Tuesday, July 13, 2010

UPDATED: Iowa Tea Party erects billboard comparing Obama to Hitler and Lenin



Associated Press: (AP) —A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is being condemned by other tea party activists.
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the sign in Mason City last week.
The sign includes photos of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin with the statement: “Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive.”
North Iowa Tea Party co-founder Bob Johnson says the sign highlights what the group argues is Obama’s support for socialism. He says the pictures might be overwhelming the intended message.
Shelby Blakely, a spokeswoman for the national Tea Party Patriots, says the sign isn’t appropriate. She says her group opposes any comparisons of Obama to Hitler or Lenin.
The White House declined to comment. 
Now that 55% of Americans believe Obama is a socialist, this billboard isn’t going to be as shocking as it would have been a few months ago. Never the less, it is good to see that people have stopped pussyfooting around with whether or not Obama is a socialist.

The NAACP will no doubt slam this as more proof of Tea Party racism, even though less than two years ago, calling someone a socialist had zero to do with racism.  Today however, when it comes to defending Obama’s failed policies, any criticism can be called racist.


UPDATE: Clarification

Judging from the first comments I think I need to clear things up. I was not supporting comparisons between Obama and Hitler, rather I was supporting labeling Obama as a socialist. I should have been much clearer on that, but I guess since everybody and his mother gets compared to Hitler these days, the shock value of calling someone Hitler has worn off me. My bad. 

12 comments:

Larry Sheldon said...

Are we sure that the Tea Party put that up?

While it might be correct, I don't think it is good strategy or tactics.

Just a conservative girl said...

I don't like Hitler comparisions. He murdered more than 6 million people. It will get a discussion going, but a great deal of the message will get lost because of the imagery.

Anonymous said...

There was hardly any outrage when W was compared to Hitler. Besides, how is it racist? Obama is up there with two other white dudes. He hasn't murdered anyone outright, but he sure is doing a good of killing us slowly (slowly for now. Wait until ObamaCare kicks in.)

Angie Lee said...

I am beginning to think we are only seeing the beginning of a nationwide billboard campaign against the current administration and congress.

I saw one on E-bound I-94 the other day with giant caricatures of Nancy, Barry (wearing a crown and sporting HUMONGOUS ears, natch), and Harry standing on a torn Constitution, captioned, "We don't need your Constitution."

Yup, methinks it's only the beginning... if it's spreading to a Dummycrap stronghold like Michigan, they could find themselves in trouble come November.

Kelsey said...

Three types of socialism. Same evil, different degrees. That was the point.

Everybody gets all offended at this kind of thing and they don't blink an eye when they hear that Obama wanted to have children who survive abortions put in a closet somewhere and left to die. The man supported infantacide.

No, that's not offensive. But a billboard? Heaven forbid.

Now, on the other hand, is this necessarily the best PR for the Tea Party movement? Probably not. But still. I'm so sick of this garbage.

RightKlik said...

It hardly matters what the Tea Party does, the Democrat-Dominated dinosaur media will either ignore it or condemn it. So the Tea Partiers might as well speak from their heart.

The hyperbole of that billboard is only matched by Obama's outsize ego and selfishness.

And I say it's better that we be a bit hypervigilant about the loss of our freedoms than that we be complacent.

Dave said...

Well, I get it, but it's a really hard argument to make VIA a visual medium like a billboard. Yes, academically, it is perfectly possible to discuss Hitler's economic policies (I would have called it Fascist Socialism, but that's a semantical quibble) separately from his racist genocidal policies. However, in the minds of most people, any comparison involving Hitler must be talking about death camps and the like because that's all they know about him, so I'm not sure this billboard effectively conveys what its supposed to for most people.

J said...

It can't be a bad thing. The media continues to expose itself by painting a broad brush for the actions of individuals.

davemartin7777 said...

This was a great barometer on how extreme your right-wing views are.

The billboard was taken down in less that 72 hours because so many found it offensive.

Tyrone said...

Eight years of Bushitler was A-ok. Nothing wrong with that - was an apt description. Yessiree. Funny how the standards change when the prez changes. And when the next Republican eventually gets elected president, the Hitler policy comparisons will go back to being A-OK, 100% PC approved.

This hypocrisy makes me sick.

I am also amazed at how it's ok to be on the side of a religion that wants to wipe Israel off the map but yet it is not ok to discuss the economic policies of a dictator who killed millions of Jews. Just who do these people think live in Israel??? Martians??

That said it wasn't the smartest thing the Tea Party could have done to get their message across, since it is way over the heads of most of the gov't educated dolts out there, and only ends up inflaming the emotions of those who cry RAAAACIST!

The truly sad part in all of this is that the lessons of HOW Hitler was able to rise to such power will never be learned.

Gorges Smythe said...

Anyone who hasn't read "It Can't Happen Here!", by Sinclair Lewis, should get a copy and read it. Considering our current mentallity in this country, it will make you shudder.

hparis said...

I second Tyrone.

Why is it that nobody dares to question how men like Hitler and Stalin come to power???

People want to hide under rocks and pretend that this could never happen again.

I'm not offended by the billboard at all. It makes a legitimate comparison, and it's a discussion we need to have in this country. It's better now than 20 years from now when the survivors are left picking up the pieces, scratching their heads, saying, "gee, how did this happen?" or "we never saw this coming."

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