Is “I Guess I’m A Racist” The New Nazi Accusation?

In the course of writing about a new anti-Obama ad that features opponents of healthcare reform (sarcastically) declaring “I’m a racist,” I noticed an elegant parallel to the current brouhaha over Harry Reid’s slavery comparison. The Republican legislator who appears in the “I’m a racist” ad has, himself, previously used the slavery comparison with regard to health care. Do slavery and racism have a place in the healthcare debate?

Missouri state legislator Robert Schaaf appears in this spot, which is an apparent response to a September Rasmussen poll that found that 12% of Americans believed opponents of health care reform are racist:

A response like this to a poll number of 12% seems much more like an excuse to distract than an opportunity to defend, and to sneak in some lies along the way. The ad says they oppose a total government takeover of healthcare, something that isn’t currently being considered.

Schaaf had previously caused a stir by invoking slavery in opposition to the SCHIP program:

When government forces a person to work and pay the fruit of their hard earned labor and gives it to the benefit of someone else — and we have proof people who have SCHIP program can, because they pay the premium now — that is slavery. That is what it is.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, is trying to clarify this statement he made on Monday:

“If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right,” Reid said. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.’

Reid didn’t back away from the statement today:

“At pivotal points in American history, the tactics of distortion and delay have certainly been present,” Reid said. “They’ve certainly been used to stop progress. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what’s happening here. It’s very clear. That’s the point I made — no more, no less. Anyone who willingly distorts my comments is only proving my point.”

Reid’s explanation is reasonable enough, but misses the point entirely. Like the references to Nazis and the Holocaust that have been bandied about thus far by both sides in this debate, it is not the aptness of the comparison that’s at issue. I think  Robert Gibbs explained it pretty well last month:

Hopefully we can get back to a discussion about the issues that are important in this country, that we can do without being personally disagreeable and set up comparisons to things that were so insidious in our history that anybody in any professional walk of life would be well advised to compare nothing to those atrocities.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.