in which Cap Weinberger was lauding Singapore for its society.
Whatever these conservatives want…obviously its not democracy.

Posted by: Porco Rosso | Jun 24 2005 13:54 utc | 5

er, re my last post, didn’t mean to sound so cultist. meant the experiences gone through were amazing.
…
this backstabbing meme is making me want to hunt up my passport– but i refuse to give in to the fear. i’ll start to worry when victims of 9/11 themselves start blaming liberals.
falwell et al. tried this tact before attempting to lay blame on hedionistic, abortion having, latte drinking, volvo driving liberals, atheists and lesbians, as the reason why god punished us with 9/11. the public didn’t buy it.
republicans trying to lay blame on the left for the failures of their own making…come on, that’s just so transparent.
maybe i’m hopelessly naive but the fact that they didn’t buy it last time gives me a little faith.

Posted by: hello | Jun 24 2005 14:18 utc | 6

I am deeply disappointed in Durbin, not for his statement, but for the apology. He was right. He didn’t accuse American troops of acting like Nazis; he was referring to interrogation techniques. Some time ago on Billmon I posted a long section from Vol. 1 of Gulag Archipelago in which Solzhenitsyn described the various interrogation techniques used by the VChk/NKVD/KGB. They included stress positions, extremes of hot and cold, noise, diet, and, above all, sleep deprivation. It was like reading an Alberto Gonzalez torture manual. The one thing the Soviets didn’t use was sexual humiliation. I guess there’s one thing to be said for proletarian prudishness …

Posted by: Aigin | Jun 24 2005 14:34 utc | 7

If the Democrats in the House and Senate would stop playing nice and “electable” and get up and announce in unison (not just one or two designated ruffian Democrats) that Bush is a liar and should be impeached, the Administration is incompetent and the troops should be brought home, then they will take this house of Rove down in a month or two. THESE should be the Dem talking points:
1 Bush is a liar
2 Bush should be impeached
3 The Administration is incompetent and the war in Iraq is a quagmire.
4 Bush cronies are getting money for nothing in Iraq
5 There was torture and Bush and Rumsfeld are responsible.
6 Bush is attempting to destroy Social Security
7 Dick Cheney is living in a fantasy world.
Stay on these points, no matter whose mother Dick Cheney tries to bring into the argument.
It is time to take off the f**cking gloves!

Posted by: steve expat | Jun 24 2005 14:47 utc | 8

Quotes:
…..I’m concerned about all of this because it isn’t a German phenomenon; it’s a human phenomenon. It can happen here, because there has been no change and there has been no progress and there has been no increase of understanding on the part of men for their fellow man. What worries me deeply, and I have seen it exemplified in this case, is that we in America are in great danger of slowly evolving into a proto-fascist state. It will be a different kind of fascist state from the one of the Germans evolved; theirs grew out of depression and promised bread and work, while ours, curiously enough, seems to be emerging from prosperity. But in the final analysis, it’s based on power and on the inability to put human goals and human conscience above the dictates of the state. Its origins can be traced in the tremendous war machine we’ve built since 1945, the “military-industrial complex” that Eisenhower vainly warned us about, which now dominates every aspect of our life. The power of the states and Congress has gradually been abandoned to the Executive Department, because of war conditions; and we’ve seen the creation of an arrogant, swollen bureaucratic complex totally unfettered by the checks and balances of the Constitution. In a very real and terrifying sense, our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society. Of course, you can’t spot this trend to fascism by casually looking around. You can’t look for such familiar signs as the swastika, because they won’t be there. We won’t build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line. We’re not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in gray uniforms goose-stepping off to work. But this isn’t the test. The test is: What happens to the individual who dissents? In Nazi Germany, he was physically destroyed; here, the process is more subtle, but the end results can be the same.
Jim Garrison interview, Playboy, 1967.
Link (scroll right down)
….Embryo American fascism is trying to direct the disillusionment and discontent of these masses into reactionary fascist channels. It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it comes forward principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an “un-American” trend imported from abroad. In contradistinction to German fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to portray itself as the custodian of the Constitution and “American democracy.”
Dimitrov, 1935.
MarxistOrg

Posted by: Noisette | Jun 24 2005 14:54 utc | 9

Hey, my optimism must be contagious. Kos put the heightened risk of nuclear strike by Bushco on the front page.

Posted by: Lupin | Jun 24 2005 15:46 utc | 10

Whatever these conservatives want…obviously its not democracy.
Just because they aren’t sporting a Swastika doesn’t mean they aren’t reading Mein Kampf.
___
One thing though. Unlike Kaiser’s illiterate, uninformed, peasant fodder, American 21st Century grunts, who understand far more about their plight, are already blaming the true culprits for their defeat:
Bush – for sending them to the wrong war in the wrong place against the wrong enemy.
Rummy – for deploying them without a plan, without the troops, and without the armor or ammo to do their jobs.
Cheney – for profiting off their blood.
The troops know who really stabbed them in the back. In fact, I think all of Rove’s desperate liberal baiting will just anger them further.

Posted by: Night Owl | Jun 24 2005 15:53 utc | 11

Whatever these conservatives want…obviously its not democracy.
Just because they aren’t sporting a Swastika doesn’t mean they aren’t reading Mein Kampf.
___
One thing though. Unlike Kaiser’s illiterate, uninformed, peasant fodder, American 21st Century grunts, who understand far more about their plight, are already blaming the true culprits for their defeat:
Bush – for sending them to the wrong war in the wrong place against the wrong enemy.
Rummy – for deploying them without a plan, without the troops, and without the armor or ammo to do their jobs.
Cheney – for profiting off their blood.
The troops know who really stabbed them in the back. In fact, I think all of Rove’s desperate liberal baiting will just anger them further.

Posted by: Night Owl | Jun 24 2005 15:53 utc | 12

American 21st Century grunts, who understand far more about their plight, are already blaming the true culprits for their defeat
I hope you’re right, but I remain skeptical. Certainly not evident in last November elections?

Posted by: Lupin | Jun 24 2005 15:59 utc | 13

Dimitrov ?!!!
I am impressed, Noisette!

Posted by: Greco | Jun 24 2005 16:07 utc | 14

The White House is stuck in a quagmire overseas and failed to change Senate Filibuster rules for the Bolton UN nomination or the upcoming Supreme Court nomination fight. Karl Rove’s comments show that the White House has given the green light to a slime campaign that the GOP is framing as Liberals are traitors to the USA in a time of war.

Posted by: Jim S | Jun 24 2005 16:09 utc | 15

I hope you’re right, but I remain skeptical. Certainly not evident in last November elections?
but the bushites have lost so much credibility already, on both fronts, foreign and domestic. things have changed since last november.
from dean’s pollster:
Belcher, the pollster, said the emphasis that many voters placed on moral values in November is “not a call to move to the right.” He said that a lot of what he called “faith voters” — those for whom religion plays an equal or more important role in determining their vote than conventional issues such as education — “are up for grabs.” He said those voters can be reached by acknowledging their fears about raising their children.
Strategists for both presidential campaigns detected a late shift to Bush by lower-income voters who were concerned about terrorism and values. Matthew Dowd, former chief strategist for Bush-Cheney, said these voters “decided they were voting in the national interest rather than their self interest on both the economy and national security.”
Belcher said his “faith voters” are among the most economically anxious voters in the entire electorate. “They are not out of reach for us,” he said. “They’re not the crazy, right-winger extremist voters. They’re the moms and pops.”
even republicans are worried about pocket books issues now and how they’re being impacted by bush policy.
besides, you can only abuse the fear button for so long before people fatigue of it, don’t jump anymore, realize they’re getting played and get fed up with it.

Posted by: hello | Jun 24 2005 16:28 utc | 16

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