The government shutdown hasn’t exactly brought out the best in Republican policymakers.
Arizona State Rep. Brenda Barton (R) compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a Facebook post Monday criticizing the rangers in the shuttered National Park Service for keeping the parks closed. She called on rogue “Constitutional Sheriffs” to arrest park service rangers for doing their jobs.
Barton initially posted, urging citizens to encourage their local sheriffs to consider “revoking the arrest powers (that they granted in the first place) to federal agents operating within their county.” … But in a second posting, Barton minced no words, calling Obama “De Fuhrer [sic]” and urging local sheriffs to arrest park rangers who enforce rules keeping people out of National Parks that are closed due to the federal government shutdown.
It’s quite a story. Barton, a right-wing state lawmaker who thinks she knows how to spell Hitler references, is angry about the government shutdown affecting national parks. From there, she somehow convinced herself that the president is “dictating beyond his authority.” How? No one knows. Does she realize it was lawmakers from her own party that are responsible for the shutdown? Apparently not.
Asked about her online comments, Barton told the Arizona Capitol Times, “It’s not just the death camps. (Hitler) started in the communities, with national health care and gun control. You better read your history. Germany started with national health care and gun control before any of that other stuff happened. And Hitler was elected by a majority of people.”
The Republican state lawmaker went on to say her criticism of the president is “not controversial.” It’s nice of her to clear this up; she’s obviously read her “history.”
Note, right-wing efforts to connect the ongoing Republican tantrum to World War II are not limited to strange Arizonans. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) equated his Republican critics to Neville Chamberlain and those who hoped to appease Hitler, while yesterday, Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-Texas) said if he accepted a center-right spending bill that re-opened the government, he’d be like the French “surrendering” to Germany.
Congratulations, Republicans, you’ve managed to fail Godwin’s Law and the country at the same time.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."