The Republicans have actual Nazis running this year now?

I just have to ask myself, WTF are they thinking?

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...s-gop-house-candidate-dressed-as-a-nazi/64319
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-nazi-reenactor-rick-iott-defends/story?id=11845422

I can really associate with the last quote in The Atlantic article, "It sends a shiver up my spine to think that people want to dress up and play SS on the weekend" except for me, it's not shivers, it's nausea. In who's world is it normal to dress up like a Nazi and go reenact their triumphs? Heck, it's kind of out there to just dress up like a Nazi, but this stuff is just waaaay out there.

And, the Republicans think he's a good guy to represent Ohio's 9th District? A Friggen Nazi?

 

Yea, I've been to the historical re-enactments. It seems these guys are taking it not just one step further, but well beyond what could be considered "healthy" historical re-enactment activities. What's next, a Republican running for the Senate in 2012 who dresses up like Osama bin Laden in his spare time?

 

I'm sure there are some Civil War re-enactors who take it to an unhealthy level too. That doesn't mean we should elect them to Congress though. OTOH, if this guy does win the election, if he walks into Congress to take the oath in his Nazi uniform, that would certainly be a sight to behold. I don't think he'd be the first Nazi sympathiser in Congress, though. According to this article, Prescott Bush helped bankroll Hitler's rise to power. Sick stuff if it's all true.

 

The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking wouldn't have faced any British or American troops. They were on the Eastern Front. Anyone with even the most basic knowledge of World War 2 can most likely make some good guesses about what the SS troops were up to in Russia and Poland and other areas where they operated.

They wouldn't need any opposing troops at all to re-enact the Death Marches of Hungarian Jews Through Austria in the Spring of 1945, for example, which they participated in (more about that here). I didn't get the whole picture about what the 5th SS did, and where other SS divisions came into play, but in a nutshell what happened was that near the end of the war the railways were mostly either taken out by bombings and what were left were for the sole use of the military, so what Jews remained were being evacuated by foot, under the heels of the SS. I couldn't find an accurate estimate of how many thousands of deaths the 5th SS were directly responsible for during that period.

Or, perhaps Iott could celebrate the heroism of the 5th SS by dressing up as Josef Mengele. That's right, THAT Josef Mengele. Mengele was awarded the Iron Cross First Class as well as the Black Badge for the Wounded and the Medal for the Care of the German People while he was serving with the 5th SS on the Russian front. During combat, he apparently saved two of his comrades from a burning tank. He was seriously wounded in the effort, and wasn't able to return to the front due to his wounds and was reassigned to Auschwitz after he recovered. Well, you know the rest....

Puts it in a different light when you know some of the actual history of the unit, eh?

 

Did the Nazi guy win?

 

I don't think he brought down anyone other than himself.