Know what else Hitler did?

There's a lot of comparison to Hitler and Obama these days because Hitler happened to enact socialist reforms in post WWI Germany (he wasn't the only one, but let's ignore the bulk of the facts for now as is common these days). But you know what else Hitler was besides a dreaded SOCIALIST? Even worse: he was a dictator.

What happens in a dictatorship? Well, look to Iran, North Korea and other dictatorships around the world (Venezuela is coming up fast in the ranks). What they aim to do is this:
1) Limit or prohibit free press
2) Limit or prohibit alternatives to their governance

So when people from 2001-2008 said it was "unpatriotic" to criticize the war, the government or the president, I say that PROHIBITING such criticism by means of intimidation (which is happening on the streets of Venezuela today) and flag-waving is very un-American. If you wave the flag, you gotta take the heat. It's the American way.

Also, when people act like their side can't win if the other doesn't completely lose I say this behavior is un-American. We are a nation built on the idea that many different people can live together in some manner of civility. We are looking at the beginnings of a new civil war if we continue to say that the other side "must be crushed" or completely eliminated.

Really? A one party system? Look gang, the USSR fell in my lifetime and I happen to remember what a one-party system looks like. It's COMMUNISM, boogabooga!

But seriously, as Americans we need to elevate the debate. Rise above the fear and get the facts. Quit acting like the other side is out to deliberately destroy America somehow. We're all here, we're all in this together, and we may differ on what to do but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to press forward.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said,
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

Maybe someday we'll get there.