An anti-Obama flyer distributed in Grand Rapids, comparing the country's course to Nazi Germany, is likely to have little impact outside of a Monday media stir.GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A flyer that compared America's course to that of Nazi Germany and depicted President Barack Obama next to a swastika is reflective of extremist sentiment against his administration, political observers say.
The pamphlet, found mounted on several parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids last week, drew widespread national attention Monday, but is likely to carry little sway in the future, according to Erika King, a political science professor at Grand Valley State University.
“This is the sort of thing that is so far over the top that it’s a sad, unfortunate commentary,” King said. “One can certainly conclude that this is a fringe kind of phenomenon to use this stark, racist representation and to talk about the Holocaust.
“It is designed to shock, designed to horrify, and the reaction is one of repugnance for the vast majority of people who learn about it.”
The flyer warned that a Holocaust is coming and the text inside, which opposed the Affordable Care and the National Defense Authorization acts, said Obama is a puppet.
“Hitler’s Nazi Germany has been revived in the U.S. and the target is Americans,” the card stated.
“Obama’s health care bill is not a health care bill, instead it’s a total government takeover of every area of life (read the fine print) like gun confiscation, euthanasia and so on (euthanizing the poor, the elderly, the ill, those who’ve maxed out their health insurance and so on) there are no jobs and everyone will eventually be poor,” the flyer continues.
King said rhetoric is commonplace in an election season, but generally carries no impact with the average voter, especially when it goes beyond the pale of comparison.
“It’s getting attention, but the attention is appropriately negative,” King said.
Similar Hitler and Nazi comparisons were made of George W. Bush during his administration and smear campaigns have been waged against politicians throughout time.
Doug Koopman, a political science professor at Calvin College, also believes the impact is minimal. The distribution was apparently limited to five parking spaces, and three of the cards were grabbed by a person who took offense to the literature.
“I don’t think any thinking person pays a whole lot of attention to it, but it’s a sign of how fractured our political activity can be,” Koopman said. “You get it from both extremes at times.”
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