Liberals Could Learn From Wolfgang Busch

Comedian and actor Arte Johnson recently passed away at the ripe old age of 90. He outlived his age.
If you’ve lived more life than you have left to live, you’ll likely remember Johnson for his many strange characters on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The sketch comedy show ran in primetime on NBC from 1967-1973. It was must-see TV in my childhood home, though given my age I probably missed most of the show’s risqué double entendres. I didn’t miss the singular Goldie Hawn as a bikini-clad hippie chick dancing between sketches.
Arte Johnson was a series regular. His German WWII soldier Wolfgang Busch character, with the signature line “Very interesting,” wouldn’t fly in today’s Progressive Age of Perpetual Rage.
I thought of Laugh-In and Arte Johnson when listening to a voicemail left by an angry critic of my June 20th essay “Celebrate Xenophobia!” To protect my critic’s anonymity, I won’t use a name or gender pronoun, real or imagined. (I refuse to employ the modern and annoying misuse of “they” in the singular; I’m a bit of a Grammar Nazi.)
Speaking of Nazis, my critic, voice trembling with emotion, managed to work in a Nazi reference. I had been expecting it after hearing the first few words, “Nazi” being the epithet du jour for livid liberals. They play it as a trump card, not understanding that it is merely the rhetorical last refuge of lazy thinkers.
To burnish the appraisal of my words and character, and to tie in Nazism, my critic felt the need to provide a biographical sketch: almost a lifelong NH resident whose father and uncle were WWII combat veterans. Well, I see those bona fides and raise the ante: I am NH born and raised; I served my country in uniform overseas; and combat vets in my family include my father (Vietnam), grandfather (WWII), and great-grandfather (WWI). Did my critic have a point to make?
Yes – the point was to call me a Nazi. To do so, Nazism had to be equated with xenophobia, and the race and ethnicity cards had to be played. Trouble is, xenophobia isn’t synonymous with Nazism (the Encyclopedia Britannia calls it a “peculiarly German” totalitarian movement and doesn’t mention xenophobia) and the words “race” and “ethnic” don’t appear in my essay in any form.
I wrote about the culture of the United States of America, a nation of citizens of many races and ethnicities. I wrote about the deleterious effects of illegal mass migration – what we used to call “invasion” – on the people of our sovereign nation. I provided a dictionary definition of xenophobia and wrote about fearing what “the other” was doing to the culture of our country. Simply put, there is no logical connection that could be drawn between my provocatively titled and cogently reasoned essay, and Nazism.
Nazism was many terrible things, but xenophobic doesn’t top the list. Hitler found common cause with Imperial Japan and Middle East Arabs – never confused for blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aryans, they are the very definition of “the other.” While he demonized certain ethnic groups, especially the Jews, his murderous anti-Semitism puts Hitler at the head of a two-millennia-long line that includes many European monarchs, the Catholic church, and most of the Arab world. And as 20th century mass-murders go, Hitler is third behind the communism of Stalin and Mao. (Funny how “Communist!” isn’t an epithet of the Left.)
I don’t know when liberals lost their perspective and sense of humor. Perhaps it was the same time they lost their ability for introspection or reading words for comprehension, rather than filtering them first through a fine weave of prejudgment.
It wasn’t always thus. Back in the Laugh-In days, liberals were more, well, liberal, in their choice of targets. Nazis were the butt of jokes. (Remember Hogan’s Heroes?) On Laugh-In, Arte Johnson poked fun each week as a Nazi solder, and even Jewish-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who escaped from Hungary before the Nazi occupation of Budapest, appeared as a guest in a skit wearing a German WWII army greatcoat and helmet, compete with swastika. For laughs.
Show hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin were of the Greatest Generation. Rowan flew a P-40 in combat in the Pacific theater, credited with two kills before being shot down. Martin didn’t qualify for service having lost use of a lung to tuberculosis as a teenager.
My critic left contact information, so I did the courteous thing and returned the call. In very pleasant tones I identified myself, the reason for my call, and provided my cell phone number. I have not received a return call. Dialog wasn’t the goal of my critic. Silencing me was. The “antifa” mindset expresses itself in many ways: from violence on the streets of Portland, OR, to attempts at censorship and intimidation in central NH.
I’ll give Wolfgang Busch the last line as a response to my critic’s complaints: (in silly German accent) “Very interesting…but stupid.”

Ken Gorrell weclomes your comments at kengorrell@gmail.com