Bad history is bad history and Rob Reiner is a student of some seriously bad history. One would be pressed to find a case where bad history lead to good decisions concerning the present. Case in point: On Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher Rob Reiner spewed his bad history as fact at the expense of smearing one of the largest political grassroots movements in our nation’s history. What’s even more disappointing is that Bill Maher agreed with Reiner multiple times during his factually-challenged rant. I realize Rob, that you probably weren’t a history major, but when you’re accusing the Tea Party of being like Hitler, please try to get your facts straight.
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Hitler promised health care, said that Germany’s business infrastructure needed a total government reform, and promised that all of the Germans would have jobs. Also, Hitler may have been elected by less than 40% of the people in Germany, but he was elected by 98.8% in Austria. After becoming Chancellor of Austria he took over the health care system, the car company (Austria had one major car manufacturing company at the time), and the business infrastructure.
Hitler did not sell fear and anger, he sold fundamental change of the nation’s infrastructure. He sold the hope of everyone having a job and that everyone had a right to be given medical treatment at the government’s provision.
That is definitely not what the Tea Party is selling. The Tea Party is selling a return to the constitutional principles that our country was founded upon. It is selling less government intrusion into our lives and that people can make better decisions for themselves than the government can. In other words, the Tea Party is selling the exact opposite of what Hitler promoted.
In the final homestretch to the elections, though, facts are dispensable to the left. It’s important in these last few days before the elections to smear the Tea Party as much possible because it’s all the institutional left has. The left has lost the intellectual debate of big government to the American people this election cycle, that is apparent by the choice of candidates on the right and the campaign ads coming from the left. Bad history or bad facts don’t matter to the left right now because they are in serious danger of losing their overwhelming power.
It’s not surprising to see people like Robert Reiner and Bill Maher promote bad history with the malicious intent to paint the Tea Party as the next Hitler. It is sad, though, because several people will actually believe their blatant revision of some very important history.