Earlier today, while walking to the post office in downtown Metuchen, I was surprised to be confronted by a bizarre and offensive scene. Two gentlemen had set up a small booth and hung various signs on the sidewalk and front steps of the post office depicting President Barack Obama with an Adolf Hitler mustache, imploring the public to “kill Obama’s death panels,” and prevent Obama from “euthanizing Grandma.”
I was immediately filled with outrage, but instead of resorting to the name-calling and shouting that so often clouds any attempts at political discussion in today’s tense political environment, I simply asked the two men a few questions about their seemingly outrageous claims, took a pamphlet of information, firmly refused their request for a donation, and walked away.
First and foremost, I am deeply offended by their comparison of President Obama to Adolf Hitler. To compare his moderate attempts at health care reform to Nazism is to minimize the deaths of millions in the Holocaust. For this alone, the gentlemen hanging these signs and passing out pamphlets of inflammatory misinformation should be ashamed.
There has been plenty of debate on both sides on the issue of health care reform, so I’ll spare you my two cents. I would, however, like to share some information on the group that these two men represented. The pamphlet they were distributing was published by the LaRouche Political Action Committee. Doing some research on this group led to some interesting discoveries that should be made public if their foot soldiers are going to be walking the streets of our town.
Lyndon LaRouche, founder and leader of this group, has been a public figure for several decades. He built his following largely through dramatic predictions of economic crises that proved to be accurate. What his loyal followers won’t tell you, and what they likely don’t even know themselves, is that he has predicted an imminent global economic crisis virtually every single year for over three decades. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. What they also won’t tell you is that he is the leader of a worldwide political cult whose ideology could best be described as neo-fascism, and whose manipulative propaganda techniques include Holocaust revisionism, frequently accusing others of fascism and Nazism, and using code words to thinly mask his rampant anti- Semitism. Oh, and he also was convicted on various counts of fraud in 1988 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Gee, I wonder if the two men in front of the post office realize where the “donations” they’re collecting are really going.
I just wanted to make sure that our town had both sides of the story.
Keith P. Silverman
Metuchen