COMMENTARY | Greek voters put neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn in control of 21 of 300 seats in its parliament, according to The Daily Mail.
While the party denies being neo-Nazi, its members perform Nazi salutes, tout Aryan supremacy books, display a unique swastika, want immigrants banished and/or in work camps and command journalists to stand at attention when their leader enters.
How any notable portion of Greece's voters would support a political party that's associated with Nazi ideology when the country was brutalized by Nazis in World War II is beyond rational. Austerity has finally taken a politically dangerous toll.
Anyone who has visited Greece can attest it's a land full of ruggedly beautiful scenery. And not only is the food some of the best in the world, travelers aren't allowed to go away hungry. But the plentiful good times of the past are distant memories, replaced by a poison mixture of desperation and hate.
Even more disturbing is that in April, "60 Minutes" reported Greeks were comparing German leaders to Nazis as they blamed Germany for the tough austerity measures imposed on them. Germany's World War II occupation of Greece caused 400,000 Greek deaths, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
Is this what austerity does, drive people to the suspension of sane, critical thought and memories? The 93 percent of voters who didn't support Golden Dawn had better take these election results as a warning.
Sir Laurence Olivier commented in the documentary "The World at War" in "A New Germany" episode on YouTube about the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. "Most people think the Nazis a little absurd here, too obsessive there, but perhaps the time for thinking is over."
What most Germans thought about Adolf Hitler would end up no longer mattering as they were collectively taken into World War II to slaughter millions. But in the end, it was Germany that was almost wiped off the face of the Earth for the sake of a very sick ideology.
God forbid Greece goes any further down Golden Dawn's hateful road to the cliff of no return.
