By SUZANNE DOWNING
June 6, 2026 – Eighty-two years ago today, young American men stepped off landing crafts and into hell. On June 6, 1944, the Allied Expeditionary Force launched Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in history. More than 156,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. Thousands would never return home.
They did not land on Omaha Beach to win an argument online or score political points.
They did not drown in the surf so future generations could throw around the word “Nazi” as a casual insult on social media.
Those Americans and Canadians fought and died to defeat actual Nazis. They fought to liberate Europe from one of the most evil regimes humanity has ever produced. Perhaps the MOST evil regime in the history of humanity. They fought to end a government built on racial supremacy, political terror, concentration camps, and industrialized murder. They stopped a machine that had turned into an exterminator of Jews, political dissidents, disabled people, gays, queers, and gypsies.
That reality should make us pause every time we hear the word “Nazi” tossed around in today’s political debates, as it so often is.
For decades, the American Left has increasingly relied on Nazi comparisons whenever conservatives become politically successful.
The leftist habit of yelling “Nazi!!!” is older than many people realize.
In 1964, conservative-libertarian Republican Barry Goldwater was portrayed by critics as flirting with fascism. Journalists and political opponents made dark parallels to Nazi Germany. Martin Luther King Jr. warned of “dangerous signs of Hitlerism.” California Democrat Gov. Pat Brown spoke of Goldwater and “the stench of fascism.” The message was clear: Conservatives were not merely wrong. They were dangerous.
It worked so well on the public that even in Alaska, 1964 was the only year Alaskans voted for a Democrat for president, with all three electoral votes going for Lyndon B. Johnson.
The pattern repeated itself with Richard Nixon. Incredibly, it resurfaced during the Ronald Reagan years, when the Left labeled Reagan’s anti-communist policies and domestic budget cuts as “fascist.”
It intensified dramatically during the George W. Bush Administration, particularly after 9/11 and the Iraq War, when Hitler comparisons became commonplace at protests and in political commentary.
Then came Donald Trump.
Since 2015, the language has escalated beyond anything seen in modern American politics. “MAGA Republicans are Nazis.” Conservatives are “fascists.” Border enforcement is compared to the Third Reich. Ordinary voters are accused of supporting authoritarianism simply because they disagree with so-called progressives.
The accusation has become so routine that many people barely notice it anymore.
But they should. Every casual Nazi comparison diminishes the magnitude of what Nazi Germany actually was — a totalitarian state that murdered millions of people and plunged the world into war.
When every political opponent becomes Hitler, eventually Hitler means nothing.
The Left thinks its rhetoric is justified because extremist groups sometimes attempt to link themselves with conservative causes. Fair enough. Every political movement has fringe elements. The Democrat Party itself has Antifa. They’re running a guy for US Senate in Maine who has a Nazi-theme tattoo.
But fringe extremists do not define millions of ordinary Americans who support constitutional government, free speech, free markets, religious liberty, secure borders, and limited federal power.
Indeed, many of the core features of Nazism stand in direct opposition to traditional American conservative principles.
Nazism was collectivist, while American conservatism is rooted in individual rights and self-determination.
Nazis concentrated power in the state, while conservatives generally argue for states’ rights (10th Amendment).
Nazis squashed dissent, while conservatives defend free speech, even speech they dislike.
The real danger of these wild comparisons of conservatives to Nazis is what they do to our civic life.
If your political opponents are literally Nazis, then compromise becomes immoral and anything goes. This is how the Democratic Party has developed an assassination culture. If your neighbors are “fascists,” then silencing them becomes justified by any means. They’ve shot at Trump, they killed Charlie Kirk, and nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise.
The rhetoric is intended to make all that acceptable. It seeks to place conservatives outside the boundaries of legitimate political debate. It is designed to make people afraid to speak, afraid to dissent, and afraid to challenge fashionable opinion. And it’s designed to give cover to political assassins.
And that is why it should concern Americans of every political persuasion.
As we remember D-Day, we should remember the men who actually faced fascism. We remember the soldiers who stormed the machine gun nests above Omaha Beach, and the paratroopers who landed behind enemy lines. The airmen who filled the skies of Normandy. All the men who fought to liberate Europe, many of whom never came home.
Their sacrifice deserves more than being reduced to a political metaphor. They fought real Nazis. They defeated real fascism.
The least we can do is remember the difference.
Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.
One thought on “Suzanne Downing: D-Day and the dangerous habit of calling everyone you don’t like a Nazi”
The National Socialists were birthed on the left and remained true to their principles. Their hate for the Soviets (and vice versa) was an internecine conflict based on who ought to have ultimate legitimacy to carry the socialist/leftist banner.
Many throw historical terms around without understanding their use or history. It’s tiresome, but an easy tell of someones ignorance -and/or base maliciousness.