What precedes the writing of a column? Research, of course: Googling, the excavation of old notes, maybe a few phone calls and even some shoe-leather journalism. For this one all I had to do was concentrate very intently upon whether Hillary Clinton, on Friday, Aug. 28, landed the lowest political blow in American history, or whether something else some other candidate said could compete. I can certainly testify that no candidate's comments in the duration of my political awareness reached as low-down as Hillary's, speaking before the Democratic National Committee on that date.
The day before, Hillary gave herself a nice warm-up, referring to Republican right-to-lifers as "terrorists." But her Friday performance washed all memory of that one away with pure poison. She was commenting on Donald Trump's immigration proposal. Before I repeat Hillary's words, let me flash back to the early 1990s in order to give fair measurement of exactly how hurtful Mrs. Clinton's words were.
In the early 1990s the Konrad Adenauer Foundation invited 14 Jewish journalists (I was one of them) to visit Germany to check out the anti-Nazi efforts the newly reunited Germany was directing against neo-Nazi activity. Those efforts were impressive. The German equivalent of our FBI came on like Navy SEALs in their competence and zeal. Among them was a young agent who spoke English with a Southern accent broader than mine. He'd gone to school in South Carolina and was used in sting operations to masquerade as an American racist "looking for action."
Also impressive was that the Konrad Adenauer Foundation paid for absolutely everything, including cab fare to and from airports in America. Our final day included a tour of what had been East Berlin, lunch in Potsdam and a tour of a Communist-era factory.
The Germans were treating us wonderfully. Absolutely nothing threatened to mar the excellent relationship between those particular Jews and Germans – until around midnight on that final day. One of the female journalists took it upon herself to draft and circulate a petition she begged us all to sign protesting the treatment of our Jewish delegation by our German hosts. Why? What on earth could anybody possibly protest about this exquisitely informative and extremely generous "treatment"?
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Well, it seems that woman had learned what was being manufactured in that factory. They were manufacturing boxcars!
And, to her, that was an unacceptable offense to us, their Jewish guests. Got it? "Nazis. Hitler. Holocaust. Deportations. Auschwitz and boxcars!"
We finally calmed her down and got her back to her hotel room, and the petition was quickly forgotten. I invoke this incident here to demonstrate how painful the mere mention of "boxcars" can be to some Jewish people.
Back now to Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, as Hillary edges into her historically low salvo. In excoriating the notion of deporting illegals, Hillary asks rhetorically how we're going to run such an operation. She asks how we're going to transport those we drag out of their homes and workplaces: "In buses?" And then, after a pregnant pause, she cites the second transportation alternative: "Boxcars?"
Hillary, in effect, was calling Donald Trump a Nazi! She was also calling every American who believes laws matter and borders matter a Nazi. And she knew exactly what she was doing. No campaign staffer or intern stupidly allowed "boxcars" to enter into Hillary's comment. I remembered some campaign doozies – Sen. Joe McCarthy deliberately "mistaking" the 1952 Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson's first name for "Alger," conjuring the image of Alger Hiss, a spy for the Soviet Union. Joe McCarthy also called Sen. William Bennett "The mental midget from Connecticut." But, for sheer invidious viciousness, "boxcars" beats them all.
But I'm willing to cut Hillary quite a bit of slack. Few things can warp decent judgment better than watching your dream-of-a-lifetime fall into the leprosy of having an avowed socialist out-poll you in New Hampshire and come within 7 points in Iowa. Hillary's poor hands must be calloused from all that strenuous exertion, trying to force that glass slipper onto her foot; it might even be just starting to dawn on her that she's not Cinderella.
Oddly enough, those in the media who are in the thoroughly legal and expectable business of trying to harm Hillary politically didn't quite catch the import of her "boxcars" remark. They were all grinding away at her remarks the previous day comparing right-to-lifers to terrorists. If that means too few people remember the connection between Hitler's Nazi Germans and boxcars, the preacher inside all who write for a living wants to pound the pulpit and lament our memory failings. However, that failing may not be all that bad. It could mean that Hillary is getting so close to the bottom of the arsenal that her Bangalore torpedoes don't explode with their desired force. In other words, Hillary is painting invisible swastikas on Donald Trump.
As America's anthem tells us, "the rockets' red glare and the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there." If you doubt that, do a little thought-experiment. There's no denying law-breakers, illegal aliens included, are "common criminals." On the other hand, how many people do you know who want them treated as such?
Please remind yourself, Hillary, not all who favor enforcing the law are Nazis. How might you remind yourself?
Maybe you tattoo it on your forearm.
Media wishing to interview Barry Farber, please contact [email protected].
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