Bacon's Rebellion

When All Else Fails, Call Your Opponent a Nazi

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by

James A. Bacon
in

I don’t see much merit in amending the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, as the state Senate voted 30 to 10 yesterday to do, but after reading Tyler Whitney’s account in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, I’m almost ready to endorse the darn thing out of pure contrariness.

Said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton: “It is xenophobia that led to the rise of Nazism in Germany and fascism in Italy. It is homophobia that brings us to this place in time today.”

Said Janet D. Howell, D-Reston: The Nazis ordered the Jews in concentration camps to wear yellow patches and gays to wear pink patches. “In Virginia today, we do not require pink triangles. We stigmatize and marginalize people in other ways, as we go down a path that we don’t know where it will end.”

In other words, passing an amendment that would deny gays the right to marry — a right that they’ve never possessed in any culture since the dawn of time — is the moral equivalent of fascism and Nazism, and only a short slide down the slippery slope to tossing gays into concentration camps. I’m sorry, that’s not an argument. It’s name calling.

Far more persuasive was Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax: If senators were really interested in protecting marriage, they’d address the high rate of divorce. “It’s not what gay people are doing to marriage, it’s us.”

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  1. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    It may not be politically adroit, but it is truthful and shocking to call proponents Nazis.
    The fact is that this is more about outright discrimination than gay marriage. This state is taking a very ugly step backwards to Jim Crow style legislation. The Nazis are marching, and not just at VMI.

  2. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    What’s that old saying? In a debate, the first person to bring up the nazis or Hitler loses, right?

    I sympathize with gay people here though…banning gay marriage isn’t really that extreme…but the nasty rhetoric that you hear from the right about gay people (turn on AM radio at any point in the day) has them rightfully scared.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    My hunch is that social conservatives would be less intolerant of minority rights (such as same same-sex unions) if social liberals were less intolerant of the expression of majority beliefs (such as the displaying of the 10 Commandments on government property). But that’s a pipe dream in this era of the Culture Wars. If it’s legitimate to tar the social conservatives as Nazis, would it not be legitimate to label the secularists as “atheists and communists”?

  4. Will Vehrs Avatar
    Will Vehrs

    Someone once asked Charles Manson if he thought he was “crazy.” He answered, “Being crazy used to mean something. Nowadays, everybody’s crazy.”

    We have cheapened discourse in this Commonwealth and this country by accusing those we disagree with as being racists, Nazis, homophobes, terrorist-sympathizers, or any number of other terms.

    Ad hominem attacks just cause each side to dig in deeper. It’s hard to find common ground with someone you’ve called a Nazi.

  5. Senor C. Avatar
    Senor C.

    Banning gay marriage may not be extreme to those of us who it doesn’t affect on a day-to-day basis. But it’s a major blow, symbolic or otherwise, to folks who just want to lead regular lives and relationships, with all the trappings that ensue. I’d have to agree with Will though. Name-calling and ad hominem attacks, while politically savvy at times, force us onto non-essential elements of the discourse.

  6. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Don’t get me wrong – I personally oppose a ban on gay marriage. I was just thinking that a ban on gay marriage is relatively mild when compared to the attempt to ban gay adoption or contracts between same sex people.

  7. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    Next step for the Nazis will be to ban gay people from teaching and take away some of their First Amendment rights.

  8. John K. Avatar
    John K.

    By engaging in such parrhesia and overstating the case in such a manner, these particular opponents of the amendment add nothing to the debate other than to galvanize popular opinion against their position.

  9. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    parrhesia: Boldness or freedom of speech
    People should be speaking out more, not less.
    If our own representatives are not going to protect our most basic freedoms, then what good are our representatives? I hope Kaine and other Democrats are reading.

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