The left's dehumanizing of the enemy

Last week in this space, I made a comparison between efforts on the part of the political left to demonize Chick-fil-A, the Atlanta-based fast food chain (following their COO's statements in support of traditional marriage) and boycotts conducted against Jewish businesses by the Nazi Party in Germany during the 1930s. I also cited leftists' campaigns against other businesses for expressing similar sentiments. ["German Jews and the Chick-fil-A flap"]

This evidently hit a nerve – well, at least two: One was that of people who thought it utterly absurd and audacious. How dare I compare the horror that Jews suffered under the Nazis to the minor inconvenience Christian business owners are experiencing for their bigotry?

The other nerve hit was that of those who recognized the phenomenon as being the very same tactic the Nazis used and an overture toward more heinous persecution. We know that it is going to remain standard operating procedure for liberal-socialists and devotees of President Obama to ridicule the assessments of conservatives regarding the methods and madness of the left. After all, that's what Obama's communist guru Saul Alinsky taught. Seeing the Nazi boycotts and the left's attacks on Christian businesses as analogous is only reasonable, given the similarity of methods used by American socialists and those throughout the history of socialism.

Some of us point out fairly regularly that the left engages in a great deal of projection, accusing their enemies of that in which they themselves engage. Racism, incivility, elitism, greed, cruelty and several others, including, of course, violence. Their claims of those on the right being violent is particularly relevant, since there have been countless episodes in recent months of those on the left either acting violently or publicly advocating violent behavior. The open hostility of the Occupy movement – burning, looting and attacking police – as well as James Holmes, the Colorado theater shooter, being a hardcore lefty are a couple of the most striking examples.

The reason they do this is not only intellectually dishonest and immoral, but potentially quite dangerous. It is also part of another method that has been used early on by socialist and totalitarian regimes that went on to slaughter millions of people. You see, this projection is intended to dehumanize the enemy – in this case, people who hold a traditional worldview, and Christians in particular. In the end, it will come down to anyone who isn't willing to capitulate to the liberal-socialist agenda.

If liberals' political enemies are racist, uncivil, elitist, greedy, cruel and violent, they are pretty wretched creatures indeed. And if that's the case, then one really ought not be overly concerned with the circumstances of their disposition.

Perhaps I really should say our disposition, this being a euphemism for whichever draconian means are finally used to silence us. I mean, we'd obviously do the same to liberals if given the chance, right? According to the left, conservatives would like to reinstate segregation, stone homosexuals and institute a kind of Christian Shariah law in America. So what does it matter if angry mobs drag us from our homes and beat us to death, as members of the Occupy movement have advocated?

It is arguable that the largest part of the reason that the projection tactic is working to any degree at all is because the press has effectively become a propaganda bureau for the Obama administration and the cause of socialism in general. The rhetoric has become hot and heavy; this is apparent if one follows the political press or the discourse in cyberspace. The vitriol (the left would call it "hate") and gross misrepresentations by the left abound, because they rightly perceive that this is the home stretch. While some unaffiliated voters do harbor concern over how much influence "those tea-party nuts" will have on the election in November, and are wholly unaware that the current administration is lousy with committed Marxists, millions of others have awakened and become politically engaged since Obama took office.

I am skeptical of the political polls right now, for reasons that may be evident. I do believe that the closeness of the race as it stands now between Obama and Romney (who has yet to be officially nominated) reflects the lack of awareness on the part of poll respondents. It is also quite possible that for a number of reasons – biased reporting and respondent duplicity due to the race factor among them – poll results are reflecting numbers that Obama simply doesn't have.

In any case, while the sinister machinations of the left well predate President Obama, it is still vital that he is ousted. Too few Americans are aware of the real peril his re-election portends. At this point, he has acted with restraint, knowing he would face another election. If his actions thus far have been restrained, I for one am horrified to see what he will do unrestrained. If we can get Obama out, we will not have dodged a bullet; we will have removed one. The sociopolitical cancer, if you will, of liberal-socialism that has spread unchecked for decades will take many years to treat.