Michelle Malkin's latest lie

From Sara Benincasa at Indecision Forever:

Everyone's favorite hysterical reactionary, Michelle Malkin, has many dumb things to say, all the time. This week, she took aim at Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire investor and Obama supporter George Soros, who donated $100 million to international nonprofit Human Rights Watch.Malkin writes, "The anti-Israel bias of HRW is so brazen that liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz took to the blogosphere to denounce it," conveniently neglecting to mention that Alan Dershowitz thinks everyone who does not agree with his every thought is, in fact, a bloodthirsty anti-Semite. Malkin then directs folks to this "must-read" by Ezra Levant, which reads, in part…

When the Nazis took total control of Hungary in 1944, the Holocaust followed. In two months, 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to death camps.
To survive, George, then a teenager, collaborated with the Nazis.
First, he worked for the Judenrat. That was the Jewish council set up by the Nazis to do their dirty work for them. Instead of the Nazis rounding up Jews every day for the trains, they delegated that murderous task to Jews who were willing to do it to survive another day at the expense of their neighbours.

Levant later adds, "By collaborating with the Nazis, George survived the Holocaust. He turned on other Jews to spare himself."
Here's an exciting thought. Let's see what Soros himself actually says about that time, in a handy-dandy 1994 interview with The New Republic…

"The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council. And there I was given these small slips of paper. It was three or four lines. It said report to the rabbi seminary at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. Bring a blanket and food for twenty-four hours. And I was given a list of names. I took this piece of paper to my father. He instantly recognized it, you see. This was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, 'You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people that if they report they will be deported.' I'm not sure to what extent he knew they were going to be gassed. I did what my father said. There was one man I shall not forget. I took it to him and told him what my father had said. He said: 'Tell your father that I am a law-abiding citizen, that I have always been a law-abiding citizen and I am not going to start breaking the law now.' And that stayed with me forever."

So, this kid, who was 14 years old at the time, collaborated with his father to give Jews potentially life-saving information about the true nature of the Nazis' intent. If any Nazis had gotten word that he and his father were tipping Jews off to their deportation, George and his father would most likely have been "deported" themselves — i.e., sent to a death camp and gassed.

This is not a new claim. It's been everywhere in right-wing circles: "George Soros, Nazi collaborator." In fact, Soros was 14 years old at the time. His father had bribed a government official into claiming that George was his Christian godson, and so that official took his "godson" along when performing his official duty (including confiscating Jewish property).

This saved the youngster from deportation - from the death camps, in fact. Of course, he didn't know about the death camps at the time, but that hardly matters. Who would object to this kind of deception, even from an adult, let along a boy obeying his father? What should he have done? What would you have done? Ignore Benincasa's point, if you like, that Soros was actually warning these people. Even then, what would he have to feel guilty about?

But to right-wing fanatics like Malkin, the truth doesn't matter. What matters is only the political impact of their accusations. If it works to further their far-right political views, then who cares if it's a lie? (And as I say, this has been around a long time. She had to know it was a lie.)

Unfortunately, these days, it's not just fanatics who seem to think like this. It's mainstream conservative thinking. (Or maybe it's just that far-right fanaticism has become mainstream conservative thinking.) If a lie works, use it. "Death panels"? Why not? Who cares that end-of-life counseling and care had been a long-time Republican interest? How can mere benefit to dying Americans stand up to political ambition? Conservatives must prioritize, after all.

Although it's certainly worse these days, I wonder if it's really anything new. I'm reminded of this quote by Adlai Stevenson: "I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."

Nevertheless, it used to be that honest conservatives would stand up to people like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin. Who dares to do that these days? Whenever any Republican politician makes the slightest negative comment about Limbaugh, he's soon forced to come crawling back on his hands and knees, begging forgiveness. Well, when "dittoheads" are your base, this is the kind of thing you can expect, don't you think?

Of course, you could use reason and evidence to attract a higher class of supporter (which would also be very beneficial to America),... but then, you wouldn't be so sure of getting elected or re-elected. And you certainly wouldn't get that high-paying gig on Fox "News." Yeah, appealing to the lowest common denominator works in politics as well as on TV.

Let me assure you that I have no problem with honest criticism of George Soros - or of the Human Rights Watch. What I object to is the lying, the misrepresentation, the guilt-by-association commonly used by the right-wing, from Fox "News" on down. If you've got an honest argument, let's hear it. When you lower yourself to this sort of thing, it makes me think that you don't actually have any valid arguments on your side.

And if you're a right-winger yourself, ask yourself why you're surrounded by these kinds of people. Are  you proud of that? So what are you doing there?