Republican primary candidate gives the Hitler Salute? [Why does NJDC have a problem with this?]

National Jewish Democratic Council ^ | 4/25/08 | Kevin Ducoff

[Winged Hussar]

Tony Zirkle, a candidate in the Republican primary for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District seat gave a speech to a rather unique audience, the Nationalist Socialist Worker’s Party, or the Nazi Party.

...This kind of attitude of racism and anti-Semitism is simply un-American. To his credit, it was a fellow Republican opponent for the primary, Luke Puckett, who brought this meeting to the attention of the media, and stated, “I can't believe, in 2008, someone could have such backward opinions." The point of mentioning this isn’t to paint the Republican Party as pro-Nazi, racist, or anti-Semitic; quite the contrary. owever, when your party promotes discrimination and intolerance (however unintended it may be) in its platform, candidates like Mr. Zirkle are always going to pop up. It’s not a real shocker that he has yet to win a single race.

[Winged Hussar]

(1) Zirkle's association with the Republican party is sort of like what the elephant leaves behind it, and that requires a considerable amount of clean-up.

(2) Note that even the National Jewish Democratic Council admits that genuine Republicans jumped all over this guy, who has not succeeded in winning a single election.

My reason for posting this, however, is that it is hard to understand why the National Jewish Democratic Council is so upset about a candidate appearing at a Nazi Party event. After all, the National Jewish Democratic Council has no trouble with this:

Also, in contrast to Zirkle, who has never won an election, the above individuals are supposedly credible Presidential candidates.

These pictures are from last April's meeting of Sharpton's National Action Network. The NAN, while under Sharpton's personal supervision, screamed racial and anti-Semitic epithets like "cracker lover," "bloodsucking Jew," "Don't give the Jew a dime," and "white interloper" (the latter from Sharpton himself) at a Jewish-owned store, Freddy's Fashion Mart, that one of Sharpton's deranged followers later set on fire.

[pallis]

This would have bothered me in the days before both parties celebrated the inclusion of a Muslim into Congress. There is no philosophy more dangerous or bigoted than Islam, and our government is bending over to please Islamics. Besides, our politicians trip over themselves to address the NAACP, an organization that has become every bit as racist as Nazi kooks.

[dschapin]

Sharpton’s certainly said some very antisemitic things and I believe he is responsible for a Race riot that may have cost one Jewish person their life. However, I can see the National Jewish Democratic Council being more concerned over a candidate who would speak to the NAZI party. After all, the the NAZI’s murdered murdered over six million jews. Which I believe was about 1/3 of the Jewish population at that time. So, I think its fair to draw a distinction between a bigoted, hatefull man and a party which wants to kill all Jews.

[Winged Hussar]

The Nazi party in question has not actually killed anyone or incited fatal hate crimes, no matter how reprehensible its ideology might be.

Al Sharpton has been at least indirectly involved in two incidents in which people were killed. The race riot to which you refer was a reenactment of the Night of the Broken Glass, with Sharpton’s followers yelling “Kill the Jews.” The other was the fatal arson of Freddy’s Fashion Mart.

[dschapin]

Ok, I had conflated the two incidents in my mind. Thanks for giving me more information.

[centurion316]

I think that any contact with the Nazi Party, or the National Socialists ought to spell immediate and complete political death for anyone stupid enough to allow such a connection, however tangential.

But, the same should be true for the Communist Party, Marxists looneys, and any other flavor of Socialists who infest this land. The Communists were far worse than their fellow travellers, the Nazis. They committed mass murder on a scale that make the Nazis look like the Salvation Army. And yet, they get a pass - and either way, if a Democrat wins the White House this year, we will have our first bona fide Communist President.