Friday, June 4, 2004

How Bush and Hitler are alike

My readers at this point must be thinking, "Bush, like Hitler? Drake must have gone mad. How can Bush be anything like Hitler?"

But bear with me. I am not saying Bush is another Hitler. Hitler was evil. President Bush is merely corrupt. And for the record, everyone has something in common with someone nefarious in human history. For example, I share a common characteristic with Hitler: Good taste in music.

Bush and Hitler's commonality is a tendency to take complex issues and boil them down to simple solutions.

Hitler underestimated America because he was ignorant of its complexity. His prime source of knowkedge on America was a series of Western he had read (ironically, written by a German author), combined with his racial beliefs. He was astonished when an African-American won a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics. In 1942, when President Roosevelt announced sky-high goals for war production, Hitler laughed the numbers off (he actually belived FDR was insane). There was no way America--a nation of Negroes, Jews, and mongrels--could produce war materiel in anywhere near the numbers FDR proposed (actually, FDR's projections were ultimately exceeded). People have had the mistaken notion that Hitler was some kind of diabolical "genius" because he was a fair painter, had good taste in music, and was a dynamic public speaker. In reality, he was a second rate intellect who couldn't handle ambiguity or inconsistency.

Bush's main criticism of Kerry thus far has been the Senator's inconsistency on various issues. But most great politicians have contradicted themselves at one time or another. Bush, like Hitler, prefers to boil down complex problems to simple formulas. "You're either with us or against us...dead or alive" etc. Bush is a prisoner of his own simple mind. Pray that America is not mentally imprisoned by Bush another four years.

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