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July 15, 2010

Hello, I Must Be Going (…Or, Did I Just Hear Someone Say “Hitler, Obama, Lenin” 10,000 Times?)

Deb Nicklay -AP/Globe Gazette

Seems to me that the Tea Party gets to have it both ways.

In taking down the billboard, they get to amplify a new found moderation and maturity (not because it’s true or real, of course, but because the influence of the suits and the PR guys is taking root now).  At the same time, the demise of this otherwise weed-collecting sign — not to mention it’s thoroughly noxious contents — (timed, curiously, for the buzz friendly, and otherwise slow-as-molasses mid-July news stretch, hmm) is suddenly blanketing the media sphere.

Backstory.

  • echo

    America should simply unleash Civil War 2.0 before the balance of power too heavily favors this rabid minority.

    They have been allowed to fester for so long that they no longer restrain themselves from expressing their basest views and are trying to mainstream them through repetition. For now they are content with verbal assault. They will ratchet up soon enough in the absence of push back.

  • thomas

    I love the Bush-era device of “Democrat” rather than “Democratic.”

    Also interesting is that in all of the stories I’ve seen about this the Tea Party is referred to as though it is an actual political party with actual members rather than what it really is: an informal assemblage of voters who are actually registered Republicans.

  • black dog barking

    A couple of days ago we had Pink Elephant Grizzly Mamas. Now it is Democrat (sic) Socialism. The *only* people talking about Democrat Socialism in this country are the people that paid for this sign.

    Bulletin from reality: Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 on a tide of grass roots democracy unlike any presidential campaign in living memory. Not only did he face down a nearly surreal Republican challenge but confronted and defeated an extremely well qualified and well financed primary candidate, someone who’d lived in the White House for eight years. His campaigns succeeded by connecting directly with the people of this country, bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of media and insider party position. Democracy won in 2008.

    With their purchase the people who paid for this sign are asserting the role of the ubiquitous little guy, the Silent Majority reborn. This assertion is as delusional as the comparisons implied by the pictures on the billboard. The “people” of this country elected the current president. The “people” of this country did not pay for this sign.

  • black dog barking

    Give ‘em your pity. Really.

    If you know someone for whom this message has traction, talk to them, listen to them. Don’t argue, ask questions: Why a picture Lenin instead of Stalin? Why did National Socialism and Marxist Socialism fight to the death in the early 1940s? Where does one find out more about Democrat Socialism? In what specific ways is Democrat Socialism like National Socialism?

  • Gasho

    Obama is the most down the middle, find the common ground, compromising politician out there. The fact that he’s been bashed as a radical doesn’t stand up for a second when we actually turn the sound on and pay attention to what is getting done – (or not even getting done since he’s so middle of the road).

    I believe the Tea Partiers are externalizing their own angst. It’s just like the closeted gay legislator who hates himself so much that he publicly and politically attacks gay rights furiously. The Tea Partiers are outraged, just like the rest of us about what the US government has done (torture, spying, lying, and illegal war, etc) only they can’t live with the knowledge that it was THEIR ELECTION CHOICE that brought it about — so they turn it around and blame the OTHER side… thus, Obama is radical and evil just like Hitler !!!

    If they were able to de-link or uncouple from having chosen Bush (twice!) they’d see him as the despicable, tyrant that he was. But their psyches won’t let them do it.. so they have to take that outrage and put it somewhere else. Why not the guy who’s currently sitting in Bush’s old seat?

    This 180° backward view allows them to vent outward, saving themselves from the viciousness that they feel.. but it also leads to CHOOSING exactly the wrong politicians – the ones who caused the trouble in the first place. Palin, for instance. Shooting wolves from helicopters would seem tame in comparison to her off the cuff and misinformed foreign policy decisions.

  • http://motherrr.blogspot.com cmac

    Their angst has nothing to do with self-hatred. It’s all about two things: 1) Their side lost 2) to a black man. They want ‘their’ America back, which was the America of two years ago, where Republicans ruled supreme, and the White House had never been occupied by a person of color.

  • http://scienceandreason.blogspot.com cgd

    Talk about the ultimate in self-referential – look at the caption: RADICAL LEADERS PREY ON THE FEARFUL & NAIVE. How could there be a more perfect description of the people who conceived and paid for this billboard?

    It’s a very old, very transparent strategy: accuse your opponent of your own worst faults, to neutralize any accusations.

    Meanwhile, the puppet masters behind the scenes laugh their heads off as they steal everything in sight, while everybody else is preoccupied with screaming about who’s the bigger liar.

  • http://www.serr8d.blogspot.com serr8d

    Has nothing to do with a black man, you idiot. If Obama was a fiscal conservative, I would love him, support him and would vote for him.

    Unfortunately, Obama is NOT a fiscal or any sort of conservative; he is a far-left child of Communists who is tearing apart the very fabric of this Republic by raiding the candy store of Other People’s Money for his leftist agenda.

    Read this, if you would.

    http://www.examiner.com/x-27672-Portland-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m6d18-Amputate-or-Die-by-Dr-Jack-Wheeler

    We must defund the Obama agenda, the Democrat agenda, or you’ll see this nation ripped apart, starting just after we default on the national debt. We watched the Soviet Union peacefully fall apart for the same reason; do you really think we will peacefully fall apart ?

    Get ready, guys. You’ve seeded the whirlwind.

  • black dog barking

    Read this, if you would.

    Done. Interesting, in the “are you fucking nuts?” sense of the word. Especially this:

    Yes, the TeaPartyers own most of the 300 million guns in America, but they don’t want blood unless there’s no choice. Note the ‘unless.’ November 2nd better be an honest election.

    and this:

    I smiled. “Gold brings freedom.”

    Gold brought freedom in the 19th century. Electricity powers our freedom today. Which would you rather live without? In the 21st century?

    (Sure would like a comment Preview. Hint, hint.)

  • http://reciprocity-failure.blogspot.com Stan B.

    serr8d- You don’t love Obama because he’s not a fiscal conservative- but dollars to donuts you kissed the Bush/Cheney rumps that turned a whopping surplus into the biggest deficit in US history. Before you call anyone an idiot, you should really take stock of your own blatant limitations which you so proudly flaunt with every nonsensical utterance you manage to repeat.

  • Elaine

    Can someone tell me if this video is racist or not? I am honestly having a hard time deciding with this one of Obama and Hitler.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTp_atr2G9E

  • ponderingitall

    Obama ran a campaign of deception. He said much but said nothing. Americans do not want him or his policies. He was a trojan horse, and now he’s in the gates and bringing destruction.

  • Jeff

    If that’s what you think, you need to change your handle, because you’re not “pondering” a damn thing.

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