Very subtly, though
(The Politico) Palin lovers, Palin haters, a half-dozen publishing houses, and elements of the mainstream media who tracked her plans long after the Republican campaign bypassed her suddenly face a future without their entertaining, unpredictable, and now scarcely relevant subject.
Palin’s circle of online admirers greeted her announcement with shock and dismay. The camp who saw her as a nascent American Mussolini, with shock and joy. And the publishers, broadcasters and reporters who yoked themselves to Palin were already moving on.
Interesting. I’ve never heard any of the Palin haters refer to her in that way. So, Ben, exactly where did you come up with the comparison to a dictator and ally of Adolph Hitler, one of the leading founders of fascism, and a brutal and violent man who led the blackshirts and other violent groups?
They have over used the Hitler analogy, so now move to Mussolini. I think the reason for not using him before is that his name is more difficult to spell.
Of course, we could also use the name Petain. As head of the French, he sold them out to the socialist and was even more ruthless in his treatment of the Jews than the Germans. He also turned on his allies, British and Americans, and fought them in North Africa and France (we were under the allusion of “freeing” the French). Maybe Obama is closer to Petain than Hitler.
That comparison is ignorant on so many levels. Benito was a statist, a corporatist, the man who invented fascism and coined the word “totalitarianism” to describe the state direction of all aspects of life. Palin is a small-government conservative in the Western US mold of Goldwater, almost as far as one could be from someone like Mussolini. I’m sure the quote reflects Smith’s own thinking, just as I’m sure it shows he’s a hack.