Linda Ronstadt laments ‘new bunch of Hitlers’

November 18, 2004

Singer Linda Ronstadt, who made headlines during this year’s presidential campaign by expressing solidarity with filmmaker Michael Moore, is now comparing current U.S. political trends with events in Nazi Germany.

Linda Ronstadt (photo: Verve Records)

“People don’t realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves,” Ronstadt told USA Today regarding the race for the White House.

On the issue of the ongoing battle in Iraq, Ronstadt added, “I worry that some people are entertained by the idea of this war. They don’t know anything about the Iraqis, but they’re angry and frustrated in their own lives. It’s like Germany, before Hitler took over. The economy was bad and people felt kicked around. They looked for a scapegoat. Now we’ve got a new bunch of Hitlers.”

The comments are just the latest in a string of controversial remarks the singer made this year. In July, her dedication of a song to Moore during a concert in Las Vegas prompted her to be escorted off the Aladdin Casino and Resort property.

Looking back on the incident, she told the paper, “No one threw drinks or anything in the concert hall. I don’t know what people did in the lobby, but if they behaved like naughty schoolboys, that’s not my fault. I doubt it was the first time they had drunk people in Vegas, you know?”

She added she has no regrets about the incident.

“It made me look rather good, I think.”

The 58-year-old also raised eyebrows in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune with a verbal assault on Christians as well as members of the GOP.

“This is an election year, and I think we’re in desperate trouble and it’s time for people to speak up and not pipe down. It’s a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I’d rather not know.”

Despite her high-profile statements, Ronstadt admits the impact of her words is debatable.

“I have very little power,” she told USA Today. “I’ve been blessed with an unusually long career, but the peak was in the ’70s and ’80s. I think you just have to carry on – and do what you can to get information out to people. Do what you can.”