Brownshirts Bulldoze Health Care Reform

These days, a lot of people seem to forget that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected.

Not entirely voluntarily democratically elected - but voted into office by a majority of his peers nevertheless.

With the support of his thuggish supporters, the Sturmabteilung - better known to us as 'brownshirts' - he managed to bully and bulldoze his way into office through the use of propaganda, lies, political machinations and old-fashioned violence.

"All opposition must be stamped into the ground," was the Sturmabteilung's official motto - and they lived by it.

How exactly did the brownshirts forward Hitler's campaign? Well, let's examine some of their methods:

• Misinformation (distributing lies and false information to discredit opponents)
• Disruption (disorderly or violent interruption of the political process.)
• Intimidation (using the threat of violence to pressure politicians to capitulate.)

The climax of the 'brownshirts' campaign was the Enabling Act of 1933, Ermächtigungsgesetz, which saw the German parliament, the Reichstag, vote to give Adolf Hitler dictatorial rule over Germany.

Why would the politicians of Germany grant Hitler such extraordinary and unprecedented power? Because they were too terrified not to.

On the morning of the vote, hundreds of heavily armed Sturmabteilung swarmed the Reichstag, sending a very clear and intimidating message to Hitler's opponents that the penalty for resisting his rise to power would be very serious.

Enabling Act of 1933: Democracy at the point of a gun...

In the end, all but one political party voted to grant Hitler control of Germany - and the 26 dissenters from the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands party were promptly arrested for failing to capitulate.

Thus, through intimidation and the threat of violence, tyranny was born.

The truly scary thing?

We're witnessing those very same tactics being employed in America's health care debate - and they're working.

Modern-day brownshirts.

I identified the three main tactics of Hitler's Sturmabteilung earlier - misinformation, disruption and intimidation.

Pictures of misguided protesters taken from Looking at the Left

They're very effective tactics - as we can see demonstrated today.

Misinformation: From Sarah Palin creating the fantasy of 'death panels' to House Republican Leader John Boehner warning about 'government encouraged euthanasia,' it seems the only commodity that's off limits in the conservative assault on 'Obamacare' is the truth.

Yet, watching protesters wave placards reading 'Obamacare is Arsenic for Seniors' and 'Obamacare is a Death Sentence' prove that this campaign of lies and misinformation is working.

Disruption: All it takes is a few angry voices to turn a Town Hall style political event into a madhouse, but like the Sturmabteilung before them, Conservatives are actively organising campaigns to maximise the disruption.

Leading health-care industry lobbyists - like disgraced hospital owner Rick Scott - have teamed up with grassroots conservative movements to coordinate disruptions specifically intended to stifle debate and 'rattle' Democratic politicians.

Whether it's forty people chanting anti-Obama slogans (and drowning out all other voices) or single showboaters holding up Obama posters defaced with a Hitler moustache, the effect is the same.

[Tom posted a link suggesting that the Obama/Hitler posters were staged by the Democrats - Editorial Bear]

Rational debate is slaughtered, politicians are silenced and the Conservative movement hobbles democracy still further.

Intimidation: But perhaps the most terrifying demonstration of Nazi tactics is the increasingly common sight of heavily armed Conservatives at health care debates. Carrying assault rifles, or pistols strapped to their hips, these right-wing activists are sending the same message that the Sturmabteilung did when they set up machine-gun posts outside the Reichstag. 'Defy us, and pay the penalty.'

There are 'gun rights' and then there's open intimidation of their political opponents - and increasingly, the intentions of the gun-carrying protestors are becoming very clear: If democracy doesn't provide them with the results they seek, they have other methods at their disposal.

Although comparisons between modern politics and the Nazi movement are generally discredited by Godwin's Law and the principle of Reductio ad Hitlerum - perhaps they shouldn't be in this case.

[Is the 'Hitler' comparison overused by both liberals and conservatives? - Editorial Bear]

Conservatives want to paint an image of themselves as 'tea partiers' embodying the rebellious spirit which founded America - but have they crossed the line from 'rebellious spirit' into fascist thugdom? If not - how long will it take until they do?

One thing's for sure - if we don't do something about it, American health care reform will be decided by liars, angry mobs and gun-toting thugs - and that will benefit nobody.