There’s been a lot of talk lately about Nazis and Hitler – mostly from denizens of the right who seem to think that health care reform is synonymous with the Final Solution and that Obama is the second coming of the Fuhrer. Or at least who want us to believe that, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

While they are wrong about everything, of course, as long as they’ve brought it up, let’s talk about Nazis and see who actually does bear an eerie resemblance to the German National Socialist movement of the 1930s and 40s.

First off, the group that Hitler and his inner circle put together between the Wars was not one single cohesive force, but rather a mish-mosh of various crackpot fringers very similar to what seems to be forming around the Republican opposition to health care reform: Birthers, deathers, racists, armed militia groups, pro-lifers, Christian fundamentalists, even Lyndon LaRouche supporters like the people who showed up at Barney Frank’s town hall meeting.  After Hitler took power, of course, he cleaned house to get rid of the really annoying fringe members of his coalition – most significantly, with the SS knocking off the SA during the fabled “Night of the Long Knives.” Take notice, tea-baggers.  You’ll be the first to go.

Hitler called himself a “socialist,” but was actually just the opposite, bringing his assorted nutballs together in opposition to one thing – the rise of the left in Germany after World War I.  Germany, not Russia, actually looked like the place where the workers movement was most likely to take power during the 30s.  Hitler made it a primary goal to get rid of all the people who supported left wing policies, which included the Jews, who were a primary source of support for social reform. By targeting socialists, communists, labor union organizers, and Jews, Hitler was able to cripple the reform movement, all in the guise of trying to bring Germany back to prominence after the disaster of the First World War. In the same way, the Republicans target labor unions, gays, atheists, “illegal immigrants,” “urban criminals” and “effete intellectuals,” knowing that those groups are core supporters of the type of reform represented by the Democrats, and that if they can marginalize them, they can win.

Hitler came to power with the support of the industrialists in Germany, who were anxious to profit from the war production that accompanied Hitler’s rise to power and which had been prohibited after the German loss in World War I.  The Republicans are trying to get themselves back into power using the huge financial resources of the insurance industry, defense contractors, oil companies, stockbrokers, and other multi-national corporations who see their huge profits threatened by a rising social reform movement. Following the money is always a good way to find out what’s really going on.

Hitler used what came to be called the “Big Lie” technique to rally support among the German people for his policies. He told people that the Jews were behind all their problems, and that Germany deserved to regain territory which had been “stolen” from them in the past. In the same way, the PR firms for the aforementioned American big businesses are using their captive mouthpieces in the national media, in particular Fox News, to spread outrageous lies about health care reform, such as the “death panels” nonsense. The idea is that if you keep saying something over and over again, no matter how ridiculous, eventually people will come to believe it.

Hitler’s bully boys made a practice of showing up at socialist/communist/reformist/labor rallies in the 30s and preventing any sort of rational dialogue from taking place, in the very same way that the right wingers have mobilized their shock troops to attend Democratic congresspeoples’ town hall meetings and shout down everybody they disagree with, all in the guise of “free speech.” Eventually what happens is that rational people become tired of it and stop participating in public events.  The less rational supporters of the left decide to fight back physically, which results in even more of the general public turning away from rational dialogue, hiding in their homes, and hoping it will all blow over. Picture the German people who lived near the death camps claiming that they didn’t know what was going on, and then instead of death camps, think about global warming, mortgage foreclosures, tent cities, and people dying without health insurance. Too many Americans are withdrawing into their cocoons and watching reality TV, hoping the chaos that’s coming will leave them alone.

Of course, Hitler didn’t go away in Germany, and our home-grown fascists are not going to go away, either.  But if the vast majority of liberal and moderate people give up the floor to the right wing nutcases walking around with guns and obnoxious signs, if the Democrats who are currently in power bend over backwards trying to appease the right wingers, and if our President, who we elected to be a leader for reform, spends all his time trying to seem like just one of the boys, playing golf and talking about “bi-partisanship,” we are going to end up with a disaster that will make World War II look like a picnic.  Picture Adolph Hitler with nuclear weapons and control of the mass media of the 21st century.

Better yet, let’s get out there and stop it from happening.  The next Hitler is not going to come from Iraq.  Or from the Democratic Party.