"Comparisons Are Odious"

"Keep in mind," Mother would say, "Comparisons are odious." She was speaking of deficient manners, rather than deficiencies in critical thought. By this morning, Monday, January 27, we have had an earful of outlandish, distinctly odious, comparisons. Ordinarily I try to keep to subjects my readers will find more relevant than my political convictions. For savvy American elders, however, global and national responses to the issues of poverty and inequality are timely and relevant.
     I began the day with the national news and commentary. Income inequality is high on national and global agendas, so I look forward to hearing President Obama on the subject. Three Republican rebuttals, rather than the traditional single rebuttal or dual Republican/Tea Party Rebuttals, will be allowed. These, I doubt, will contain any pretense of freshness. With any luck the commentators will avoid the ludicrous.
     Two odious comparisons stand out in the news of the day, one relating to the subject of income inequality from Thomas Perkins. Who, you may ask, is Thomas Perkins? To begin, Perkins is an exceedingly wealthy gentile, who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1957 and MIT in 1963. Perkins, a venture capitalist, is a founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers. He should be capable of social appropriateness and critical thought.
     Perkins felt compelled to write a letter to "The Wall Street Journal," comparing criticism of immensely wealthy Americans to Hitler's Final Solution, predicting a Kristallnacht, in which the progressive "persecution" of people like Perkins and his wife, ends in mayhem and murder. Wildly irrational, it is. More troubling, however is the reduction of Kristallnacht to the ridiculous. As Perkins is a gentile, no Holocaust survivor, his commentary is breathtakingly offensive. Perhaps he is applying Herr Goebbels' take on propaganda to the issue of poverty:

The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” -Joseph Goebbels

     The embodiment of evil, Goebbels was a clever, sometimes subtle liar.  Perkins, on the other hand, has shown himself to be less than clever. His comparison is a lie unworthy of constant repetition, because it is not merely bred of ignorance and monumental bad taste, it is irrational.
     Moving to the next maladroit, Rand Paul. His ludicrous comparison involves Hillary Clinton. If Mrs. Clinton makes a presidential bid, says Rand Paul, Bill Clinton's involvement with Monica Lewinsky is fodder for political debate. If this were not enough of a stretch, Paul leaps to portraying the Clintons at the vanguard of the War on Women. Does anyone else have a problem with the comparison of one man's sexual ethics (or lack thereof) with the institutionalized repression of human rights?

Mother was right. Avoiding tasteless, wildly irrational comparisons serves all of us well.