Graphic novelist Max Brooks [1], a former writer for Saturday Night Live, charged on Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher that Tea Party “ideologues” are just like the Nazi “ideologues” who fooled the German elite in the decades before World War II.
Sitting in the featured panelist slot, the son of [2] legendary producer Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft, contended: “This has happened before in history. In Germany in the ‘20s and ‘30s, there was this right wing reactionary element that was so terrified of anarchy and communism, that they said, ‘you know what, there’s a group of street thugs that are real ideologues and they’re willing to take it and they’re willing to bloody themselves. And you know, once they get into power we can control them.’ And that was why they backed them.”
Audio: MP3 clip [3]
From the June 27 Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, the discussion prompted by Tea Party upset over how Senator Thad Cochran beat the Tea Party's Chris McDaniel by getting Democrats to vote in the Republican Mississippi run-off:
MAX BROOKS: You know, this has happened before in history. In Germany in the ‘20s and ‘30s, there was this right wing reactionary element that was so terrified of anarchy and communism, that they said, “you know what, there’s a group of street thugs that are real ideologues and they’re willing to take it and they’re willing to bloody themselves. And you know, once they get into power we can control them.” And that was why they backed them. “We can control this.” And what they didn’t realize-
ANDY DEAN [4], RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Is that a stretch, the Nazis versus the Tea Party who just want smaller government?
BROOKS: What is true is that ideologues are only loyal to ideology.
DEAN: The Tea Party’s ideology isn’t to take over Europe, it’s for smaller government and less taxes.
BROOKS: But they are still ideologues. They will don’t want to compromise...
Brooks specializes in graphic novels and comic books and is best known for World War Z [5] and the ever helpful Zombie Survival Guide [6].
From 2010: “On Maher, Rob Reiner Equates Tea Party to Hitler: ‘All They’re Selling is Fear and Anger and That’s All Hitler Sold [7]’”
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter. [8]