NAZI in da House?
The other day, I quipped that the Republicans were running an Axis of Insanity for Congress this year. What I didn't know is that in addition to the likes of Christine O'Donnel, Joe Miller, and Sharron Angle, the Republicans are also running a candidate who seems to have an uncanny reverence for an actual Axis power of World War II.
Meet Rich Iott, the Republican candidate for Ohio's 9th District (basically Toledo) seat in the House of Representatives. Apparently a Teabagger darling (of course), Iott looks really spiffy in a NAZI Waffen SS uniform. The Waffen SS was the military apparatus of the NAZI Party, and separate from the regular German army, which is interesting in that it seems to be somewhat in keeping the the far-Right militia movement in America that in many ways is a de-facto militarization of the most extreme elements of the Republican Party.
Iott told The Atlantic that he does not support the basic tenets of the NAZI Party, but rather he partakes in reenactments of Waffen SS actions as part of a, "purely historical interest in World War II." And,
"I've always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things."
Fair enough. But I have to wonder something - as with people who partake in reenactments of American Civil War (War Between the States? War of Northern Aggression?) battles, who I'm gonna bet are overwhelmingly conservative in their politics; do they, or at least some of them, do so in part because they wish the final war outcomes had been different? Next question; do such people belong (that is, accurately represent the Amercian citizenry) in Congress?
If I had a genuine objectively historical interest in the Ku Klux Klan, and it's a good thing that some people do, I sure the fuck wouldn't parade around in a white sheet and pointy hood.
Comments
But Jude, you look dashing in white.
Posted by: Derek Phillips | October 11, 2010 12:10 PM