To Hugh Pearson at NewsDay, the Republican Convention looked just like Nazi Germany. (Hat tip: LesLein.)

As I watched Tuesday night’s network coverage of the unrelenting political propaganda hour known as the Republican National Convention, the first thought that came to mind was of old newsreels of those self-congratulatory Nazi rallies held in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler.

For many people, I’m sure, such a comparison sounds extreme. [But don’t let that stop you, Hugh. —ed.] Yet, just as the Nazis were obsessed with endless displays of swastikas, the Republicans are obsessed with the red, white and blue (for that matter, the Democrats are, too).

In the same manner that the German people were told that Nazi leadership was faultless, the Republicans are telling the American public that no one knows what’s best for the world except the current leadership in the White House.

“If you believe this country and not the United Nations is the best hope for democracy, then you are a Republican!” bellowed California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the same way that Nazis rationalized doing away with democratic rights and launching a pre-emptive war to protect the self-interests of the Third Reich, Republicans this week continue to encourage the American public to ignore our Constitution’s directive that only Congress has the right to declare war (thus, we are not officially at war with anyone), and that a pre-emptive war with no exit strategy will actually protect “the American way of life,” rather than further endanger it.

Simultaneously, on the streets of New York City, the police are responding to dissent by protesters from around the country with a mild approximation of the kind of crackdown that happened decades ago in Germany. Tuesday night they arrested close to 1,000 protesters in an attempt to make sure the demonstrators couldn’t come close to displaying to a world shocked by the mess our government has made of its foreign policy that, indeed, dissent in America is alive and well.

… rant, rant, rant, etc. etc. etc. …

Given the tone of what Republicans have been telling us at their convention about the direction George W. Bush is leading us - and the way they are delivering the message - let us not forget one other thing: Hitler was decisive, too.