The Department Of Pointing Out The Obvious (DOPOTO) has been observing the anti-government rallies aimed at President Obama’s policies and have come to the conclusion that many of his enemies have severe trouble distinguishing mosquitoes from hand grenades. Others among their ranks have trouble seeing the puppet strings attached to them and often believe they are expressing original ideas, an impressive and masterly performance by right wing demagogues and corporate lobbyists not previously heralded for their subtlety. When left to their own devices, however, the lunatic fringe always tends to go overboard, such as the unbelievable anger expressed over a president who wants to provide his nation with health care.
Researchers here at DOPOTO have thoroughly examined the Obama proposals and are hard pressed to understand the many Adolph Hitler and Nazi comparisons being put forth. While the Department studies people extensively as part of our only mission, pointing out the obvious, the Hitler comparisons come as a surprise because they seem to soften the actual Nazi atrocities in many minds to the level of civil debate over zoning laws, rather then the mass-murdering, rapacious invaders that was the Third Reich. A brief study of the matter reveals that it took a lot more than a series of town hall meetings to stop the Nazis and their Fascist partners in the Axis, at the cost of 65 million lives and the fruits of many centuries of work building the cities and factories of Europe and Asia.
And so DOPOTO feels compelled to inform that segment of the public that Hitler and Nazi comparisons ought to be reserved for only the most extreme acts of genocide, totalitarianism and brutal aggression. Wanting to provide one’s nation with health care benefits hardly qualifies for the Monstrous Dictator Hall of Fame. Nor does a president’s desire to address his nation’s schoolchildren, something other presidents have done with almost no pubic comment. As far as charges from the opposition that President Obama plans to brainwash America’s children into becoming his socialist puppets with this single speech to the nation’s children, well, if we were not called The Department Of Pointing Out The Obvious we would feel silly pointing out that this is an exercise in unprecedented stupidity. Pointing out the 800 pound gorilla in the room is, however, our mandate and our sacred duty.
Civil protest in America is a time honored tradition and a healthy exercise of our democratic rights and privileges. In the United States, no person is prevented from speaking their mind about anything, the key word here being mind. When protest becomes mindless and done for its own sake it becomes meaningless. How can any thinking person take anyone seriously who lends equal weight to petty concerns and major issues? The obvious answer here (our specialty!) is that it can’t be done. When protest is lodged by thinking people with solid logic and irrefutable moral authority behind their arguments, minds and the nation have often been changed for the better, starting with the founding of America itself in 1776. When inane fools constantly cry wolf they are easily dismissed, and their puppet masters do themselves a disservice by rendering any legitimate complaints they have to the realm of the ridicuous. A valuable civic tool for real debate and positive change is rendered a sad joke, and America becomes less American, and a little sillier for a nation that doesn’t mind being refreshingly silly every so often. Just not this silly. DOPOTO respectfully suggests that Nazi comparisons be reserved for actual potential monsters leading totalitarian political movements, and major anger for major issues.
This has been a report from The Department Of Pointing Out The Obvious.