That’s pretty much what religious-right pooh-bah Richard Land said last month at a Christian Coalition gathering in Florida. Reform efforts promoted by President Obama and congressional Democrats will lead to rationed care, which is based on Nazi ideology, Land said:
“I want to put it to you bluntly. What they are attempting to do in healthcare, particularly in treating the elderly, is not something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely what the Nazis did,” said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Land was the keynote speaker for the 20th anniversary “God and Country Banquet” of the Christian Coalition of Florida.
“Let’s remember,” Land added, “the first 10,000 victims of the Holocaust were not Jews, they were mentally handicapped German children who were gassed and burned in ovens because they were considered to have … lives unworthy of life,” citing the Nazi ideology used to rationalize the Holocaust.
In fact, Land accused Democrats of supporting forced euthanasia for the old and sick:
“The Nazis said people should be euthanized when they had lives unworthy of life. … Well, at the very least Dr. Emanuel, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, [Sen.] Max Baucus and President Obama are saying that some people have lives less worthy of life. And the older you are, the sicker you are, the less valuable your life is and the more likely they want to terminate your care,” Land said.
Thus says a man named by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the 25 most influential evangelical Christians in America. We wonder where Time would rank Land on a list of the 25 most influential lunatics in America.
Yes, and the man has a college degree from Princeton and a doctorate from Oxford—and I don’t mean Oxford, Mississippi. Is he lying, or does he really believe all that stuff he said is true? Unfortunately, neither matters very much. The sad truth of the matter is that millions of people with high school diplomas (or less) from sea to shining sea will say, “Look at what brother Land just said. He’s got degrees from bigtime colleges, a high post in the Southern Baptist Convention, and an ordination as a church minister. Surely brother Land speaks the truth!!! Amen brother Land!!!!! We’re with you brother!!!!”
Yep, and notice Land does not feel the need to provide any evidence to support his claim. He just expects his adoring worshippers to accept whatever he says lock, stock, and barrel. Which, of course, being adoring worshippers, they will do exactly that. Good little robots.
He’s too big for his britches to be expected to stoop to the level of high school students who have to cite references to support their opinions.
He’s also an effen liar, lying for his own self-serving benefit.
Notice how right-wingers ALWAYS jump to comparing their religious and political opponents with Hitler and the Nazis? It’s because their own argument lacks any substantive content so they resort to the most egregious fear-mongering they can think of.
They also forget that facism and the Nazi Party were solidly right wing with just a slight dash of left wing as a minor flavoring agent.
It is time to invoke “Godwin’s Law”!
As someone whose husband had family vanish during the Holocaust, I find it distasteful and disrespectful – even immoral – for people to continue to invoke Hitler and Naziism to make their point regarding political issues, and for others to discuss such invocations in such a light tone. To equate an evil that resulted in the loss of six million lives to make a political point, whether right or left, is unconscionable.
I would ask that all who find themselves inclined to do so take a step back and think about what they are actually saying – and how they are trivializing the lives that were lost during that time. Thank you.
We agree, and that’s one reason we found Richard Land’s comments so disgusting.
Pat, I think you’re “preaching to the choir” here about that. You should be addressing your objections (which are as valid as anything could be) to Richard Land, not TFN.
Land leaves out way too many facts. As an historian, he’s easily as bad as David Barton.
1. Nazis didn’t have a comprehensive plan to provide access to medical care for everyone.
2. Nazis didn’t consider how they’d fare in the next election.
3. Nothing in any health care proposal offers anything that looks like any part of the Nazi scheme — a massive “village” for handicapped, for example. In the U.S., we’ve worked for 40 years to try to abolish asylums, and to mainstream people with all sorts of handicaps. Nothing in any proposal before Congress suggests to change that path — on cost alone! — nor does anyone seriously advocate it.
But Land also demonstrates zero understanding of what is in legislation.
1. Did the Nazis health care plan offer choice of providers? Oh, yeah – but the Nazi plan was private insurance, with no public option. Isn’t that what we have now?
2. In 1930s Germany there were no programs like Special Olympics, programs designed by liberals to improve the image of the handicapped so that no one would dare think of doing anything like the Nazis. Were Land correct, Eunice Kennedy Shriver would rise from the grave and strangle the advocates.
Where did Land’s group stand on Virginia’s eugenics laws, especially miscegination? Perhaps he speaks from experience?
Richard Land, David Barton, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, both presidents Bush’s….and all the other rightwing nutcases of the Republican Party here in Texas & America…they all promote these Talibaptists…while they preach hatred for every “Liberal Christian” in America. I have had to live under these religious fantatics and Republican scumbags for at least 30 years. I well remember how that fascist Ronald Reagan, promoted hatred for Jimmy Carter, and all us Liberals, here in America. I’ve had to live under their brutal assaults of a woman’s rights, to a safe & legal abortion, the destruction of the 4th amendment…replaced by the evil policy of “drug testing”, the ongoing hatred of the Middle Classes and our beloved Labor Unions…their racist and corrupt War On Drugs, all brought to America by the Republican party and their very evil base of supporters…the rightwing, religious fanatics…the TaliBaptists. Here in Alvin, Texas…the local, trashy newspaper the Alvin Sun-Advertiser, has articles printed up in every issue by a man named Murphy…a local realtor, hate-monger, and religious fanatic. The latest article includes an assault on the “scientific principles” of evolution and “Ardi” Ardipithicus ramidus, the 4.4 million year old early human. Murphy claims that the earth is flat, and only 4,000 years old…and that all Liberal Christians, and all scientists are wrong about everything. Our local chief of police Mike Merkel, the county sheriff Charles Wagner, all our county officials and elected officials from Brazoria County, in the state legislature, including Rick Perry, Cornyn and Hutchinson…all supports the ignorance of these bible spewing perverts and wack jobs…the TaliBaptists. Have you ever noticed how the intolerant, hateful, and evil Republicans, along with their corrupt base of supporters, the TaliBaptists, have the exact same social, economic, and political agendas as do the terrorists groups of Osama bin Laden…and the Talibans? They…the Republican party & the TaliBaptists/Talibans, along with the ever so evil and thuggish allies, the Conservative Democrats…are all mysogynistic, spew out hated for women’s rights, hatred for Gay people, hatred for the scientific principles of evolution, hatred for Liberals, hatred for Labor Unions. The Republican party / TaliBaptists / Conservative Democrats… are ALL the “natural allies” of the Terrorists. The Republican party and their goon-squads of morality policemen…are terrorists here in America! Death to the Republican party, Death to the TaliBaptists, Death to the Conservative Democrats, and Death to their evil and brutal henchmen policemen! Every dirtbag cop in Texas, is a goon, a thug, a henchman, and a hitman for the TaliBaptists…which is whom they take their orders from. The police in Texas are exactly like, and just as evil, corrupt, and viscious, as any of the religious police who shot NEDA, that girl, down in the streets of Tehran, Iran…during the Iranian election. Texas cops are no better than the religious police in The Terrorists Republic of IRAN. I don’t see a smidgen of differences between the evil state of IRAN….and the evil TaliBaptists Republic of TEXAS!
HankoZapata….Alvin Liberal Democrats…Alvin, Texas.
Well, Hanko, while I probably would not agree with all of that, I do have to compliment you on the term “talibaptist.” Did you make that up or hear it somewhere else? That has an incredibly nice and accurate ring to it. I feel an adoption coming on. You see. Those of us who were once members of a Southern Baptist Convention church have been searching for years for the proper term to describe the assorted loons and miscreants “minted” by the Sunday schools and sermons that came after the 1979 Pressler-Patterson Revolution. We tried using the term “fundamentalist.” They did object to that strenuously at first (even though it was theologically right on the money), but the objections seemed to wear off as they settled into the realization that they really were fundamentalists and that might be okay. “He’s a fundamentalist and he’s’ okay!!!” Apologies to Montgomery Squeeze Snake. However, I think “talibaptist” works quite nicely because it taps into Reverend Godsey’s admonition that there is not one dime’s difference between a Christian fundamentalist, Hindu Fundamentalist, and Islamic fundamentalist, which I happen to believe is true. It captures the incessant self-righteous anger of the Religious Right. It captures the intense Southern Baptist focus on legalism that expells Christian love and the spirit of the law. It has a strong negative connotation with a spinal tap into a core of reality. Not bad. Something in me wants to capitalize the “T.” “Talibaptist.”
Cytocop: “Pat, I think you’re “preaching to the choir” here about that. You should be addressing your objections (which are as valid as anything could be) to Richard Land, not TFN.” You are correct… and I will.
HankoZapata, Hello and welcome. That is a fitting connection you made between the Talibaptists and the Taliban. I wouldn’t limit conservative Christians to Baptists only but I understand why you do given your history. Like Charles says, it’s a great name.
I’m more likely to refer to them as Christofascists or Talichristians. I have long seen the parallels between fundamentalist Christians and the Taliban or fundamentalist Muslims: their mutual gynephobia and homophobia, and their mutual my-way-or-the-highway intolerance of others. That the Talichristians are not as violent as the Taliban may be just a matter of time; we do see growing violent Talichristian aspirations: the gun-toters at this year’s tea parties and the shootings of abortion providers and the guard at the Holocaust Museum.
I think the two interpretations of the two religions have more in common than they’d like to admit.
Sadly, it’s not just the Talichristians we have to worry about. As HankoZapata has said above, our own government has turned against us, the Dems and the Reps. They are in Congress to protect and advance the welfare of Big Money, not We The People. They are there to insure the continued transfer of wealth from the middle class to the upper class.
We’ve seen Max Baucus (who gets >$3 million from insurance companies) fight AGAINST the public option as that would not be profitable for his benefactors, the insurance companies. He’s also included mandatory health insurance, guaranteeing more customers (and customer dollars) for his benefactors.
Just a handful of congresspeople still work for us: Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to name the few who come to mind. But, by and large, our own government has become a greater enemy to us than al-Qaeda could hope to be.
Pat, I just now noticed your response to me. Good luck with that! Also, why not include Ed Darrell’s historically accurate posting above in your message. Because Mr. Land will have no valid response to you, I’m afraid your message will make him go crackhead all the more and he’ll just get even more wild. You might even start to receive mail or email regularly from his office meant to convert you. Would you be so kind as to let us know what kind of response you get from him – if any?