There have been a dozen and more dictators in my adult life that merited comparrison with Adolph Hitler. Most were pale shadows no matter how many of their own people they killed. Still, I couldn’t fault anyone for invoking Hitler’s name when castigating them. Such a case is Hank Williams Jr. who said Obama is the new Hitler just as lots of peaceniks said the same of George W. Bush.
Most people who get compared with the leader of the Third Reich are suffering from some other person’s gross overreach and historical ignorance. (BTW I’ve felt free in 26 posts to mention Hitler myself. I’m too busy to read them all again to see just how I made use of the tyrant and I might even have compared some of his actions to those of the Duluth School Board. Hopefully I did so with a little more subtley than Hank Williams did.) Hank Jr. sits justifiably in his father’s shadow and never more so than when he compared our current President as Adolph’s successor. He apologized half heartedly by saying his passions got the better of him. No more pigskin for Jr.
Maybe Hank Jr. would be better off to return to the orator’s old standby for the personification of evil pre-World War II. The Pharaoh was also great music material for classic American gospel music and Hank could tap into that.
