What if he IS like Hitler?

Rudolf Herzog did a recent puff piece that explored 11 of the most innappropriate ways in which people compared some person, place or thing to Hitler. Most know this as “Godwin’s Law” which states that the minute you compare your opponent to Hitler in the course of an argument, you have lost that argument. Herzog went through all of the usual suspects (Ahmadinjahd comparing Nato to Hitler, global warming deniers being compared to Hitler, Obama is like Hitler, etc.).

However, when he was brought up the fact that last year Georgia State Representative John Yates had said that illegal immigrants should be shot and likening them to Hitler by saying, “Stopping Hitler was worth the price… It’s our border, they’re invading us,” I had to pause for a second.

What do you do when comparing someone to Hitler doesn’t seem so off the mark or absurd? I’m not saying that Yates is right and illegals are like “Hitler.” After all, the Germans did not invade France in order to cut the grass and wash the dishes. But I don’t think it’s off the mark to say that suggesting we shoot on sight the people whom we suspect of having crossed the border illegally on sight sounds to me like something Hitler might have actually thought WAS a good idea. Does that make me fall afoul of Godwin’s Law?