Godwin’s Law states that the longer a debate goes on, the probability of a comparison to Nazis or Hitler rises. It seems the debate over healthcare is no exception.

Over the last few days, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has repeatedly accused people at a recent protest against President Obama’s healthcare reform of wearing swastikas and SS symbols — a claim that was later bolstered by a series of photographs.

“I think they’re AstroTurf, you be the judge,” said Pelosi. “They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”

Perennial Obama critic and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh was quick to respond to the accusations, arguing today on his radio show that it was in fact the Democrats who were using Nazi symbolism to advance their agenda. He cited a post on the conservative blog Sweetness & Light that compares Obama’s new healthcare logo — a combination of his campaign logo and the ancient Greek symbol of medicine — to the Nazi swastika symbol.

“They accuse of us being Nazis, and Obama’s got a healthcare logo that’s right out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook,” said Limbaugh.

Limbaugh then proceeded to describe the ways Democrats are like Nazis — a list that included their dedication to animal rights and their opposition to smoking and pollution.
Well, the Nazis were against big business — they hated big business. And of course we all know that they were opposed to Jewish capitalism. They were insanely, irrationally against pollution. They were for two years mandatory voluntary service to Germany. They had a whole bunch of make-work projects to keep people working, one of which was the Autobahn. They were against cruelty and vivisection of animals, but in the radical sense of devaluing human life, they banned smoking. They were totally against that. They were for abortion and euthanasia of the undesirables, as we all know, and they were for cradle-to-grave nationalized healthcare.

What do you think? Is Obama’s new healthcare logo really a symbolic reference to Nazism?

–Brendan Bigelow

Photo: The Nazi swastika, left, as it appeared at the Mauthausen death camp (credit: Simon Wiesenthal Center) compared to Obama’s new healthcare logo, right.