Germany set to ban extreme right party

[The Northerner]

Germany is going to try again to ban the extreme right National Democratic Party, which has been linked to a neo-Nazi cell accused of nine racially-motivated killings and the murder of a policewoman.

"The NDP is a party that is an enemy of the constitution. We want to start a process to ban it," said Hans-Peter Friedrich, federal minister of the interior, on Thursday after his regional colleagues met.

Germany was last year rocked by the revelation that a fascist gang, calling itself the National Socialist Underground based in the eastern town of Zwickau, was made up of people close to the NPD.

The cell has been accused of at least 10 murders between 2000 and 2006, mainly of Turks.

Read more: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20120323-41513.html


If only there was an initiative here in the US to ban all reich-wing parties then I think we'd all be much safer and better off.

[liberal N proud]

1. I wish we could ban the right wing too

[Initech]

27. I don't care if we get rid of the right - just get rid of the tea party terrorists

[MadHound]

2. Constitution be damned,

Just ban that which we disagree with.

You know, if that was how things worked in this country, any party left of center would already be gone.

Thankfully that isn't how things work, thankfully we have the Constitution.

[DetlefK]

4. There are good reasons to ban that party:

1. Several politicians had connections in the past to the people who later became the NSU-terrorists.
2. Anti-democratic attitude (internal and external).
3. Bad-mouthing the german constitution.
4. On average, EVERY SINGLE MONTH a politician of the NPD is accused of or charged with assault or battery.
5. Their grass-roots organizations are famous for violence.

Their racist rethoric is illegal, but not unconstitutional.

To keep an edge on them, hordes of undercover-agents have been planted, but that proofed to be a disadvantage last time they tried to ban the NPD:
The court ruled that because of the many undercover agents, they couldn't discern whether the documented unconstitutional actions really originated from real party members. And the federal police declined to give the identities of their agents.

[BanTheGOP]

30. Based on your excellent breakdown, OUR own GOP is guilty beyond the pale N/t

[Gman]

6. Numerous studies have shown conservatism to be a mental illness

They should be banned here. Why should politics based on mental illness be legal and therefore legitimate?

[Dokkie]

7. Yup

Numerous studies in the past also showed homosexuality to be a mental illness, thank God we did not start banning or even killing them then.

My mom used to say this "in the world of the insane, the sane person is the crazy one" so who says liberals are not the mental ones? In a democracy, the majority rules, if you cant beat em with sound ideas and logic then you got to give up, don't go around trying to ban em.

[Gman]

11. Well, science has come a long way

And gets better all the time. That's why homosexuality is not classified as a mental illness. That's also why we now know that conservatism is a mental illness. Politics based on conservatism is not rational due to mental illness. To allow conservatism to exist is no different than allowing schizophrenia to exist and dominate the public discourse. Conservatism needs to be outlawed as a political philosophy. Anything associated with it needs to be wiped out in total. Only then will we be able to have rational public discourse. To try to win on ideas is arguing with the insane. It doesn't matter how rational and good our arguments are. You can never win an argument with someone that is insane. And when the insane have unlimited millions to pump into campaigns with their, by definition, sick ideas, the whole system becomes corrupted as it is now.

(LOL! as a side note as I typed the word "total" above on my phone, auto-correct tried to substitute "Trotsky"! LOL!)

[RZM]

12. Good job playing right into their hands

This is exactly what they want to hear from liberals. Your post is music to their ears.

[Occulus]

16. Yes, those poor put-uoon Nazis are soooo misunderstood

How dumb do you think we are, RZM?

[RZM]

17. Uh, I'm not talking about the German far-right

How Germans decide to regulate their political scene is their affair. Bu the poster advocated outlawing conservatism in the United States. Maybe I should have made that clearer.

[apocalypsehow]

20. Did you read the context of the post you were replying to?

"How dumb do you think we are, RZM?"

Is that snarky kind of baiting really necessary?

[Gman]

21. I don't understand why we should be concerned about what clinically insane people think

Any suggestions?

[apocalypsehow]

14. How would such a "ban" work, exactly? Repeal the 1st amendment? Just curious. n/t.

[Gman]

19. Round 'em up. Forcibly medicate them

Electro-shock therapy might be useful too. A good biproduct is more jobs in the health care industry.

[apocalypsehow]

22. Oh, I get it now: you're just pulling our legs. Good to know you weren't actually serious. n/t.

[Gman]

23. I'm serious as a heart attack

The country will be a better place. To think anything else is to give credibility to the clinically inane. That alone makes us insane. There are no good ideas on the right. There is no sense to be made because the ideas are born of mental illness to begin with.

[apocalypsehow]

24. No, you're not. You just think its cute to post stuff you know wouldn't pass either Constitutional

or even mainstream liberal and progressive muster for two seconds. It was funny the first couple of times. Not so much as you continue to double down.

[Gman]

25. You can go to any county court house

And get someone committed that is a threat to themself or to others. It's been challenged many times in appeal and the courts have consistently upheld a court's right to commit. Conservatives are a threat to themselves and society. They should be committed and treated.

Besides, after Bush v Gore, and Citizens United, does the SCOTUS have any legitimacy anyway?

[apocalypsehow]

26. Uh-huh. n/t.

[SoCalDem]

18. I wish we could somehow offer them all a place of their own

away from regular society.. a place where they could practice their lunatic ideology at will..far enough away from civilized areas..

Lord of the Flies, anyone?

[Stan Smith]

29. The right wing says, liberalism is a mental illness.

So if they get in power can they ban us?
Our ideas are much better than theirs, and we will win at the ballot box.

[Gman]

34. There is no sound scientific evidence to support that assertion

They only recently started saying that once studies showed conservatism is indeed an illness with definable causes. Asking if they can ban us is asking if the mentally ill can have legitimacy. Hitler was seriously mentally ill. Yes his illness and followers committed some of the worst attrocities in world history. The rest of the world defeated Hitler's madness as insanity cannot be left to be considered legitimate. That's why Germany is doing the right thing. That's why the sooner we and the rest of the world take a stand the better. Nazi Germany is the perfect example of what happens if you leave insanity unchecked and untreated.

Besides, do you really think they wouldn't do what Hitler did given a chance? We're dealing with some seriously insane f***s here. The sooner we start calling them out for what they are, not just here but the world over, the better it will be for humanity.

[Stan Smith]

38. The right wing could always hire so called experts to claim that we are mentally ill

The right wing could always hire so called experts to claim that we are mentally ill and ban us.
You have to remember anything you can do to your enemy, they could conceivably do to us.

I stand by statement, we beat them in the arena of ideas, and at the ballot box. Our ideas are so much better than anything they could ever dream up.

[Aerows]

40. If the only way

You can keep your freedom is at the point of a gun, and a multi-billion dollar PAC fund, something is wrong with your idea of "freedom".

That idea of "freedom" usually involves other people having less freedom. Oh, I forgot to mention - those other people aren't really people unless they have the super powers of money that the other "people" have.

[DLC_GOPLite]

3. The problem is money

Corrupting the politicians.

Ban the money not the party.

[DetlefK]

5. German neonazis don't have big-money backers.

The NPD actually has financial problems.

It's interesting how their party-members are against democracy, but they want to have a say once the topic comes to finances...

[Bryn]

8. Link doesn't work

I'd like to read the whole thing, but I can't open it.

[The Northerner]

9. I've visited the link twice and it works for me

[MineralMan]

10. Banning political parties might well lead to consequences other than

those you'd prefer. I believe you might want to put a little more thought into that, actually.

[RZM]

13. If Germany wants to ban a political party, that's their business

But this isn't Germany. We don't do that kind of thing here. Anyone advocating such a thing has authoritarian tendencies and does not believe in the constitution.

[Sea-Dog]

15. its aslo wouldnt make them go away

[fascisthunter]

32. bwahahahaha

good bye right wing dings!

[BanTheGOP]

28. YES!! Germany is doing something that I've ADVOCATED FOR YEARS AND YEARS!!

Keep in mind that in Germany, their right wing party is like OUR conservative democrats and blue dogs. There is NO SUCH PARTY in the WORLD as extreme as OUR republican party.

So for Germany outlawing THEIR right wing fascists is a step in the right direction, and will lead to more progressive values in Europe.

WE should be doing the same thing and outlawing the republican Party here in the states!

[onenote]

33. Another person who is afraid of free speech weighs in on DU

Causing the great progressives of history to roll over in their graves.

[fascisthunter]

31. good

[sylvi]

35. Germany's track record on banning large groups of people hasn't been too good

I'm surprised to see folks here who would emulate them.

In America, we don't tend to ban ideas, philosophies or the groups who promote them. Only when the individuals within those groups act in some way in a criminal manner do we hold them accountable, and then it is as individuals. Sometimes, they may get away with a little more than they should, but it's part and parcel to the whole "err on the side of freedom" thingy.

[jwirr]

36. Maybe this is not the most democratic move they can make but are they going to let them have

another run at taking over the goverment and creating another Nazi Germany like they had before? They did not think it could happen back then either. How do you all that oppose this move suggest we make sure it does not happen?

[cynatnite]

37. I do not believe in banning any political party...

That's just an uneasy slippery slope I'd rather not see the US go anywhere near.

[treestar]

39. Banning it is silly

Makes it more attractive.

Just let it sink.