In a piece that he is writing, a friend reminded me this week of the phrase “lebensunwertes leben” which Hitler and his Nazi followers used often as explanation for extermination of individuals and classes of people who didn’t fit der Führer’s notion of acceptable characteristics for the master race. What else if not “lebensunwertes Leben”  is the political motivation for Tea Party Republicans’ expressed determination to take away life sustaining support for the weakest Americans. The phrase refers literally to the “people who have no right to live.” At the top of the list of lebensunwertes Leben were Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the severely physically disabled, interracial couples, and non-Caucasians… and the list grew to include people in specific political and religious groups. 

Congress’ drastic cuts in the food stamp program took away access to food for many of the very poorest Americans. Just after Christmas, unemployment benefits for more than a million Americans will stop unless Congress acts to extend the period allowed for people who have been unable to find work.  What are we to suppose they really believe when Politicians and ordinary citizen characterize as “shiftless freeloaders” the people who want needed medical care which they cannot afford? What are we to think about those who are against programs that ensure appropriate medical care for every citizen?  What am I to think about the people who vote to deny basic civil rights to people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual?  Should I be satisfied with the possibility that they simply fail to understand the plight of the poor who haven’t been able to climb out of poverty, or that they don’t understand that a person’s sexual orientation isn’t chosen from a smorgasbord of possibilities? Am I going too far when I suggest that those who would deny critical help to the destitute would have been comfortable with Hitler’s extermination policies? Today I’ve been thinking about some of the political rhetoric that pours daily out of Washington and State capitals.  How are we to understand a politicians’ expressed determination to take away life sustaining support for the weakest Americans if we don’t see the reluctance and denial as willingness to let people die?