[Bernie Sanders] is, in fact, leading a national-socialist movement, which is a queasy and uncomfortable thing to write about a man who is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland and whose family was murdered in the Holocaust. But there is no other way to characterize his views and his politics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
National Socialism was the state ideology of Nazi Germany. It was not socialist but fascist. Therefore, even though it supposedly made author Kevin D. Williamson \u201cqueasy\u201d and \u201cuncomfortable\u201d, he called Bernie Sanders the equivalent of a Nazi. If it made Williamson queasy, one would think he would reconsider writing it, but he did not. I cannot overstate how offensive this is to me as a Jewish person. But more important than my personal feelings, obviously, is that the comparison between Sanders and the Nazis is inaccurate and harmful to our political discourse.<\/p>\n
The argument that National Review<\/em> forwards is, in short: Bernie Sanders is a socialist and also concerned about international trade deals. He is therefore a racist nationalist:<\/p>\nThe incessant reliance on xenophobic (and largely untrue) tropes holding that the current economic woes of the United States are the result of scheming foreigners.<\/p>\n
The NR author even compares Sanders to Pat Buchanan and his (actually racist) isolationism. I will trust in my readership not to believe this logical leap. However you feel about international trade deals, opposition to them does not make one a nationalist, let alone a fascist.<\/p>\n
Williamson wrote that there was \u201cno other way\u201d to describe Sanders. But one comes to me by thinking about his argument for just a few minutes: \u201cSocialist-protectionist.\u201d That’s his issue with Sanders, is it not? But using \u201cnational-socialist\u201d would undoubtedly bring more visitors to National Review’s<\/em> website.<\/p>\nWilliamson thus used the genocide of my fellow Jews, as well as the other 50-million-plus victims of National Socialism, as his rhetorical prop. The rhetorical point he made wasn’t even useful or poignant: His article is mostly mocking Sanders’ supporters as washed-up radicals and young fools.<\/p>\n
Let me say this for anyone reading–liberal, conservative and elsewise: Democratic socialism is the polar opposite of fascism. Fascism is corporatist, where democratic socialism values economic democracy. Fascism is centralization. Democratic socialism is local decision-making. Fascism is militarist. Democratic socialism preaches peace and solidarity. Socialism was the driving force behind the anti-fascist coalition in the 1930s and 1940s, whereas many respectable conservatives (like Williamson purports to be) joined up with Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco.<\/p>\n
The 2016 presidential race is already shaping up to be a national embarrassment: Donald Trump leads the Republican polls, and Hilary Clinton promotes herself as a progressive despite her donor list looking like the Fortune 500<\/a>, according to OpenSecrets.org. It is a further embarrassment that Williamson and other conservatives use the memory of genocide to make petty, unfounded accusations of Bernie Sanders. His Nazi-baiting will not sway my vote. It should not sway yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commentators cannot seem to leave the memory of Nazi Germany alone. Nazi comparisons became especially heinous after the 2008 presidential election, when haters compared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":32262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2119,77,10,202],"tags":[20,1841,2467],"yoast_head":"\n
National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Occasional Planet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Occasional-Planet-325800656245\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-03T17:35:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-03T17:37:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adam Levin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Occas_Planet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Occas_Planet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Levin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/\",\"name\":\"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-03T17:35:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-03T17:37:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/6ea18659b78daaf70f137872b939fdbb\"},\"description\":\"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1\",\"width\":1202,\"height\":528},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/\",\"name\":\"Occasional Planet\",\"description\":\"Progressive Voices Speaking Out\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/6ea18659b78daaf70f137872b939fdbb\",\"name\":\"Adam Levin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83155e8c2bdaf7cc9a836b03a6f103eb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83155e8c2bdaf7cc9a836b03a6f103eb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adam Levin\"},\"description\":\"Adam Levin writes about politics and media, is a board member of the United Nations Association of St. Louis, and is an accomplished trombonist.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/author\/adam-levin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet","description":"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet","og_description":"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.","og_url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/","og_site_name":"Occasional Planet","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Occasional-Planet-325800656245\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-03T17:35:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-03T17:37:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1202,"height":528,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Adam Levin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Occas_Planet","twitter_site":"@Occas_Planet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam Levin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/","url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/","name":"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate - Occasional Planet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1","datePublished":"2015-08-03T17:35:28+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-03T17:37:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/6ea18659b78daaf70f137872b939fdbb"},"description":"A recent article in conservative National Review compares Bernie Sanders to national socialism--the Nazi party's philosophy. It's inaccurate and offensive.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1","width":1202,"height":528},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2015\/08\/03\/national-review-compares-bernie-sanders-to-nazis-offensive-and-inaccurate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"National Review compares Bernie Sanders to Nazis: Offensive and inaccurate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/","name":"Occasional Planet","description":"Progressive Voices Speaking Out","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/6ea18659b78daaf70f137872b939fdbb","name":"Adam Levin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ims.zdr.mybluehost.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83155e8c2bdaf7cc9a836b03a6f103eb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83155e8c2bdaf7cc9a836b03a6f103eb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Adam Levin"},"description":"Adam Levin writes about politics and media, is a board member of the United Nations Association of St. Louis, and is an accomplished trombonist.","url":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/author\/adam-levin\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg?fit=1202%2C528&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32257"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32266,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32257\/revisions\/32266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"sanderssocialismcartoon\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.occasionalplanet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/sanderssocialismcartoon.jpg\")
<\/a>