Ahh, the dangers of early analysis. Underneath the headline, “David Brat’s Writings: Hitler’s Rise ‘Could All Happen Again,’” Reid J. Epstein of the Wall Street Journal quotes from a 2011 essay from David Brat titled “God and Advanced Mammon — Can Theological Types Handle Usury and Capitalism?”
Mr. Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., near Richmond, calls both conservatives and liberals hypocritical and wrote that “the government holds a monopoly on violence” because it enforces the law.
But it is the reference to Hitler’s Germany that is likely to turn heads during Mr. Brat’s first full day as a tea party star.
The full context of his second Holocaust prognostication comes in a section about how if Christian people “had the guts to spread the word,” government would not need to “backstop every action we take.”
He writes:
Capitalism is here to stay, and we need a church model that corresponds to that reality. Read Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s diagnosis of the weak modern Christian democratic man was spot on. Jesus was a great man. Jesus said he was the Son of God. Jesus made things happen. Jesus had faith. Jesus actually made people better. Then came the Christians. What happened? What went wrong? We appear to be a bit passive. Hitler came along, and he did not meet with unified resistance. I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily. The church should rise up higher than Nietzsche could see and prove him wrong. We should love our neighbor so much that we actually believe in right and wrong, and do something about it. If we all did the right thing and had the guts to spread the word, we would not need the government to backstop every action we take.
As Ace notes, “WSJ Breathlessly Suggests: Was David Brat’s Defeat of a Jewish Congressman Somehow Related to His Hitler-Shall-Rise-Anew Agenda?”
Jesus Christ Almighty, the guy is upset by the fact that Christians (and Americans, generally, I think he’d say) are too “morally weak” to stand firm in the face of Hitlerian evil — and urges them to be more resolute against a New Hitler — and yet this writer frames this as some sort of Ekdahlian Hitler rehabilitation.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Oh, read on, and you’ll see this Ignoramus being surprised at the observation that the “government exercises a monopoly on the use of force.” That truism strikes this idiot as possibly scandalous.
Via Twitchy, which collects reactions to the WSJ’s ugly, venomous stupidity.
I know the usually conservative Wall Street Journal has always been fiercely pro-amnesty, but this is ridiculous.
Speaking of amnesty, Cantor will step down as House Leader on July 31st. But despite his stunning loss, as Rush notes, “Warning: Amnesty is Not Necessarily Dead.”
Which sadly could be true — if Scott Brown’s shock victory in 2010 couldn’t stem the passage of Obamacare through labyrinthine Congressional chicanery, it’s entirely possible that the Boehner Congress may not give up on its suicidal dream of creating millions of new Democrat voters.
Update: At Big Journalism, John Nolte writes that Epstein is a former Politico reporter who “jumped to the Wall Street Journal but seems to have taken the worst of Politico’s instincts with him,” whipping up ‘a word soup about “Hitler, Rise Again, Tea Party, Defeat, Jewish,'” in the process.
At NewsBusters, Tom Blumer adds, “The Journal should seriously reconsider its decision to hire Mr. Epstein. His post is a disgraceful smear which would be bad enough if found at Epstein’s old hangout at the Politico. It’s completely beyond the pale to see it appear at the Wall Street Journal.”
Indeed.
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