Comparing Bush to Hitler is wrong and moronic

When arguing politics with people who think differently than me, I can usually walk away feeling that I learned something or gained a new respect for the person, even if I don't agree with what they said, I can still respect their opinion.

There is one opinion about President Bush that some people have, however, which is not only highly offensive, but is also incontrovertibly wrong – the comparison of the Bush administration to the regime of Adolf Hitler.

According to Webster's dictionary fascism means, "a political philosophy, movement, or regime...that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition." How, after seeing this definition, can one truly put Nazi Germany under Hitler and the United States under Bush side by side?

First of all, the United States is not an autocracy and Bush is by no means a "dictatorial leader," by any stretch of the imagination. The United States does not severely regiment the society and the economy – in fact, the only person responsible for your status in society is yourself. Finally, the last time I checked, there was a little thing called the First Amendment, so "forcible suppression of opposition" is already out of the question. When was the last peaceful protestor forcibly suppressed by the Bush administration? That's right, never.

As you can see, a fascist country, by definition, does not describe the United States, but people still associate the two. In November, George Soros, an international financier and one of the richest men in the world, told the Washington Post the following: "When I hear Bush say, ‘You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans...My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me." Soros, a Hungarian Jew who survived Hitler's regime, should know better.

When MoveOn.org posted their now infamous advertisement that compared Bush to Hitler (an advertisement that Soros almost immediately denounced, despite the fact that he has donated millions to the organization), even presidential hopeful John Kerry was slow to denounce it. North Korea, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, even uses "The Diary Of Anne Frank" to teach children that "America is the modern equivalent of the Nazis." Perhaps in the biggest exhibition of blatant irony, Fidel Castro has even likened Bush to Hitler, most recently in June, when he spoke to crowds while standing beside a huge photograph that portrayed Bush wearing a Hitler-style moustache and a military uniform, and displayed a caption which read, "Bush, Fascist: There Is No Aggression Cuba Cannot Resist."

The comparison of President Bush to Hitler is absurd and false. It is a sad day when the American president, no matter how much one might disagree with his politics, is compared to one of the most brutal and vicious murderers of all time. More importantly though, it shows you how low people are willing to stoop and how far they will go to make complete fools of themselves.

Gerry Wachovsky is a senior broadcast journalism major at CSULB and the Diversions editor of the Online 49er.