“Nazi bootlickers” are running rampant in Milford, Conn. — and apparently I’m one of them.
That is, according to a local Democratic committee member who hurled invective at me and other Republican aldermen at a public meeting this month.
The accusation reflected a growing national sickness: The harsh political rhetoric that led to Charlie Kirk’s assassination is eating away at the roots of American politics — our local town councils.
The ugliness exploded after our town’s elected GOP aldermen declined to approve Democratic nominee Toni Lombardi to temporarily fill a vacant seat on the board.
At that, Nadine Padowicz — a member of the Milford Democrat Town Committee — slammed us as “homegrown Nazis,” simply for our affiliation with President Donald Trump.
In her remarks, Padowicz called Trump a “thug who is destroying our democracy” and said we Republicans “lick his boots.”
“You know what happens to Nazi bootlickers? They get kicked in the teeth,” she said threateningly.
Her words violated our town’s rules of public comment, which prohibit personal attacks and derogatory language.
Worse, they crippled the civic spirit that has historically bound neighbors together — even when we disagree.
The crowd’s reaction was just as disturbing: Attendees shouted and cheered their support of Padowicz’s insults.
The atmosphere grew so tense that police were called to intervene if necessary.
A keffiyeh-wearing local lingered in the hallways after the meeting, shouting “Shame!”
It was all in stark contrast to Milford’s slogan, “A Small City with a Big Heart.”
This episode in my hometown is a microcosm of a larger collapse in civility.
The same dehumanizing rhetoric that has infected national politics is now seeping into local government meetings and community life.
In recent weeks we’ve seen how words like “fascist” or “Nazi” can inspire real violence: Kirk’s assassin Tyler Robinson engraved a bullet casing with the words, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”
Yet my “no” votes on Lombardi, as I explained at the meeting, weren’t about party enmity — but about timing.
Early voting in our municipal election was set to start in just a few days, ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4. Lombardi, if approved, would have served for just a month.
The fair and democratic choice, I believe, was to let voters decide who should serve — not the aldermen.
What troubled me about the episode wasn’t the political disagreement, however heated.
It was the casual way these neighbors lobbed words like “Nazi” and “fascist” to describe my colleagues and me.
The left has drained those terms of their original, heinous meanings — and has robbed the Holocaust’s victims of the moral gravity their suffering deserves.
I’m not a Nazi.
I’m a local elected official who votes on budgets, ordinances and contracts.
I’m not sending Jews to gas chambers, burning books, enforcing eugenics or seeking to establish a “master race.”
Leftists should recall — or learn — some history: It was a Democratic president, not a Republican one, who interned American citizens during World War II.
Meanwhile, today‘s progressives have joined the chorus for a global intifada — a truly genocidal call.
And entirely unlike the warmongering Adolf Hitler, Trump is trying to broker peace deals in the Middle East and Ukraine.
At heart, though, this is about the poison dehumanization wreaks.
When we describe our opponents as monsters, violence becomes thinkable — even justified.
A “Nazi,” after all, must be stopped at whatever cost.
That’s the logic of political hatred, and it’s terrifying.
Kirk’s Sept. 10 murder, and the ghoulish exuberance expressed at his death, should have taught us that.
Padowicz appears to not have learned the lesson of that tragic day, and she’s not alone.
Ironically, silencing one’s political opponents through violence or threats of it — instead of besting them at the ballot box — is truly fascist.
The true threat to democracy comes when civil political discourse unravels.
The only way out is to recover a sense of shared inherent dignity — to see each other not as Republicans or Democrats, but as neighbors.
Even in a small city like Milford, the language we use matters. Abraham Lincoln’s warning still rings true: A house divided cannot stand.
Indeed, the threatening speech has made me question whether my colleagues and I will be safe in our upcoming meetings. Who knows if someone will take Padowicz’s words seriously?
I know I’m looking over my shoulder.
I suspect Padowicz is proud of what she said. Clearly, my cheering neighbors agreed with her.
Moreover, the Milford Democrat Town Committee has refused to condemn her language, all but ensuring it will continue.
Incendiary political rhetoric is no longer confined to national politics, cable commentators or Internet chat rooms. It’s coming to every local community.
Take it from me, a “Nazi.”
Andrew Fowler serves on the Milford, Conn., Board of Aldermen.