Hank Williams Jr., Stick to Music

Originally on Technorati...

Every American is entitled to their political views. That's the beauty of America. But that doesn't mean those opinions might not get some type of backlash from the public as we all share different opinions.
Hank Williams, Jr. learned this yesterday when he compared President Obama to Hitler in an interview on Fox and Friends on Monday.

The entire interview was very strange and, frankly, everyone was glad it ended quickly.
In the interview, Gretchen Carlson asked Williams who he liked in the GOP race and he answered “Nobody”, which I can relate to that answer frankly. Steve Doocy replied back, “Nobody!?”

Williams then began to complain about Obama and Boehner’s golf game, which again I can understand that complaint. Seriously, Mr. President, are you playing golf on our tax dollars?! Or are you using the opportunity to talk to Mr. Boehner to accomplish something positive for our country, and in that case, please share so that we don't all see this as a golf game and nothing more.

Williams then said something that shocked me. He compared the president to Hitler. ”Yeah, I don’t understand that analogy, actually,” replied Brian Kilmeade. Neither can the rest of us.

“Well, I’m glad you don’t, brother, because a lot of people do,” Williams snapped. “You know, they’re the enemy. They’re the enemy.” Kilmeade asked. “Who’s the enemy?”

“Obama!” Williams bellowed.

The interview then changed directions quickly to talk about Willians football gig and then to an end, perhaps as a reminder to Williams what he could stand to lose with such an opinion.

As a person who lost family in WWII because of Hitler, and also because of the Soviet army, I found the comparison offensive. Nobody but a terror spreading dictator can be compared to Hitler. Some compared Iraqi former leader Saddam Hussein to Hitler. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, Belarusia's Alexander Lukashenko and others have been likened to Hitler over the past few years and those comparisons can seem justified.

Thousands upon thousands of oppressed masses have died under such regimes. Torture, acts of brutality, starvation, selective killings, and other terrible deeds have been done in the name of these leaders. And especially under Hitler.

No matter your opinion of Obama, you cannot compare him to Hitler. You just can't. It makes no sense. And it offends those of us who have stories of sheer terror and unspeakable sorrows in our family history all done at the hands of Hitler.

Comparing Obama or other such leaders to Hitler belittles my grandfather's PTSD, my grandfather's brother's death at the hands of Nazis in the middle of the night, my grandmother's family who couldn't flee to France to avoid the Nazi killing machine in Poland, the stories on my mother's or father's side that nobody talks about because they are too horrible.

Nobody is being lined up for mass killings, death camps, death marches, having their property stolen from them to the same extent, being walked to the gas chamber or on a death march, having children be experimented on by crazed Nazi doctors, etc. Nobody is being forced to walk in the gutter with a Jewish or Polish or Gay or Gypsy, or for that matter, Black or Korean or Dislexic marker on their right arm at all times. This is America, not Nazi Germany. I hope Williams understands the difference. There is a big one.

I also hope that what Mr. Williams meant was his general feeling of dissatisfaction with the state of our country and a need to point out that Obama could be doing more. I get that. I really do. There are millions in this country who feel the same way. But you don't call someone "Hitler" any more than you call them an ***hole to get your point across. It just makes you seem misinformed and overdramatizing.

The next time a possibly drunk person comes on Fox and Friends (which I don't watch, by the way, on a typical day), I hope the production team gets a clue from this interview and doesn't allow them on the air. Or maybe they did for the ratings and publicity of their show.