Protesters Compare Obama to Hitler

Thousands Packed the Streets of Washington to Protest Government Spending; Jeff Greenfield Went to See Who They Were

(CBS)  Most of those there would have called themselves "patriots" (that "don't tread on me" flag was an early symbol of the American Revolution) who argue that their government is betraying traditional principles, CBS News Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports.

Steve Butler, a physician from Indian, was handing out copies of the Constitution. "If you read the quotes of Thomas Jefferson, these guys were conservatives and they said that the control should be with the people and not with the big government."

Thousands Protest Obama in DC

Ileana Johnson came to America from Romania 30 years ago:
"I find myself now, every morning when I wake up, what kind of freedom have we lost today?"

You could also find plenty of signs of something else -- a rage that identifies President Obama with Adolph Hitler, or Stalin, that questions his citizenship, that seems to celebrate the death of a famous liberal.

And among the main currents of the protesters here, a conviction that the media - -FOX News and talk radio excepted -- are deliberately concealing "the truth."

It's a charge of bias the networks vigorously deny.

But perhaps what most united these protesters was a broader discontent: a sense that they are not being heard, that their interests, and the national interests, are in the hands of a few.

Dawn Neuman came from from Texas. "It's all a good old boy network, where they don't care what you think. You know, they're gonna - Everybody's in everybody's bed, you know. In everybody's pocket. And it's who's got the most money. It's all about greed and power."

The real question, is what this populist anger means politically...does it help, or hurt, either party?

[giveisusfree]

Wow, this is amazing, are we as Americans still dumb enough to believe that there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Do we really believe that a person born and bred into political offices can relate to us? See I know what it's like to budget a check book, to scrape pennies together for bills, to pray that God will help my car make it work.

Most of middle America knows what it's like to do the same so HOW, yes HOW, can a politician that has lived off daddy and mommy represent me? How can they represent you?

I don't care if Obama is a Republican or Democrat but i do care that he believes there should be more government ran programs and more government regulations and that, that is what i have a problem with. We need LESS government control, we as a people need to make sure that our neighbors are taken care of and quit putting the responsibility back in the hand of the people that caused the problems in the first place.

[Moderateteacher]

The republicans are throwing mud to see if anything sticks that they can use in the next election. It's typical republican scare tactics pure and simple. Shame on them

[adlsupporter]

Check out http://contemporaryantisemitism.blogspot.com/2009/08/lyndon-larouche-holocaust-imagery-and.html for more info on LaRouche activity comparing Obama to Hitler around the country.

[jack2057]

one thing you havent said cbs news loves obama and will lie for him polisie called demstatiors nazies were was cbs then defending her and obama and you wonder why you lose ratings im gonna make a pridiction not only will this not backfire but congress will get a republican supermagorty as the mainstream news loses its creditabilty as far as i see the news is a part of the dnc i dare you cbs to prove me wrong and be baliced but i dont exspect you to do that i exspect you to remove this and ban me but before you do how many millions will see this

[chitown639]

This is the dumbiest sentiment held by most Right Wing Extremists....if the news networks don't report exactly what the Right-wingers want to hear or not feed into their paranoid conspiracy theories, then in their twisted right-wing minds the news networks must be part of the conspiracy...lol..the right-wingers would rather self-indoctrinate themselves with lies and bizzaire conspiracy theories than grapple with facts and reality....there's no point in debating the Republicans...it's a waste of time, because their arguements aren't rational..........

[ianlou]

These protests are nothing more than right wing nut jobs who can't come to grips with the fact that they lost their representation last election.

Read between the lines on their protest signs and all you will find is...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,
WAAAAAAAA, WAAAAAAAA, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.........

[actornaught]

by adenvernative September 20, 2009 1:20 PM EDT
...the same way people who disagree with Obama are being called racist.
...

This statement is yet one more of the rightwing intentional inaccuracies to push their phony outrage.

The more accurate summation would be "some of the opposition is based on racism" OR "the many white racists in this country are blindly and vocally opposing everything BHO is doing, even when it goes completely against their own primary interests".

[adenvernative]

Hitler? These people have no clue about history. They use images as propogandawith no idea as to what they represent, the same way people who disagree with Obama are being called racist.

[actornaught]

And no facts will dissuade the neo-conned. As you can see from the posts, they'll not stop their idiot yappin'...

[mnbrant]

Where's Hitler when you need him? I am sure he would start a war or something to get us out of this mess. Yay Hitler!

[ianlou]

dumb.

[flolake]

Those sleazy, negro hating and loud minority of redneck republicans. I believe I can change my voter registration from republican (liflong) to democrat, with no strain at all.

I don't won't to be tied to a pack of 'Gidget' Palinites for the rest of my life...

[liselle3]

The conservative right wingnuts should be ashamed. We've given them 8 yaers to air their rude and rightous comments - this has only encouraged them to get more and more uncivil. If these are the folks calling themselves Christians, thanks but I'll pass on that religion. Grow up, and have a little respect.

[proudmilvet]

The way the Republican Party is behaving towards President Obama reminds me of a scene from Oliver Stone's movie JFK. The character "X" portrayed by Donald Sutherland is explaining to Kevin Costner about the evil forces opposing President Kennedy. "Like Caesar he is surrounded by enemies."

[actornaught]

by ErnestNM September 19, 2009 8:03 PM EDT
I do think they are going to try a Coup!...
...


They do have their favorite son, Timothy McVeigh.

[proudmilvet]

My God! I never thought our country would come to this! This is the work of Dick Cheney,Rush Limbaugh,Glenn Beck,Ann Coulter,Sean Hannity & the rest of the crowd at Fox News!! They are a Shadow Government!

[proudmilvet]

This country has gone completely insane. The far right will do anything to undermine this President! Just because you disagree with him on certain issues you have some people comparing him to Hitler,Stalin or Lenin? We are headed toward a Coup folks.Say Goodbye to America! Thanks to the Republican Party,Rush Limbaugh,Glenn Beck, & Fox News!

[ErnestNM]

I do think they are going to try a Coup!

They have moved Republicans to high positions in the governement over the years.

The military command structure is primarily right-wing.

[actornaught]

by govmess September 19, 2009 7:17 PM EDT

You mean the 1.5 mil that were in your Fantasy Land?

Since it was at most 70,000, and even foxnews.com reported it that way, they certainly would leave a smaller footprint from the millions that really were at the inauguration.

[govmess]

Have you people not seen the contrasting pictures of the mall after the dems left the inauguration vs after the 1.5 million tea party folks left? Of Course not, you listen to CBS...the mall was despicable after the inauguration and hardly any debris after the tea part protestors...tells you something about the class of people at each event.

[RayfromEastpointe]

You guys need to get your story straight or more and more people are going to believe that your news organization is nothing more than an arm of President Obama's cheer leading team. If you actually had honest reporters at the tea party rallies you would have known the fact that the only people carrying signs or comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler were the paid operatives of the Lyndon LaRouche Pac. You know him, he is the whack job that has run for president seven times (as a Democrat) and has spent time in prison for wire fraud. His operatives were passing out their literature at the same time that they were walking through the rallies. I seen them with my own two eyes in Troy Michigan, and watched the same people you showed on your news report in Washington o Saturday night. The news media used to be trusted as the eyes and ears of the citizens whose responsibility was to shine the light on government abuses power and of the people, but it seems now you guys are nothing more than petty apologist and excuse makers for "the guy" you helped put in power. Is there anyone left working for the major networks that have any idea what the 1st Amendment to the Constitution means? Shame on you for what you have become.

Ray Berendt

[ErnestNM]

I knew this didn't make sense from my memory, but that was so many years ago, I had to check it out. Well, you see, all one has to do is a little searching for the facts and one can see just how devious the far-right-fringe (like Ray Berendt) are!

It turns out that, according to a British author, Antony Lerman (1988 Book, p. 212), in the 1970s LaRouche moved from Marxism to far-right, even neo-Nazi ideas, along with the development of conspiracy theories and paranoia about his personal safety, often involving alleged attempts to assassinate him.

In the following link: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/larouche-is-no-%E2%80%98socialist%E2%80%99-by-caleb-t-maupin/ we find out even more:

In 1973 Larouche mobilized a campaign against revolutionary poet Amiri Baraka, using not political arguments but slandering the African-American political/cultural leader and, in a viciously racist act, put a caricature of Baraka's face on the body of a hyena on the front page of a pamphlet published by his newspaper, the misnamed New Solidarity.

The Ku Klux Klan and other fascist organizations joined his group's demonstrations against Baraka. (Notice similarity to Barack's name!)

Most people on the left consider him a neo-fascist, although he never had the kind of mass following that groups like the openly racist Ku Klux Klan or the White Citizens Council could claim at some points in their history.

So, it appears that the Ku Klux Klan probably was at the 75,000 man march in Washington!

[BuddyBeanbags]

I keep reading and hearing about these freedoms we've lost under Obama. Would someone mind pointing out exactly what freedoms we've lost... I must have been looking the other way and never noticed they were gone.

[Orlandojon]

If you take away the killing of the jews and the other violence attibuted to Hitler, you have his politics. That is where Obama and Hitler have many similarities. Hitler mobilized citizen armies as Obama whats to do. Hitler began nationalizing private industry, Hitler took opver the banking system. Hitler put many of his associates into positions with unlimited power as did Obama with his czars. Hitler won the hearts of his people with social programs and government jobs. Hitler put national health care in place. Hitler got everyone dependent on government. All this resulted in unlimited powers.

[HGOODGUY]

So aside from the fact that Hitler killed 6 million jews, he really wasn't a bad guy?
You are either anti-semitic or certifiably nuts!!

[ffoulkes-2009]

Wow..I never saw orlandoojon say Hitler was a good guy...I saw him say that his early policies mirror what Obama is putting into play.

[KPeters_from_UK]

Orlandojon: If you take away the killing of the jews and the other violence attibuted to Hitler, you have his politics. That is where Obama and Hitler have many similarities. Hitler mobilized citizen armies as Obama whats to do. Hitler began nationalizing private industry, Hitler took opver the banking system. Hitler put many of his associates into positions with unlimited power as did Obama with his czars. Hitler won the hearts of his people with social programs and government jobs. Hitler put national health care in place. Hitler got everyone dependent on government. All this resulted in unlimited powers.

Actually you make Hilter sound pretty decent. So what you are saying is that Hilter cared about the poor and working class. He wanted a top form of interstructure and built it, he wanted neighbors to care for each other. He basically pulled Germany out of horrible inflation of the 20's and able to get through the 30's better than the States. Got Germany back on to its feet.

Moreover, Orlandojon you don't know your European history. You also have mentioned actions that the 1945 British government of C. Attlee bought in for Britain: National Health Service, welfare for the unemployment, schools, housing. These things were needed to combat the incredible poverty that a HUGE chunk of British people were living in before the 1945 election, before the WWII. Most working class people of East London didn't have indoor toilets until the 50's. Think of Charles Dickens' Oliver but in 1945. So, you are telling me that having a government help these people is liken to Hilter?