Stephen Colbert on Nazis

Something I found on YouTube today and that I found rather amusing, but also a startingly accurate portrayal and assessment of modern day culture and politics.

The Word: Nazis

I don't know if you've seen the President's latest approval ratings. I'm happy to report that they're at 37%. That is two percents down from the same poll a week earlier. This is great news. Why? The answer is tonight's Word: Nazis.

Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the famous 1936 German referendum where, weeks after invading the Rhineland, Adolf Hitler received a staggering 99% approval rating. 99% thought he was on the right track (1% thought he was a great painter). And today there is one thing that everyone, Democrat or Republican, Left or Right agrees about: There is no one worse than Hitler (not even Hitler). And, with his approval ratings as a new low, President Bush is just proving, once and for all, that he's the president least like Hitler (the Unfuhrer).

Let's compare Bush to another president, not on the approval scale, but on the Hitler Scale (more accurate than the Mussolini Meter). Now, with an approval rating of 99% on the Hitler Scale, Hitler himself scores one full Hitler. John F. Kennedy had an approval rating of 63%. Pretty good, for a Nazi. He scores 2/3 of a Hitler. But in these recent polls, President Bush barely scores 1/3 of a Hitler! You don't get any more less Hitler than that (great slogan for mid-term elections). And, folks, it takes courage to be this little like Hitler. It takes a real leader to continue policies that the vast majority of Americans clearly want to stop.

So, the President's gonna keep going his job: invading countries preemptively, maintaining secret programs to monitor citizens and ignoring any attempt Congress may make to curtail his executive powers. And America, you've gotta keep doing your job: disapproving of what the president does. Not only will this prove he's not Hitler, it'll prove we're not Nazis.

And that's the Word.

From "The Colbert Report" from April 6th 2006