So, Jon Stewart chastises Rep Steve Cohen

[DividedWeAre]

So, Jon Stewart chastises Rep Steve Cohen for using Nazi propaganda references in a speech about how Republicans fought the Healthcare bill last year with, uh.. , Nazi references.

I guess he had to do that, considering his eloquence in the wake of the Tucson murder/assassination. I get that. But isn't it crazy that the Tucson attack gives us a chance to get the Republicans to tone it down at just the same time that a lone Democrat finally speaks the truth about the propaganda techniques that the Republicans have used for years to abuse the political process?

Doesn't seem fair does it? But what's that you say ? We have what we wanted? The Republican hate mongers now have to use realistic rhetoric in future campaigns? I doubt it. This truce on caustic behavior won't last for very long. They will be back at it and in the meantime the Republicans are already lying again, this time about how they really did not use such language in the first place.

Maybe Stewart is upset because the most recent rhetoric was from a Democrat which gives the Republicans a new point to start the next round of lies. I guess that is true but seriously, I support what he said. He said it directly and honestly and he was not screaming or neck-veining when he said it. On the Loony Limbaugh scale, he was only about a "3". Even his follow up response was cool when he said, "I will not say it again but I was right".

Yeah, Steve, you were right. Thanks for telling the truth. Do it again some time. Leave out the reference to the Holocaust, though - it makes you sound too Republican.

[LostInAnomie]

1. Nazi comparisons are almost always idiotic.

No matter which side they come from.

[DividedWeAre]

3. Almost

Almost Always :)

[Flo Mingo]

7. It just depends on how far you take the comparison

I don't find comparisons to Nazi Germany idiotic if you look at the level of misinformation and propaganda that was being spread to turn countrymen against each other. I don't find the comparison idiotic if you look at the shadowy figures who were financing the rise of lunatics who otherwise would be laughed out of any serious political discussion. I don't find the comparison idiotic if you look at the use of fear mongering to convince otherwise sane people to believe they were in danger and must be protected by the government.

Now, if you try to make a comparison by insinuating that our elected officials are preparing to send millions of Americans to Nazi style death camps, then I agree, the comparison is idiotic.

[DividedWeAre]

20. Nice.

Nice.

[Demoiselle]

10. I wish I could still believe that.

We have a big business, big pharma, big mining, big armaments, big whatever alliance with government now the likes of which we have not seen before in this country. We have a Supreme Court that declares corporations are "people" as far as political contributions are concerned. We have one political party that looks us in the eye and lies, and lies, and lies. ("Job killing health care" anyone? )
Maybe we can comfort ourselves with the idea that this is more Fascism Mussolini style than it is Naziism, Hitler style. Although the racism in all of this bloviating is very close to the surface now, which makes the Nazi comparison more credible every day.

I have to support Cohen on this one.

[Bandit]

12. Ike created an interstate highway system just like the Nazis did.

:shrug:

[NuclearDem]

15. Nazis also had the world's first real anti-smoking campaign

[The Gunslinger]

21. His comparison made perfect sense.

If you can't find a correlation to then and now........You need to keep looking.

[DJ13]

2. Sterwart seems to feel he needs to be a centrist to build an audience

He doesnt realize that in homogenizing his criticisms, trying to attack both sides equally, only dilutes the impact he once had when he was a solid liberal voice among the rest of the bland homogenized talking heads on TV.

[arcane1]

4. I really don't see him attacking "both sides equally"

Though his job, and the show's premise, is to lampoon tv news and politics/politicians in general, he has given repubs waaaaaaaay more shit than he's given dems, when you add it all up.

[DJ13]

5. True, but you have to admit that recently

...... he seems to attack Dems more often than he used to.

He seems to think that if Obama moves to a right center position he has to try and keep up with him.

[MadBadger]

18. What I also remember was Stewart criticizing Obama for not being left enough

[arcane1]

19. I attribute that (at least in part)...

by the fact that Dems are in charge now. But even with that factored in, I think the repubs still bear the brunt of it. Especially Fox.

[wryter2000]

16. Agreed

And that's what makes his pleas for sanity rather silly to me. He lambastes liberals for being shrill and uncivil and then tears into repugs in much the same way. Because he's so talented, he's even sharper.

Remember going after the Rs about the 9/11 first responders bill. "What party was that?" he said. "The Bull Moose Party?" Where's the balance and civility in that?

[hughee99]

6. Perhaps he feels a need to be consistent.

After weeks of complaining about repukes using this sort of rhetoric, to give Cohen a pass on it seems a little hypocritical.

[DividedWeAre]

9. yep.

i think he pretty much had to say something because he would have been screeched at if he hadn't. but i was glad to hear what Cohen said. Do you think Cohen would have even been heard last year at this time ? I think his comments would not have stood out then. If the republicans had really admitted to what they have been doing, then Cohen would have been wrong to speak as he did. But they did not, so i think what he said was mostly appropriate.

[Demoiselle]

11. To coin a phrase...

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

[hughee99]

22. I think Emerson beat you to it. n/t

[Teaser]

8. He was never a "liberal" voice

he was a voice against TEH CRAYZEE. The reason that seems liberal is that there is so much of that on the other side from us.

[elleng]

13. NO NO NO!

STEVE WAS RIGHT!

[DividedWeAre]

14. I think that Stewart had to say something

I think that Stewart had to say something - you can debate how hard he came down on it.
I know Cohen was right to say something - you can debate how far he should have gone with the propaganda statement, which always gets linked to the Nazis.

[JVS]

17. Stewart is just bitching to keep his "balance" bullshit cred.