Article Of The Week

"Blue Texan" appears to be as worthy an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp, silent alarm, non-alcoholic wine, non-dairy creamer, non-fat cream, and working vacation. It also is the moniker of one of Firedoglake's regular bloggers, who in a recent post agreed with Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who in a recent Washington Times op-ed recommended "bringing impeachment charges against Mr. Obama."

Of course, there is much more to it than that. Suppose:

* A Republican U.S. Representative from Georgia on November 10, 2008 told the Associated Press "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force. I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

* On July 8, 2009 a U.S. Senator from Georgia, referring during a National Press Club talk about his book, commented "Part of what we’re trying to do in “Saving Freedom” is just show that where we are, we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy.... People become more dependent on the government so that they’re easy to manipulate. And they keep voting for more government because that’s where their security is."

* A former House Majority Leader who is threatening to run for President and who contends that the Obama Administration poses a serious threat is asked by Fox News' Chris Wallace in May 2008 "so but you compare that the Nazis and the Communists?" and replies "I compare that as a threat."

* A current U.S. Representative from Texas (and member of the new Congressional Tea Party Caucus) declares on the House floor on June 23, 2010 "There’s a brilliant man named Thomas Sowell. And, um, I didn’t vote for Barack Obama in 2008, but I sure would have voted for Thomas Sowell. This man, well, his article says quite a lot. His editorial, um, says here — and it’s just been posted this week — but it says, “When Adolph Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920’s” ....

Citing these examples, BT points out

....if these Republicans are telling the truth, and Obama is truly Hitler-like, he should absolutely be impeached, should he not?

My challenge to the media: the next time some Republican makes one of these offensive Obama/Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Lenin/Satan comparisons, ask him or her whether Obama should be impeached. Make them answer the question “yes” or “no."

The media certainly needs to ask the next Republican who makes one of thee absurd and incendiary analogies whether Obama should be impeached. Similarly, the former half-term governor of Alaska must be asked why she, too, endorses this comparison. BT notes that Sarah Palin endorsed Sowell's article, tweeting (twitting? twittering?) "This is about the rule of law vs. an unconstitutional power grab. Read Thomas Sowell's article: http://u.nu/6e4ec." Sowell, celebrated in conservative circles as a black intellectual (really, that's what he's considered by them), had written

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

Tom Tancredo, short and out-of-office, is an easy target. Not such an easy target is the attractive former governor, who could be president in four years. And Palin, like any Republican who charges President Obama with an abuse of his constitutional authority, needs to be asked whether she believes impeachment proceedings should ensue if the GOP wins control of the House. As Blue Texan notes with other Republicans, Sarah Palin "can't have it both ways." Or she can, if the "lamestream media" she is trying to intimidate lets her.

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