It seems that a Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson called Obama a “young, black Adolf Hitler” Now I don’t think Obama is anything like Hitler in method or ideology…but there are a lot of Americans that seem to think that any move toward ‘liberal’ policies (let alone left wing ones) as a movement toward the destruction of the US. For example here is a letter from the Berkshire Eagle – “As for me, I just want to make the off-hand observation that Adolf Hitler was a demagogue, consumed with the politics of racial identity, who used an economic crisis to propel his National Socialist Worker's Party to political power. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has much in common with that description. Neither Hitler's supporters, nor Sen. Obama's supporters had/have much tolerance for those who disagree/d with them, and sought/seek to destroy those who do. To be sure, Sen. Obama is a left-wing extremist and Hitler is considered a right-wing extremist, but my point remains, that Sen. Obama is an extremist. Routinely overlooked by the left-wing media is his membership in the socialist New Party while running for the state Senate in Illinois in 1996” http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10813240?source=most_emailed To the writer Obama is an extremist that has parallels to Hitler (presumably believed to pose similar dangers) BUT…to me, although the people and the media have called the Hitler jib in poor taste and have demanded (and received) an apology nobody seems to be discussing why so many Americans seem to think left wing ideas as so dangerous.
americans think left wing ideas are dangerous because a bunch of media people bought-and-paid-for by big business [disney-abc, timewarner-cnn, ge-nbc, viacom-cbs] have told them too and they are too lazy to think for themselves AND they are too dumb to realize that all of the perks they take for granted [public education, libraries, paved roads, social security, unions, whatever is left of regulation, any public utilities still standing] ARE LEFT WING IDEAS [sorry for shouting] just because greedy asshole rich people/corporations and their political puppets have been doing their best to destroy these things [stealing money from the social security pool etc] does not mean that they are bad ideas social security is fixable, schools and libraries are fixable, the infrastructure is fixable how? [more shouting soon come] STOP GIVING THE RICH A FREE RIDE STOP THE CORPORATE WELFARE right wing extremism has been ruling this nation since 1980, even the clintons were barely centrists i don't think obama will be much different either, despite the rhetoric the republican party labels him a socialist/fascist [they can't tell the difference] because their 'permanent republican majority' has gone down in flames yesterday they thought they would rule forever; today the warn about the dangers of 'one party rule' yesterday they wanted to end the filibuster forever; today they are desperate to win enough congressional seats to be able to use it [either join the human race or crawl back under your rocks]
I mean lets look at Laura Hollis at townhall who says that Obama’s “not a “liberal,” or a “Democrat,” or a “progressive,” or even a “socialist.” Let’s call it what it is, shall we? It’s time to use the “C” word. His policies are communist, pure and simple” And goes on – “But never have the communists felt closer to achieving their goal than they are now. Make no mistake, they are waiting behind Barack Obama, panting and slavering at the prospect of taking over every branch of government, systematically dismantling the economic system that has provided our country with unprecedented prosperity and dissolving the procedural protections that have insulated us from the oppression, starvation, despair, and death that has accompanied communism and every other form of tyranny.” And on – “We express horror at the Hitler Youth in little matching uniforms singing “Hitler will save us, Hitler is our Lord,” but then we smile and laugh as we see grade schoolers in matching blue t-shirts singing, “Obama’s gonna save us.” We are outraged by the army of children in Sudan, but think nothing of American black boys in camouflage pumping their fists and chanting propaganda from Obama’s campaign” Basically she throws in the lot – “Adolph Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro and Pol Pot. ** To me this all seems ridiculous but it is the same thinking that made many American comfortable even supportive of the McCarty witch hunts. The Hollis idea that the communists are using Obama to seize power and bring in a Stalinist tyranny is pure concpiracy theory. It seems to me to be the same scare tactic used by discredited political extremists in many different times and place, I mean Hitler talked of conspiracies of Jewish bankers, Stalin of conspiracies of counter-revolutionaries, the John Birchers of conspiracies of socialists and we have ring wing libertarians talking of conspiracies of Lucifer worshipping socialistic bankers. So what is it that attracts people toward these wacky views or into supporting them?
they cannot handle losing the power that they thought would be theirs forever it's a scare tactic they know obama's not a socialist or communist but they think their own base is so stupid that THEY will believe it [and that base appears to be falling for it]
most of them wouldn't know a communist if i bit them on the ass [actually i'm not a communist, more of a 'social anarchist'--whatever that means] they also [thanks to uncle joe et al] think socialism equals tyranny and at the same time think europe, which is as free as we are, is thoroughly rotten with the stuff it's not really rational thinking we are discussing here...
You can't say Americans think left wing ideas are stupid because we're brainwashed by the media, you're ignoring our entire history back to colonial days.
Syd Are you saying there wasn’t any ‘media’ in colonial day or after? Before the biased TV there were still the biased newspapers (for example the anti-communist W.R. Hurst’s media empire). 8
Yes but you're ignoring the history of our country, for one thing individualism has always been a much bigger part of American society then in Europe, and the idea that anyone who worked hard could achieve the American dream, whatever the hell that is.
I think he is saying that we have reached unprecedented levels of media saturation. make sense? He's also pointing out that historically, we have not been a nation of laissez-faire capitalists and social conservatives. take abortion for instance. english common law held that the soul enters the body during the "quickening", usually recognized as the first kick. yet "strict constructionist" anti-abortion advocates would have us believe the founding fathers were social conservatives. I'm not quite sure which way the brainwashing goes. I think we get the media we ask for.
i would say that in colonial times that the united states was the MOST left wing nation on earth everything else was kings and queens, it was our insane idea to be ruled by COMMON people not that washington, adams, jefferson et al were in fact common, they were landed gentry, but still a radical idea in a world ruled by sanctified bloodlines [also note that we merely stole these ideas from britain and expounded and extended them, all commons and no lords] 'no kings' sent fear into the heart of every european royal, and eventually, a blade through the neck of a few
Syd Your post got me thinking and I think I’ll begun another thread on ‘American Individualism – a myth’ I would say that this doesn’t explain why so many Americans seem to fall back on rather shaky, dubious or even wacky claims and conspiracies to attack left-wing ideas, or is ‘individualism’ meant to be a euphemism for ‘uninformed’ or ‘charlatan’ ?
He's not Hitler, but he's a redistributionist. Where did McCain come up with that one? Sounds like a Bush word. .
