Show me Arizona’s Auschwitz

Enough already with the Nazi stuff.

The slur du jour in American politics seeks to demonize the opposing viewpoint by associating it with Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.

It's misapplied to all manner of public debate these days -- and it's time to stop. More than historically inaccurate, each time it is done it works to erase, ever so slightly, a horror that must be remembered for exactly what it was. Danger lurks behind any effort -- conscious or unconscious -- to link the Holocaust with anything less.

Case in point: The new, controversial illegal immigration law in Arizona and the Phoenix Suns professional basketball team.

The team, in the second round of the NBA playoffs, protested the new law by changing its players' jerseys from "Suns" to "Los Suns" for one game. If they win it all, you can bet the Suns will keep the name and "Los Lakers" won't be far behind.

And you know what? I'm bueno with that kind of expression. Illegal immigration is a complicated national issue on which good people may hold differing views. I'm a secure borders kind of guy myself. I support legal immigration and the active enforcement of immigration laws. The management of "Los Suns" apparently advocates something else, but in America we're all happy to accommodate their speech.

But the whole deal goes blindly stupid when "Los Suns" General Manager Steve Kerr then adds that the new Arizona law "rings up images of Nazi Germany." And, unfortunately, he's not alone in that horrible overreach.

Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, the president of the Hispanic Federation, said it "reminded me of Nazi Germany."

Cardinal Roger Mahony from his Roman Catholic pulpit in Los Angeles: "I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said something similar, as did a number of other leaders.

Nazi Germany? C'mon, Steve, Lillian, Roger and Al. Time for a reality pill.

With hundreds of thousands of Mexicans illegally crossing Arizona's border each year, the problem is big and almost impossible to fix without controlling the border.

To call out the federal government to fix the border, Arizona made violations of U.S. immigration laws state offenses, as well.

Is that anywhere in the vicinity of what happened in Nazi Germany?

Hitler suspended the rule of law to scapegoat Jews not because they had done something wrong, but because they were Jews. Nor were they simply "sent back" to another country. While the world stood by, Jews were demonized, robbed of their possessions, forced into ghettos and, in the end, shipped out of sight, out of mind, where they were systematically killed.

You want to make a case against Arizona for attempting to enforce current immigration law? Then do it. You want to sound the alarm about how enforcing current U.S. law constitutes a theoretical future violation of civil rights? Cry wolf, baby. And, if you want to protest by changing your jersey logo to "Los Suns"? Fine.

But spare us the wholly inappropriate Nazi Germany stuff. Don't go there. It's a dangerous place that serves only to mitigate a real evil that must not be mitigated.

No mas, por favor.

Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@ reviewjournal.com) is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media.