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Friday, September 12, 2008

America First

posted by on September 12 at 17:57 PM

Every time I see or hear about this…

mccainsticker.jpg

… I can’t help thinking of this:

Am1logo.jpg

Which, inevitably, reminds me of this:

lindy.jpg

Mr. Charlie Lindbergh, he flew to old Berlin, Got him a big Iron Cross, and he flew right back again To Washington, Washington.

Mrs. Charlie Lindbergh, she come dressed in red,
Said, “I’d like to sleep in that pretty White House bed
In Washington, Washington.”

Lindy said to Annie: “We’ll get there by and by,
But we’ll have to split the bed up with Wheeler, Clark, and Nye
In Washington, Washington.”

Hitler wrote to Lindy, said “Do your very worst,”
Lindy started an outfit that he called America First
In Washington, Washington.

All around the country, Lindbergh he did fly,
Gasoline was paid for by Hoover, Clark, and Nye
In Washington, Washington.

Lindy said to Hoover: “We’ll do the same as France:
Make a deal with Hitler, and then we’ll get our chance
In Washington, Washington

Then they had a meetin’, and all the Firsters come,
Come on the walk and they come on the run
In Washington, Washington

Yonder comes Father Coughlin, wearin’ the silver chain,
Cash on his stomach and Hitler on the brain.
In Washington, Washington

Mister John L. Lewis would sit and straddle the fence,
His daughter signed with Lindbergh, and we ain’t seen her since
In Washington, Washington

Hitler said to Lindy: “Stall ‘em all you can,
Gonna bomb Pearl Harbor with the help of old Japan.”
In Washington, Washington

Then on a December mornin’, the bombs come from Japan,
Wake Island and Pearl Harbor, kill fifteen hundred men.
Washington, Washington

Now Lindy tried to join the army, but they wouldn’t let ‘im in,
‘Fraid he’d sell to Hitler a few more million men.
In Washington, Washington

So I’m gonna tell you people, if Hitler’s gonna be beat,
The common working people have got to take the seat
In Washington, Washington.

And I’m gonna tell you workers, ‘fore you cash in your checks:
They say America First, but they mean America Next
In Washington, Washington.

image001.jpg

RSS icon Comments

1

Yeah. So calling Palin names is a bad idea but calling McCain a Nazi is a good idea? I shouldn't have to explain why this is retarded.

PUMA 4 Life!

Posted by Dubcek | September 12, 2008 6:25 PM
2

That's funny, I just think "McCain DNA Palin? What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Posted by Levislade | September 12, 2008 6:33 PM
3

@1 - Godwin's law notwithstanding, it's not that much of a stretch. "Country First" is blatant nationalism - it's right there in the slogan. Couple that with corporate welfare as a party platform plank and you've got "national socialism", or, at the very least, the very definition of fascism (what is Mussolini's fascism if not that?). We're not equating anyone with Hitler just yet, but it's getting close to farce.

Posted by David | September 12, 2008 6:37 PM
4

Your friends Mr. Google and Mr. Wikipedia are standing by to explain to all who wish to learn that Godwin's law is merely a prediction as to whether or not discussion threads will sooner or later mention Nazis, and how interesting they will be after that. Godwin's Law is not an injunction against discussing the Nazis or comparing anything with Nazis. The spirit of Godwin's Law is nothing more than the rather obvious point that the overuse of Nazi analogies is counterproductive. Not that the overuse of any of analogy isn't also counterproductive.

Not that that anyone said they wished to learn. My bad.

Posted by elenchos | September 12, 2008 6:43 PM
5

That's unfair... to John L. Lewis.

Posted by Trevor | September 12, 2008 7:01 PM
6

@3 Nationalism + corporate welfare may fit the definition of fascism, but it's still a legitimate political philosophy as the past 8 years have shown. More importantly it doesn't register as fascism to the American people. You gain nothing with this line of attack. What you need to do is co-opt the nationalism. That's the real appeal of Nazism and there's no reason it needs to be coupled with corporate welfare.

I'm fine with the analogy on principle but not in practice.

Posted by Dubcek | September 12, 2008 7:04 PM
7

@4 - Thanks for the clarification. Learning is never bad.

@6 - We're in agreement. In theory, it's correct and historically accurate to call the GOP a fascist party. In practice, as a line of attack for the Democrats to take, it's counterproductive, so I wouldn't encourage it, including its use in bumper stickers, slogans, etc. It just sounds to over-the-top (even though the last 8 years have been commensurately over-the-top).

Posted by David | September 12, 2008 7:35 PM
8

what is the watermark on the mccain/palin pic. I can't read it.

Posted by drew | September 12, 2008 7:36 PM
9

Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party!

McCain/Palin 2008, uber alles!

Sometimes you've gotta call a spade a spade, and/or corporate fascists who exploit nationalism and militarism Nazis. It's not like the Republicans are afraid to call Democrats Maoists and Marxists.

Posted by Mr. X | September 12, 2008 7:45 PM
10

Just from a design standpoint, wouldn't it make sense to put "Country First" in your images if that is your motto, rather than your own names?

Posted by Logan | September 12, 2008 7:55 PM
11

Make that "Country First" first...if that wasn't clear.

Posted by Logan | September 12, 2008 7:56 PM
12

This is really a stretch. I'm pretty sure that Palin has no idea where Poland is.

Posted by Zander | September 12, 2008 8:01 PM
13

That makes me think of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST

FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in order to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. The organization is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League, Junior FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions.

Posted by John Bailo | September 12, 2008 9:29 PM
14

Good heavens, is this only now being noticed? Was no one paying attention when Bush suddenly created a Department of Homeland Security? I mean, "Homeland"? Were the semiotics of the language choice that obscure? And the not-very-gradual thickening of the shroud of secrecy over all the activities of the government, coupled with the Animal Farm attitude that some animals are *more* equal than others? I'm surprised we're not all hearing the Horst Wessel Song on the radio every hour, on the hour, at this point.

Posted by Calpete | September 12, 2008 9:32 PM
15

Erica,
I actually noticed the nationalistic slogan " Country First" too but did not come to the same conclusion you did.

Did you ever hear of or read the novel "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis? Or Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America"? They recount a Fascist take over of America. The simple fact is any human society can be consumed by a "cult of personality" and calamitous policies follow. I highly doubt Messrs. Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and even Stalin woke up one morning and said "I'm going to do evil to my people". Indeed, it can happen here but we have a great gift in this republic "a separation of powers". It could happen here but I highly doubt it.

Posted by lark | September 12, 2008 9:55 PM
16

The Seattle PI site has a whole column on their front page titled: Today's Sarah Palin Stories

Classic.

Posted by gnawing terror | September 12, 2008 9:58 PM
17

Sorry I'm late to the thread. I just finished my Two Minute Hate.

Could someone update me on what we're talking about again?

Posted by COMTE | September 12, 2008 10:11 PM
18

The watermark on the McCain/Palin banner says "Cafe Press" which is where the Stranger took this image from. I did a little photoshopping and googling to figure that out.

Though I'm sure it says something that at first I thought it could be something like cancerous, careless, or anything similar...

Posted by Andrew | September 12, 2008 10:46 PM
19

This has become rather Plot Against America like.
Drill baby drill.

Posted by Jonathan Golob | September 12, 2008 11:12 PM
20

Oh Come On.

If that was true than the White Power Vote would have dropped for Obama and risen for Kaiser McCain and Reichsmarshall Palin.

Um.

Oh.

Never mind.

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 13, 2008 12:26 AM
21

Nazi analogies = Tinfoilery

Although they'd never do the ad, I would love to see an attack ad against McCain/Palin with some harried housewife, her hair in an upswept messy hive, yelling at her kids as she's multi-tasking in the kitchen, pots banging, kids crying and demanding stuff, her husband yelling to her from upstairs that the toilet is leaking, phone ringing, etc.

So she's completely stressing out and yells at everyone to just SHUT UP and storms off into a back room where she slams the door and mutters something like "screw you Russia" and sits down at a desk with a console with a red nuclear launch button while you hear a toddler pounding on the door and whining MOMMY THE CAT PUKED! ON MY CEREAL!

Sure, it's horribly sexist and wrong, but I don't want this nasty woman near nuclear launch capability. OR JOHN MCCAIN, who I'm convinced was programmed by his captors to turn against America if he ever became President. He's a ticking post hypnotic timebomb, man.

Posted by Bob | September 13, 2008 6:50 AM
22

Writing blogs and posts equating GOP to Nazis is stupid. It's counterproductive. Cut it out.

If you want to help Obama win, stop the coutnerproductive stuff that the right wing feeds off of; stop acting like crazy, loony, lefties.

Instead:
1. Donate to Obama.
2.Go volunteer in another state where he needs help.
3. Spend your time talking about how he will economically better nad improves lives of the voters, esp. those swing voter -- you know, those gun totin' snoawmobile lovin' dear huntin' types in MI OH NH etc. Plus Archie Bunekrs and Wal-Mart moms.

4. Write a letter to Obama telling him to go kiss and make up with the Clintons, get them campaigning every day, and that he should go listen to them about how to connect with these swing voters.

This kind of jump the shark post really shows desperation and is an unhealthy response which is a cry that "yes we are going to lose! Because America is so dumb! My god half the country loves a nazi fascist party!"

You know in your heart this isn't how we are going to win.

Today real clear politics gave McCain first place (on the left) instead of Obama in its chart of all the relevant stats.

And for the first time, it shows MCCAIN IS AHEAD IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE MAP.

So, remember all these recent national polls showing McCain is ahed? And all those Obama operatives smugly told the media national polls don't count, we have the electoral college?

Well yet another Obama mythlie goes poof.

Here's the count in the real clear politics electoral colelge map: McCain 227, Obama 217, the rest toss up.

That fucking sucks and most Obama supporters, I must say, are doing everything they can possible do to ensure Obama goes down. By continuing to whine and cry about Palin, totally fulfilling the Rovian dream that this election turn on culture issues and distractions, anything but the economic future of America and those swing voters.

The rcp toss up states are OH MI PA (a total of 38 eletoral colelge votes; throw in NH as a "traditional swing state and that makes 42 electoral college votes (pop quiz: which Democratic candidate (a) won PA OH MI and NH, (b) got 18 million votes, and (c) wasn't put on the ticket????).

Anotehr group of toss up states is CO NM NV with a total of 19 electoral college votes. This is the vaunted "New West" which Slog and others have touted as the Obama path to victory. But guess what?

227 + 19 does not get you to 270. IT only gets you to 246.

The remaining toss up state is Virginia. 13 ECV. Throw it in with the Western states and we have 246+ 13 = 259.

In other words, this entire Obama strategy of "changing the map" and winning all over the South and the West is now reduced to this:

he MIGHT win one southern state and 3 western ones. But together they aren't enough. And he still needs at least one of OH PA MI.

Don't you think in this kind of terrible economy he is a totally lousy candidate to have those three states being only a toss up?

Note to constant readers: usually I cite the no toss up view, and that still has him ahead. In other words, he has teeny tiny leads in those swing states. I usually cite that one because I think when citing polls what you should do is cite the same one over and over, to see trends. So the bottom line remains the same:

--It's all tied up, or as much as it can be.
--Obama continues on a trend going down, down down every day.
--The obvious reason is he's not connecting with the middle American swing voters, basically folks you might characterize as more culturally conservative than the average Slog reader, and susceptible to concrete economic arguments.
--Part of the reason why is the loony left is spending all its time and energy (a) denying there's any downward trend, and (b) hammering on Palin when we know no election has ever been decided based on a VP pick.

That was pretty sad when Obama didn't come out of the lunch with Clinton and say something about how he was unfairly charged with racism, and when they didnt' announce that Billdawg was starting to campaign for Obama THE NEXT DAY AND EVERY DAY.

What an arrogant young man. He's in a pickle, and he won't even ask for help.

Unity y'all,

Posted by PC | September 13, 2008 8:18 AM
23

Go ahead, skip another lengthy post ifyou can't face what's going on.

The Washingotn Post article today entitled "Obama Campaign Begins Counterattack" perfectly illustrates the total lack of message coming out of our candidate. Read it on line, you won't find ANY compelling message Obama gave in a speech in Dover NH.

This is prime OBama territory the large UNH campus city on the coast.

Comments:

-- Here's the lead: "CONCORD, N.H., Sept. 12 -- Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign launched a promised counterpunch against Sen. John McCain on Friday, portraying him as an aging, out-of-touch politician who would cater to "fat-cat" lobbyists and continue President Bush's economic policies."

That's kind of vague, and is cnetered on McCain, not on the swing voter. He needs a lead message that tells the swing voter when he/she will get from an Obama presidency.

-- "They've been talking about lipstick and they've been talking about pigs and they've been talking about Paris and Britney," Obama told a boisterous crowd of 1,500 packed into a gym at a technical college here. "They will spend any amount of money and use any tactic out there in order to avoid talking about how we're going to move America forward to the future."

Um, Senator, I've read three paragraphs of this story and so far YOU haven't spoken about how YOU"RE going to move America forward.

--"Attempting to shift the focus away from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin" -- a focus aided and abetted by hordes of liberal and lefty bloggers all over the big cities of America -- "and to McCain, Obama quoted his opponent saying Thursday night that "it's easy for me to go to Washington and, frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have."

So, the charge is McCain ahsn't spoken of how to move america forward andhe's out of touch.

Still waiting for Obama to tell us what he'll do.

--""We just can't afford four more years of what John McCain and George Bush consider progress." "

One, why soften it down with that what they consider progress line. Is it or isn't it? Two, this is the closest thing to an economic connection to swing voters you can find in this article and Obama just makes it be this vague, nonspecific charege of "we can't afford THEIR policies."

--"If Democrats were expecting a dramatic change in words, tone or temperament, they did not get it. While McCain attacked him as a pampered, fading celebrity, a sexist and a desperate bully, Obama stuck to familiar themes linking the senator from Arizona to Bush and Washington lobbyists.
Even after being prodded by the audience in Dover, Obama appeared reluctant to get too aggressive."

Ayup. Apparently he's a big wuss on the campaign trail -- even thecrowd was begging him to fucking fight.

Does he know how?

"Glenn Grasso, 39, a doctoral student, pleaded: "When and how are you going to start fighting back?"
Obama responded by calling McCain's ads "just fabricated" and "just made up," an answer that spurred some to shout out: "Lies." "

Boo hoo, waaaaa they're making stuff up. Waaaaa.

Again even the crowd has to prompt him to use that big scaredy adult word "lies."

--""Lies, that's the word," Obama said."

Duh. Thank you Mr. Professor of Law. REally putting the passion into it. "Why yes, my listener, your suggestion as to my diction is correct. Let me adopt your suggestion. Now as to the avereed mendacities let me say this...."

--"Not everyone was reassured. "Truth be told, I'm extremely worried" about Obama's dip in the polls and McCain's attacks, said Jaimee Rudman, 30. Obama's use of McCain's words from a forum Thursday on volunteerism invited a biting response. McCain had suggested that he was out of touch as a way to defend Palin's record as a small-town mayor. But Obama also came to her defense at the forum, saying mayors fill potholes, trim trees and make sure the garbage is collected, while senators "yak." "

Great Mr. Eloquent Speechmaker. You just said senators "yak." Did you forget -- you are a Senator?

What an idiot.

I bet if we ran the primaries over again, he wouldn't have won. This is exactly what many of us predicted -- he's never been in a real fight against GOPsters and their attack machine.

He can't even see around the corner enough to know that instead of praising Palin he should hsut the fuck up about her and get on his honed economic message. He can't even think ahead enough to realize that if he says senators yak, duh, that's going to be on a GOP TV ad and used against him.

Sorry for all the bad news.
But I've been reading for two days about this new aggressive coutnerattack form the Obama campaign, and it appears to be barely happening.

I gave up reading this WAshPo article after the first internet page. If he could't get his economic message out by then, I assumed he's not going to.

He really needs to go learn something form the Clintons. And why the fuck wasn't Hillary Clinton with him right there in NH?? They've both said they would do whatever he asks.

Unity y'all

Posted by PC | September 13, 2008 8:39 AM
24

PC, have you considered applying for a job with a political campaign? Because otherwise you're wasting your time with these posts here on the Slog.

Posted by David | September 13, 2008 9:58 AM
25

It's not like the Republicans are afraid to call Democrats Maoists and Marxists

True, but as we have discussed before, there is a consetvative/liberal double standard in this country. Conservatives can call us commies all day long, but if we datre point out the very real similarities between fascism/nationalism & neoconservativism, everyone shits the bed and suddenly we're the assholes who hate America. So, yes, while it is fun to point this out on a liberal blog, it IS counterproductive to do so with the average (dumbfuck) citizen.

Also, I hate to admit this, but St. Louis is in love with Charles "white power" Lindberg. We have an airport, a school district & a major road named after him.

Of course, I'm probably one of about eight people in this area that knows he was a fucking nazi sympathizer.

Posted by Mike in MO | September 13, 2008 10:54 AM
26

Dan Savage -brave warrior Oct. 2002

War may be bad for children and other living things, but there are times when peace is worse for children and other living things, and this is one of those times. Saying no to war in Iraq means saying yes to the continued oppression of the Iraqi people.

In the meantime, invading and rebuilding Iraq will not only free the Iraqi people, it will also make the Saudis aware of the consequences they face if they continue to oppress their own people while exporting terrorism and terrorists. The War on Iraq will make it clear to our friends and enemies in the Middle East (and elsewhere) that we mean business: Free your people, reform your societies, liberalize, and democratize... or we're going to come over there, remove you from power, free your people, and reform your societies for ourselves.

Posted by Caesar Salad | September 13, 2008 11:10 AM
27

I love the pic of Palin giving a 'sieg heil' salute. McCain probably calls Cheney "mein Fuhrer"!

Posted by AmericanUndergroundResistance | September 13, 2008 12:29 PM
28

You can put lipstick on a fascist; she, he or it is still a fascist.

Posted by Jeff Stevens | September 13, 2008 1:31 PM
29

Thanks Andrew. I was thinking the same thing. Must be some sort of Andrew mind meld. What am I thinking about right now?

Posted by drew | September 13, 2008 2:42 PM
30

OK I'm no McCain/Palin fan but that's a stretch, to say the least. Silly, in fact.

Posted by Miles | September 13, 2008 3:39 PM
31

@25,

It goes beyond that. Did anyone see Bill Moyers last night? He had a pastor from a progressive church on who had some right-wing wacko walk into his church and mow down several people - and then some right-wing radio hack basically said that's a nice start.

The shooter's house was filled with books that were filled with eliminationist rhetoric from Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, et al - you know, people who repeatedly say in all seriousness that liberals are traitors who ought to be locked up, put in straight jackets, or worse?

So yeah, PC, it's long past time that Democrats (and what's left of decent Republicans) call this sort Brownshirt behavior what it is - American facsism/Nazism/etc etc etc.

You can take your crocodile-teared fake plea for Democratic party civility and shove it right up your sorry troll ass.

Posted by Mr. X | September 13, 2008 7:13 PM
32

right on ECB, love the images and the theme, very nice

Posted by jackseattle | September 14, 2008 10:27 PM

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