



Newt Gingrich has made headlines recently by writing in his new book, To Save America, that the Obama administration’s “secular socialist machine” represents “as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.” Even Fox News hosts have questioned whether Newt went a bit too far with the comparison. Last night, Fox host Greta Van Susteren wondered as well:

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Go a little far on that one? GINGRICH: No. Because I’m not talking about moral equivalence of the people, I’m talking about the end result. If the Nazis had defeated us, then America as we know it would have disappeared. If the Soviet Union had defeated us, the America as we know it would have disappeared. I argue in this book — and I think it’s a pretty reasoned and compelling argument — that the fact is, the values of a secular socialist movement are antithetical — and you hear from President Obama all the time. … The secular socialist left doesn’t want God anywhere in public life and doesn’t want to acknowledge God anywhere in public life.

Of course, Gingrich never provides any actual evidence of this alleged “threat.” And it’s unclear exactly what Gingrich is hearing from the President “all the time,” but it certainly isn’t anything about taking God out of public life or turning America into a socialist state. In fact, Obama (and the Vice President, the House Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader) regularly refers to God in public statements and speeches. The Obama administration is even appealing a court decision that found the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional.

An editor from the National Review noted to the former Speaker that swaths of Christian and religious leaders actually supported the President’s health care reform plan — what Gingrich has linked to socialism — but he brushed this fact aside, claiming they were just a bunch of socialists. Other conservatives don’t think Gingrich’s argument is all that “reasoned and compelling” either, but rather “sick,” “shameful,” “crazy” and “outrageous.”

(Source: ThinkProgress.org and Fox News)