Heil Obama

Further to one of my last posts, it transpires that Obama has a bigger fight on his hands to win over some of the American populace.

I received this email from someone in the Christian Right and, despite a mailing list of some 30 addresses, I am certain that not one person will raise an objection the sheer lunacy of the points being made:

"Heil Obama"

When was the last time you saw crowds by the thousands and hundreds of thousands cheering a politician? In my lifetime politicians have not been held in high regard by anyone, regardless of the party. So my first thought is to turn to history. Surely history can show if there were such a time. Scanning the pages of history, many of which are stored in the vaults of my mind because I actually paid attention in history class, I found the time. 1933. The Nazi party, in a time of economic crisis and general discontent for the current government, gained considerable power in the 1930's. In elections held in September of 1930, the Nazis became the second largest political party in Germany. After that election they held 107 seats in the Reichstag (which had around 600 members total). In the spring of 1932 Hitler himself ran for president. He received around 30 percent of the vote, losing to Hindenburg who had 49% of the vote. Still, with over 200 political factions in the Reichstag the unified Nazis were not without power. In the course of the next year, the struggling government in Germany and power struggles in the "democratic" Reichstag led to Hindenburg's decision to make Hitler chancellor of Germany (basically president of the Reichstag) in January 1933 . Hitler wasted no time. It is believed (but not proven) that the Nazis burned down the Reichstag and blamed it on another party ("This recession brought to you by Republicans," sound familiar). The german people bought it. In another election Hitler was able to gain an even stronger hold on the Reichstag, and set out to gain the 2/3 majority needed for him to rewrite the German constitution (Here in the U.S. we do that by putting crazed liberal judges on the supreme court). Hitler's goal was achieved and the rest is history.

Now you may say, "how can you compare Hitler to Obama?" Actually it is not that hard. While I cannot speculate about intrigue and bully tactics (Joe the plumber notwithstanding), there are some interesting connections. It has been made known on fair news stations that Obama has ties with racist anti-semite pastors and religious leaders to an extent which we may never know (or maybe we will). Also, Obama is a socialist whether he admits it or not. His economic plan calls for wealth redistribution and Uncle Sam (or Big Brother if you prefer the name) gets to decide what to do with our money. Oddly enough Hitler was the head of the National SOCIALIST German Workers Party. Hmmm? Both made heavy use of propaganda and slogans in their respective campaigns. "Deutchland Erwacht!" (Germany Awake!) and "Change!" Both wrote dull autobiographies before running for any office or doing anything really worthy of a biography in the first place. (Obama wrote two!!!!) Both Hitler and Obama spoke very well and said very little. All rhetoric, lacking substance. There are other similarities between the two, but unless you have even a shred of ethical sense you cannot understand them. Abortion, euthanasia, and eugenics must all be listed when comparing the two since both are in favor of all three (Although Hitler would not have allowed the master race to abort its young).

The scary thing is this: Obama used the same economic crisis and public anger at the government that Hitler did to gain power. His slogan, "Change," implies that something needs to change and the connection with that need and his opponents' party won not only the presidency for him, but also an even stronger hold on congress for his party. Facts are not important with Americans it seems - only rhetoric. Change to what? From what? The fact that the current financial crisis, which Obama has used to perfection, has more to do with the democrats than republicans, is lost on Americans. They don't care. They are, I am afraid, much like the German citizens of the 1930's. The outcome we will all learn in the years to come.