Oh those Republicans. Ya just gotta love ’em. They can’t seem to get enough of the Holocaust as a tool for denouncing science and politics they don’t like. The latest victim of Holocaust abuse syndrome is Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. In an address to Baltimore Jewish leaders, he made this lame analogy when asked his view on stem cell research:
Another Republican Holocaust abuser, Michael Steele (photo: J.M. Eddins Jr./Washington Times)“You of all folks know what happens when people decide they want to experiment on human beings, when they want to take your life and use it as a tool,” said Steele, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, to a crowd of about 40 at a Baltimore Jewish Council board meeting. “I know that as well in my community, out of our experience with slavery, and so I’m very cautious when people say this is the best new thing, this is going to save lives.”
This guy’s really hit the Daily Double though. He’s abused the Holocaust AND slavery in a feeble attempt to belittle stem cell research.
The Baltimore Sun says this about the audience reaction: “His answer stunned many in the audience.” As well it should since the overwhelming number of Jews embrace scientific and medical research including stem cell research.
The Baltimore Jewish Council’s director later expressed his opposition to Steele’s statement:
“If the lieutenant governor was drawing a comparison between stem cell research and human medical experimentation during the Holocaust, he must understand the pain this kind of analogy would inflict on survivors and their families,” Art Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said in a statement to The Sun. “We absolutely reject any comparisons between ethical and lifesaving medical research, and the horrors committed by the Nazis in their evil drive to create a master race. We welcome any clarification Lt. Gov. Steele can offer about his remarks.”
Steele quickly issues a clarifying statement which did little to soothe feelings:
“When I was asked the question about stem cell research, I had just finished speaking at length about my first trip to Israel and the powerful memories I had of my visit to the Holocaust museum there,” Steele said. “Those memories have had a lasting impression on me, but in no way did I intend to equate the two or trivialize the pain and suffering of more than six million Jews.”
Well sure you meant to equate the two. Isn’t that the purpose of your rhetorical device, if you can grace it with such a name? You essentially call stem cell research Nazi science and so link it in people’s minds with people like Dr. Mengele. As for trivializing the suffering the six million, you did that too. That’s what abusing the Holocaust for political gain does. Though politicians of all stripes seem to do it, Republicans have brought it to a high art. Read this doozy from Grover Norquist calling the estate tax “a Holocaust of the rich.”
The day following the Sun’s story, Steele realized his mistake and apologized for his remarks, though I found even his apology (at least this part of it) hypocritical:
“I just hope that there is no grandstanding on this because this is a very sensitive issue, both with respect to the Holocaust and the memory of those affected there, but also the issue of stem cell [research],” Steele said during [a] radio interview.
“Grandstanding” indeed. Who grandstanded first, Mr. Steele? You or your opponents? If you hadn’t spoken so glibly you wouldn’t have given them the opening to attack you. And if you’d really understood the “sensitivity” of the Holocaust you wouldn’t have abused it in the first place.
Steele’s opponent in the Senate race is U.S. Rep. Benjamin Cardin, son of national Jewish leader Shoshana Cardin.
Hat tip to National Jewish Democratic Council.
I am an African American and I am equally outraged at the comments of Lt. Gov. Steele. Although I live in Brentwood, CA., I have decided to send a campaign check to Rep. Cardin.
All people of good will should expose every attempt to marginalize the holocaust as well as slavery by unprincipled politicians such as Steele..
George: Thanks for your comment. I couldn’t agree with you more. I hope along with your check you’ll add a note explaining why you sent it. I’m sure the Cardin campaign would like to know that not only Jews, but African-Americans as well are upset with Steele’s misuse of Jewish and African-American history.
BTW, I used to live in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles & periodically my mail would be mistakenly rerouted to Brentwood, CA (hundreds of miles away). I’ve heard you live in beautiful country though–isn’t it the foothills of the Sierras?
Richard,
Republicans have never met a right to life issue they didn’t love, nor a justification to use the Holocaust to prop it up. Playing the slavery card in the same speech has to be a new low. It never ceases to amaze me how insensitive and cruel people can be in the name of Christianity and I don’t limit it there.I think we will soon be seeing a moral crisis among the self appointed “most high” as fertility clinics, and the offsping that pass their time chillin’ , become a flash point among the far right. The question will shift, sadly, from stem cell research, to the fundamental questions of Roe/Wade.
BTW, Please excuse any spelling errors. This is the tiniest print!
Thanks for reporting this – it was the first I had heard of it. Besides dishonoring the pain of millions of people, it has the opposite rhetoric effect intended. It’s obvious that he was ineptly trying to reach out to commong ground. Instead, the result is to highlight his lack of civility, sense of perspective, and empathy.
Democracy requires that we have the freedom to support candidaftes who most closely mirror our deepest convictions. There were after all, in the early days of Hitler’s rise to power, Jews who thought that he would bring stability to Germany and that external world forces would make him moderate his views. We all know now how wrong they were. That being said, i am amazed and saddened by the fact that we have Jews. who in my opinion, mainly for financial self-interest and a totally misplaced belief in the unwavering “American support for Israel” touted by Republicans politicos and the Christian Right, continue to support Republicans, most of whom, when tested, will reveal deeply ingrained anti-Jewsih tendencies. Who was it who said ” he who does not learn from history is condemned to relive it”?