I know you are, but what am I?

Recently, the most prolific images on the network news has been the town hall meetings all across this country. The idea behind the town hall meetings is that elected officials would go back to their constituents to hear their wishes and concerns. The idea that we can have differing opinions and present them to our elected officials in person without fear of legal reprisal is something that makes this country truly wonderful.

In most years, town hall meetings go unnoticed, but this year is very different. This year these meetings have become increasingly more volatile. The issue that has dominated many of these meetings has been the issue of health care. There have been several people at these meetings who have called the President and his supporters “fascist.” There have been a whole host of images with the president in an SS uniform with a Hitler mustache and so forth. These people also suggest that if government fixes healthcare, it will lead us down the path to socialism and worse. There is something in these meetings that reminds me of fascism, and it isn’t Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate or a single payer healthcare system.

Before continuing with my observation, it may be helpful to put fascism in its historical context.

In the years after the First World War, Europe (particularly Germany) was in a very bad state. The war had left Germany, along with most of Europe, devastated. After Germany lost the war, France ordered Germany to pay exorbitant reparations. The Allied Forces said that Germany started the war and that they should have to pay the cost of not only the damage in Germany, but the damage in France and all the other Allied Countries as well. Germany began making these payments because if they did not pay, they would have been in violation of the peace treaty that ended WWI. When Germany claimed they could not pay anymore, the French took over the most lucrative industrial sectors within Germany.

So Germany, already bad off, had to pay reparations, then the sectors that could make the most money were taken out of German control. These actions left Germany effectively bankrupt. In the coming years the Great Depression would lead to massive unemployment and more poverty. The German government tried to fix this problem by printing more money, but this led to runaway inflation. Even if you had a job, the cost of everything was quickly rising so what little money you had was worthless. At the same time, the German government was becoming more inadequate. The government was ill equipped and unable to meet the needs of its people in changing world.

Into this disaster steps a young WWI veteran. He is charismatic and he takes the fear and frustration that the German people are feeling and is able to twist it to his political advantage. He takes the legitimate anger that people are feeling toward their government and channel that energy into action. He is able to target that anger toward what he finds politically undesirable in the country. He realized that people who are economically desperate will allow things to happen if there is a chance they can gain some measure of security. That someone, of course, is Adolf Hitler. And by the time Germany is defeated in 1945, Nazi Germany will have committed some of the most horrible acts of the 20th century.

Back to the 21st century.

As I said above, there are some things in the news cycle that remind me of the SS and I don’t mean Social Security. America is changing in many ways. It is changing demographically. There are more non-white people in this country and the percentage of minorities is growing. There are also more non Christian religions being practice now than there were when this country was founded. The country is changing in the sense that places that were at one time centers of industry are now being replaced. There are some people who are threatened by these changes. This changes for some create an feeling of uncertainty. We as a country are also facing many challenges economically. In my opinion, there is a group of people that are using the legitimate fear that people are feeling to gain political advantage.

I actually like John McCain. I would never say that a decorated war hero and a man of his accomplishments is a Nazi. What I am saying is that he allowed the fears of desperate people to be used for a political advantage. He ran a campaign in which his vice presidential candidate played on religious, racial, and economic insecurities of people to win votes. She took noble ideals like education and community service and turned them into something bad. She capitalized on the fear that some people have toward Muslims and tried to use that in the political arena. Thankfully this strategy didn’t work.

I am not suggesting that everyone who apposes Obama is a fascist. It would be silly to say that everyone who disagrees with his ideas about government is a Nazi. There are legitimate policy concerns with lots of what this administration is purposing. What I am saying is that some of his opponents are using economic uncertainty and prejudice to advance a political agenda. They are using a campaign of fear and generalization as the centerpiece of a political argument. They are making statements that fan the flames of political anger but are just shy of inflammatory (very skillfully done). I don’t think that these politicians are all racist, but I do believe that it may be a sound political maneuver to encourage the racism that some people are already feeling and try to win votes with it.

These are the things in the news that remind me of fascism. I am concerned as an American when I see the legitimate fear that many people have, being exploited. There are reasons to be afraid. We need to have a serious debate about where this country is going. I believe that we are at a turning point in our history. We will emerge from this experience as a completely different country. Whether this change is good or bad is something yet to be determined. What will determine the effectiveness of this change is the ability of this country, its leaders and its citizens to make sound decisions. I would feel better if these decisions were rational and not driven by fear. The people of Nazi Germany allowed hatred for their own government, fear of economic uncertainty and a distrust of peoples in ethnic and religious minorities to guide their decision making. Something is dangerous in this news cycle and it is not a government run public health care option or Medicare.

The role of government in our lives is a debate that we need to have. Both sides have valuable ideas as well as legitimate concerns. I believe that this debate cannot happen as long as our leaders are using fear and misinformation to shape the debate. This debate will not be helpful if people allow themselves and their fears to be played on by politicians. This debate will not be productive if politicians on both sides are counting on fear and prejudice to win the debate. Let’s stop the liar liar pants on fire 4-year-old B.S and have a serious discussion about where we are going as a country.

I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I INFINITY!!!!!