Hitler Wasn't Elected, Mr. Turner

RushLimbaugh.com ^ | 1-26-05 | Rush Limbaugh

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Hitler Wasn't Elected, Mr. Turner

January 26, 2005

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

We're going to talk about Ted Turner next. The Fox people put out a great quote, and I'm going to have to paraphrase this -- and I know it's Ailes. It came from "a Fox spokesman." I know Ailes well enough to know that this is Ailes' quote. He said, "Well, it's understandable that Ted would be saying these things. He's lost his network. He's lost his ratings, and now he's lost his mind." (Laughing.) That's a Roger Ailes quote, folks. But he doesn't know his history. This business of Adolph Hitler? I looked this up. I was going to make it the morning update today, but said, nah, I better check my history first just to double-check because my instinct was that Hitler was never elected by the Germany people. The most he got in any German election was 30%.

He never was elected to anything. He took over. He was a dictator. I looked it up. You know, I went through the American public school system prior to the NEA getting hold of it, so I actually learned something. I remember Hitler wasn't elected to beans. I saw Turner said this yesterday. I said, "What is he talking about?" He's comparing Fox News to Hitler. By the way, he already, like five or six years ago, he compared Murdoch to Hitler, when Fox News started, and the Anti-Defamation League demanded that Turner apologize for trivializing Hitler and his role in the world by comparing Rupert Murdoch to Hitler, and Turner apologized for that, but he can't get it out of his system. So we have details all coming up here in just a second, but first a phone call.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: (Reuters) "Can a film that humanizes Adolf Hitler win an Oscar?" Yes, and the director of Downfall, a film about the last days of Hitler's life, Oliver Hirschbiegel, certainly hopes so. His movie was nominated for an Oscar on Tuesday as one of five foreign language films, one of the five best foreign language films, Downfall, humanizing Adolf Hitler and his last days. "Hirschbiegel said he was surprised at the nomination. 'My film is very controversial. Are we as filmmakers allowed to depict Hitler as a man or are we supposed to depict him as a monster,' he said. 'We owe it to the victims to show that this was not a demon from hell but a man born in Austria and raised in Germany. I am very proud of this movie. It is my best work.'" It was a couple years ago they honored Leni Riefenstahl, who is a documentary maker of Hitler. This year they're honoring Oliver Hirschbiegel for a sympathetic humanizing portrayal of Adolf Hitler, and yet The Passion of the Christ gets three lowly, insignificant nominations. I mentioned this as a prelude to more detail on the story that broke yesterday. Ted Turner was speaking, and during the Q&A session at the National Association for Television Programming Executives, he was asked how he feels about Fox News Channel beating CNN, and Turner said that Adolf Hitler "got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to World War II." He said that Fox "is the propaganda tool for the Bush administration. There's nothing wrong with that, certainly illegal, but it does pose problems for our democracy." So yesterday Ted Turner compared Fox's popularity to Hitler. We have a small sound bite. This is what he said.

TURNER: That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean it's not -- I'm not happy about it, but Adolf Hitler was more popular in Germany in the early thirties than his -- people that were running against him. So just because you're bigger doesn't mean you're right.

RUSH: All right, yesterday, I was going to do a morning update on this. In fact, I did. I recorded it and I didn't air it today because I wanted to double-check my history. My instincts were that Hitler of us never elected to anything in Germany. In fact, when he ran he was defeated. He was never elected to diddly-squat in Germany, Ted. You know, he was not more popular than the other candidates. He got 30% of the vote when he ran. Here is the history, ladies and gentlemen -- and, by the way, I want to read to you from Jacob Hornberger at Freedom Daily because this is the site that I went to to get the history. It says: "Whenever U.S. officials wish to demonize someone, they inevitably compare him to Adolf Hitler. The message immediately resonates with people because everyone knows that Hitler was a brutal dictator. But how many people know how Hitler actually became a dictator? My bet is, very few. I’d also bet that more than a few people would be surprised at how he pulled it off, especially given that after World War I Germany had become a democratic republic. The story of how Hitler became a dictator is set forth in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer, on which this article is based. In the presidential election held on March 13, 1932, there were four candidates: the incumbent, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler, and two minor candidates, Ernst Thaelmann and Theodore Duesterberg. The results were: Hindenburg 49.6 percent, Hitler 30.1 percent, Thaelmann 13.2 percent Duesterberg 6.8 percent. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, almost 70 percent of the German people voted against Hitler, causing his supporter Joseph Goebbels, who would later become Hitler’s minister of propaganda, to lament in his journal, 'We’re beaten; terrible outlook. Party circles badly depressed and dejected.' Since Hindenberg had not received a majority of the vote, however, a runoff election had to be held among the top three vote-getters. On April 19, 1932, the runoff results were: Hindenburg 53.0 percent, Hitler 36.8 percent, Thaelmann 10.2 percent." So again, 63% of the German voters voted against Adolf Hitler. "Thus, even though Hitler’s vote total had risen, he still had been decisively rejected by the German people."

"On June 1, 1932, Hindenberg appointed Franz von Papen as chancellor of Germany, whom Shirer described as an 'unexpected and ludicrous figure.' Papen immediately dissolved the Reichstag (the national congress) and called for new elections, the third legislative election in five months. Hitler and his fellow members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, who were determined to bring down the republic and establish dictatorial rule in Germany, did everything they could to create chaos in the streets, including initiating political violence and murder. The situation got so bad that martial law was proclaimed in Berlin. Even though Hitler had badly lost the presidential election, he was drawing ever-larger crowds during the congressional election. As Shirer points out--" Well, the next line didn't copy on the printer. Let me just cut to the chase here on the dates. You know basically the story now. On February 27th, 1933, the Reichstag building burns after being set on fire. Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe is arrested for the arson. On February 28th, 1933, Adolf Hitler got Hindenburg, President Hindenburg, to pass the Reichstag's which abolishes most political rights in the republic.

On 23 March of 1933, forced to have its session in the nearby Kroll Opera Building, the Reichstag takes away its own powers, transfers them to Hitler, and becomes a show parliament for the Fuehrer and the Third Reich without any political weight. Keep in mind the Nazis never got a majority of the vote. They received around 38% of the vote and formed a coalition government with Hindenburg's party and then basically overthrew Hindenburg. They got Hindenburg to essentially appoint Hitler as chancellor #2 and then they basically just took out Hindenburg. Hindenburg kicked the bucket -- uh, died -- and so the history was thus made. Adolf Hitler was never elected beans. He was never more popular than anybody else in an election. Ted Turner doesn't know what he's talking about, and to compare Fox News to Hitler, and as he did nine years ago to compare Murdoch to Hitler, just serves to trivialize Hitler and to show that Ted Turner is losing his mind.

Matt Drudge on his website today posts this. "New York, October 2nd, 1996: Ted Turner has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for comments he made recently comparing Rupert Murdoch to Hitler. ADL had written to the CNN Chairman that such inapt analogies 'trivialize a profound historical tragedy,' and should be avoided. 'I hope you and all those offended by this comment will accept my deepest apology,' wrote Mr. Turner in response to the letter from Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. The CNN Chairman said he realized his choice of words was 'unfortunate' and 'offensive,' and he regretted the comment. Explaining his comparison 'referred only to the way Hitler managed the news in Germany.'"

So the way Fox manages the news is the same way Hitler managed the news, propaganda tool, so forth and so on, but even at that Ted Turner has his history entirely wrong.

END TRANSCRIPT

[R. Scott]

20 minutes on the net then walk the dog. 20 minutes on the net then clean the apartment.

[Radix]

Turner is a student of "his story!"

[justshutupandtakeit]

No there is no comparison between a phoney threat and the real threat revealed on 9/11.

I have no concerns about the complaints of abuse from the ACLU or the CAIR clowns and have seen nothing that was out of line. The lawyer arrested because of the Spain bombing was not plucked arbitrarily out of the thin air but was arrested on extremely persuasive evidence then cleared upon further investigation.

As for your Hillary scare you'll have to do better than that since any country that elects her has already been gutted and lost its bearings. Laws that are necessary now are not to be junked because of vague concerns about the future. We need the ability to track these traitors. Those complaining about it in Congress are barely outside that catagory themselves and most of them opposing it are reflexively anti-American and consciously aid our enemies on a daily basis.

Goering's complaint makes no sense because the round-up occurred sooner than he had anticipated (not that he had police power out of Prussia anyway) so those who fled would have had more time to escape had the Nazis waited.

[Orange1998]

Late night TV the other night had a quote from the show "In America the majority does not pick its President" Directors get their point across in a sleaze way. Hollywood is full of them.

[antiRepublicrat]

No there is no comparison between a phoney threat and the real threat revealed on 9/11.

Hitler considered communists a threat, just as much as we did in the 50s, as much as we consider terrorists a threat now. Of course his reasons for pushing for the extra powers are far more insidious than Bush's.

Those complaining about it in Congress are barely outside that catagory themselves and most of them opposing it are reflexively anti-American and consciously aid our enemies on a daily basis.

That's exactly the attitude I was talking about during the stunted debate of the PATRIOT Act. "You're anti-American if you don't vote for it." Such attitudes have no place in the debate of the merits of the Act, and unduly pressure our representatives to vote in a way possibly not consistent with their views on the balance of civil rights and security. Such pressures inevitably shift the balance away from civil rights and towards security and government power.

Goering's complaint makes no sense because the round-up occurred sooner than he had anticipated (not that he had police power out of Prussia anyway) so those who fled would have had more time to escape had the Nazis waited.

Not quite. Göring envisioned a wide-laid net to be sprung to trap all of the (until then unsuspecting) communists quickly. Hitler ordered the arrests before Göring was ready to trap all at once, allowing those not immediately siezed to get away. Read his testimony at the trials.

[R. Scott]

Benefits of the Parliamentary System.

[R. Scott]

Yes - but the NAZI Party did not win a majority.

[Publius6961]

However, the major political power in Germany at the time and presently is in the office of Chancellor, the leader of the legistlative Reichstag. Learn your history, son.

I prefer to concentrate on English comprehension first, Grams. You said Hitler was elected I still maintain that he was not. Chancellor is not an elected office so his being in the office regardless of its weight was not the premiership.

Do us all a favor and dazzle us with your version of how he went from chancellor, to premier to dictator in a matter of weeks, and how the people who voted for Von Hindenberg without knowledge of his imminent demise thus voted for Hitler as dictator by induction.

I am always eager to witness a brilliant mind at work first hand, Grams.

[Pagey]

A "Historically accurate thread" BUMP!

[ops33]

Your figures are correct. Personally, I don't this Rush is lying. I think your first conclusion was correct, he not a historian and does not understand how a Parlimentary type of election works.

[antiRepublicrat]

My German history book confirms this. Unfortunately, I didn't have it with me earlier. It isn't until the 12 Nov 33 election that my history book states it wasn't a free and fair election due to the NSDAP being the only allowed party. All elections prior that got Hitler into power were considered free and fair elections.

Interestingly, in the comparisons between the Reichstag fire and 9/11, my book says the Nazis claimed they found materials proving that the communists were building terror groups to hit public buildings, poison public kitchens, and to take wives and children of ministers and other high figures hostage (rough translation from the German). We'll never know if this was true since they rounded up all the communists, but we do know that hitting public buildings was definitely on the mind of at least one communist.

[ops33]

It will be interesting to see if he makes any follow up comments on this. I'm sure he has received numerous emails telling him in detail the results of the 1932 German election. By the way, the book that I originally cited, "Hitler", by Joachim Fest, is one of the best history of the Nazi era. And it was written by a German.

[antiRepublicrat]

You said Hitler was elected I still maintain that he was not. Chancellor is not an elected office so his being in the office regardless of its weight was not the premiership.

Like I said in my first post, this is only very technically correct. I've been through a couple elections in a parliamentary country (Germany), and while the people do vote for their party, make no doubt that everyone has in his or her mind who that means electing as Chancellor. A candidate for chancellor runs as much of an individual-style campaign as a presidential candidate does here. The news focuses on the two people who would be chancellor and frames the debate in that way. Everyone talked about how the floods in Dresden helped Schröder win the election, not how it helped the SPD.

[antiRepublicrat]

"Hitler", by Joachim Fest, is one of the best history of the Nazi era. And it was written by a German.

Thanks, I just found it on Amazon.de. I wonder if they ship to the US?

BTW, avoid the Hitler documentaries on the History Channel, as they're full of speculation and unfounded claims. My German wife and I were LOL watching it. They'll find one crackpot who wrote something strange, then have another person on saying "Research has shown that...", referring to that one crackpot. That tactic gives it a baseless aura of authority.