You gotta love these analogies that righties roll out to make their points on political issues of the days.
We've written a few times on this blog how extreme analogies are nothing but a lazy strategy to ignite the passions and prejudices of the base, deflect criticism, change the subject and make cheap political points. They're especially demeaning when used in reference to historical events in which people have been persecuted, murdered or killed in tragic accidents.
There have been so many bad analogies over the years, of course, but here's some recent examples: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus comparing President Obama with the Italian cruise ship captain who allegedly abandoned his sinking ship, Sarah Palin criticizing the Republican Party "establishment" for using a "Stalin-esque rewriting of history" and Rick Santorum claiming that requiring faith-based employers to provide contraceptive services for women could lead to the guillotine.
The latest one is really so bad, it borders on the silly. That the federal government’s birth control mandate is like forcing a Jewish employer to provide pork sandwiches to its employers (pork, as you probably know, is one of a number of foods forbidden from consumption by Jews).
Who's using this analogy? The Minnesota Catholic Conference executive director's Jason Adkins, Op-Ed columnist David Brooks of The New York Times and Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for FOX News Channel (FNC), among others.
But the best moment came last night during a panel discussion on Fox News' Hannity. When Jay Sekulow, an attorney and Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, used the analogy on attorney and Fox News contributor Tamara Holder, she immediately declared it the "stupidest analogy ever" (watch the video starting at 3:03).
"Have you used that analogy in the Supreme Court?," she asked. "Because they would laugh at you."
Good for you Tamara! If everybody on TV responded that way to these bad analogies, they would probably start to disappear.