Opponents of the new Arizona immigration law are gushing metaphors — Nazism, Communism (though you only hear that occasionally from the lefties, for obvious reasons), internment of the Nisei, Apartheid, Jim Crow. My colleague Dave Seminara links to a few of these, and I just noticed Colorado’s Rep. Jared Polis playing the Nazi card, though “Polis was careful to point out he was not comparing the law to the Holocaust but rather to the period before the war when Jews were required to carry papers and identify themselves publicly.” Oh, well, alright then!
If anyone notices other metaphors used in the media or elsewhere, please let me know at the e-mail link at my name above. I haven’t seen a reference to the Trail of Tears yet, though I’m sure it’s out there. The Crusades, maybe? Scour the attic for metaphors to the wrongdoing of the phallo-centric, hetero-normative white patriarchy!