Oh good grief!

Sen. Ted Cruz, the guy who wants 100 bigoted segregationists in the Senate, now compares the fight against Obamacare to the fight against Hitler: ““If we go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany – look, we saw it in Britain. Neville Chamberlain told the British people: Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let’s appease them. Why? Because it can’t be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.”
Umm, no. Offering people health care just isn’t the same. And World War II started in 1939. Chamberlain’s point wasn’t that we couldn’t stand against them, it was that Hitler was a rational person (wrong, obviously) who would compromise. And that decision was made at a time when rolling into Nazi Germany and crushing the Third Reich really wasn’t practical in either military or political terms (the goal was to discourage expansion, not overthrow Hitler).
And I find it interesting how much Americans love to single out Munich and Neville Chamberlain. Rather than, say, acknowledging America was isolationist and had no interest in fighting Hitler even after the war broke out. If not for Pearl Harbor, we might never have done so. I realize “appeasement” is an instantly reocgnizable shorthand, but still.
For a more nuanced and accurate analysis of appeasement, read here.
As for the analogy, I suppose it’s quite possible Cruz does consider Nazism equivalent. In the eyes of the Tea Party Republicans, government offering health care or pretty much doing anything for anyone (other than locking people away or waging war) is tyranny (well, except when it benefits them). I suspect there are some Repub voters who’ll find it quite reasonable.