The billboard above, while being criticized by many, including other factions of the Tea Party as a whole, is free speech and as such is a protected right.
With that said, I find Hitler comparisons to be in bad taste as I did in the thousands of instances that can be Googled where Leftists used the same comparisons in conjunction with President George Bush.
The billboard states "Radical Leaders Prey On The Fearful & Naive", has the catch phrase "Live Free Or Die", It shows pictures of Adolf Hitler, Barack Obama and Vladimir Lenin. It presents the word "change" under each photo and it shows each man wearing their own symbol, via a button on their coats.
Those comparisons are factually correct.
With recent polls showing that 55 percent of Americans think Barack Obama is a socialist, I can understand the reasoning behind the North Iowa Tea Party's comparisons, fighting against allowing America to become a socialized country under the Obama rule, but the comparisons above are the full extent of the comparisons that can be made.
Barack Obama does not do experiments on twins, does not mandate genetic experiments, has not suggested the extermination of a whole race of people, has not ordered the killing of all sick and disabled, has not created gas chambers and concentration camps, etc..... getting my point?
Anyone that has researched and studied the Holocaust and events leading up to it, would find the comparison made in the billboard in bad taste.
It is still free speech and it is still a protected right under the first amendment of the Constitution.
[Update] Billboard covered up.
The phrase “radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive” had been plastered at the bottom of the billboard yesterday. Ryan Rhodes, chairman of the Iowa Tea Party movement, says the billboard was counterproductive.
“It’d be great to have a billboard that’s really actually helpful, that’s not demonstrating fear but demonstrating freedom and that we have solutions and goals,” Rhodes says.
SNIP
“It’s got to be more than just the initial shock/fear value,” Rhodes says. “What we need is something that accomplishes our goals because our goals are about helping people understand and educating them about our nation’s founding and the path bath to American exceptionalism.”
Good choice and the fact that they made it is telling.
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