What do we mean when we say Hitler and the Nazis?
The latest use of the signifier was on the Sean Hannity show, where, in response to a description of town hall protesters as "brown shirts," a guest made an earnest and laborious comparison of the Obama administration with Nazism. "National socialism is very much what we see today in this administration...it's the policy almost line for line," said the guest, a disabled former Marine. "It's the same economic policy, it's the same political policy. So if they want to talk about Nazis, then they better be careful about that conversation, because they might find that the swastika is on their own arm."
The other day a woman with a poster of Obama as Hitler confronted Barney Frank at a health care bill town hall meeting--only to be tongue lashed by Frank (who was later the brunt of some gay-baiting by Rush Limbaugh because of the incident).
While it's the right wing that now seems to have a penchant for seeing Nazi ghosts, the left has often been just as guilty. To be a Nazi, for right or left, is to be the ultimate evil. The left, however, has traditionally identified racists and militarists as Nazis. To the right, it's big government that's the ultimate evil. That's one reason for the strange "National Socialism" locution--it transforms the Nazis from monstrous killers to monstrous bureaucrats.
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