What a surprise it's not that ex-MSNBC action hero Ed Schultz just served up a textbook example of why Godwin's Law -- he who first invokes the Nazis in making an argument, loses -- still applies.
When he's not toiling away at his new Kremlin-backed Russia Today "news" show, Schultz does a podcast weekdays that's available at YouTube and his website.
Right out of the gate in Monday's podcast, Schultz mocked GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's repeated claims that, once elected, he'll build a wall to secure the border with Mexico -- while getting Mexico to pay for it.
Based on that, Schultz could not resist a lazy, gratuitous comparison of Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, one of the worst mass murderers in history --
I'm going to call Donald Trump from now on and I'll ask my friend (and upcoming guest) Mike Papantonio (lawyer and co-host of the Ring of Fire radio show) in a few moments, what does he think about this -- we'll just call him the Maginot Line candidate. I mean, he keeps talking about this wall and how somebody else is going to pay for it. Uh, this is kinda what Hitler did. Seriously! Hitler tried to get restitution from other countries because he thought Germany got screwed in World War I.
Schultz gets it half right, which isn't a bad average for him on any given day. Yes, Hitler fervently believed Germany "got screwed" in the First World War -- but Schultz departs from reality with his claim about "restitution from other countries." More accurately, Hitler upon taking power in 1933 ended German reparations to the Allies as mandated by the Treaty of Versailles (and which weren't finally paid until 2010).
Speaking before the Reichstag in May 1933, Hitler condemned the peace settlement for imposing draconian burdens that wrecked the German economy --
The Treaty of Versailles is to blame for having inaugurated a period in which financial calculations appear to destroy economic reason.
Germany has faithfully fulfilled the obligations imposed upon her, in spite of their intrinsic lack of reason and the obviously suicidal consequences of this fulfillment.
The international economic crisis is the indisputable proof of the correctness of this statement.
More of Schultz's amusing revisionism --
All right, so, the Maginot Line -- we all know what that is. That's the concrete fortifications that the French put in along the French and Switzerland border because they were afraid that Germany, or any other army from the east, was going to invade.
Which turned out to be a prophetic and legitimate fear on the part of the French --
And what these concrete fortifications were going to do was give the French army an opportunity to get their act together. While they're under attack, the Maginot Line, these massive fortifications would slow people down. So, this is what Trump is talking about! I've heard him a few times say, well, it's not really a wall but it's going to be a wall -- you know what, he's the Maginot Line candidate! This is what this guy's gonna build!
Trump wants secure borders for the United States while limiting American military involvement abroad. Hitler sought ever-expanding borders for Germany while maniacally projecting its military power abroad. A distinction that's lost on Schultz.
By the way, Andre Maginot, he was a French minister of war. He was named, the Maginot Line was named after him because he came up with that technique in World War I.
And perhaps the line would have held had the Germans not gone around it when invading France in 1940 by attacking the Low Countries to the north and violating the neutrality of Belgium and Luxembourg, while the Luftwaffe flew over the fortifications and German armored divisions blasted through them.
An anachronism soon after it was built, the Maginot Line remains a timeless reminder of the folly of relying on strategies for fighting the last war -- while also expecting unscrupulous foes (such as North Korea, Iran and China today) to honor their international obligations.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Schultz to draw a parallel between avowed socialist Bernie Sanders and national socialist Adolf Hitler.
