Thursday, October 23, 2008

Who was it, really?

Who Am I?

I was raised in one country but my father was born in another. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with a number of women.

I became very close to my mother because my father showed little interest in me. Then my mother died at an early age from cancer. Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a reliable birth certificate.

I grow up practicing one faith, but converted to Christianity because this was widely accepted in my country. But I practiced non-traditional beliefs and did not follow mainstream Christianity.

I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

I became active in local politics when I was in my 30s and then burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office when I was in my 40s. I had a virtually non-existent resume, very little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker who managed to draw incredibly large crowds during my public appearances.

At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was critical of my country in the last war. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I had a plan on how we could do better. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess.

Mine was a people's campaign. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics and was able to gain widespread popular support. I offered the people the hope that together we could change our country and the world.

I spoke on behalf of the downtrodden including persecuted minorities such as Jews, but my actual views were not widely known until after I became my nation's leader. However, anyone could have easily learned what I really believed if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. But they did not.

Then I became the most powerful man in the world, and the world learned the truth.

Who am I?


Sounds a lot like a particular presidential candidate on the current ballot, doesn't it?

However it isn't -

It's Adolph Hitler.

Thanks to Ann for sharing this.

6 comments:

Joe said...

And what is the point of this? This is precisely the problem with our current political discourse. It is not about intelligent discussion and disagreement about real issues, but it is about smearing people and using every kind of rhetorical trick imaginable to instill fear and hatred in people. This is precisely what is wrong with the Republican party and with conservativism today and I will say that when prolife Republicans do this kind of thing, they destroy the credibility of the prolife movement.

Elisabeth said...

Joe,
So far as I'm concerned, the point is that once upon a time, in too-recent history, a nation in need was swayed by rhetoric and appearances and a lot of promises that turned that nation to a ruin, a byword for moral depravity, the loss of millions of lives - the attempted destruction of an ethnic group and culture -

and all because people were caught up in the superficial appearances presented by the man - and paid absolutely NO attention to the philosophies and ambitions he had laid out very plainly years before, in Mein Kampf.

We either learn from history, or we repeat it.

THAT is the point, my friend.

Joe said...

Laura,

Okay, but what specific proposals of Barack Obama are even remotely similar to the evils that Hitler perpetrated (besides his being pro-Abortion which I agree is gravely wrong)? And by the way, I'm no apologist for Obama. I just think that we have to be careful about what we say and how we treat public figures.

Elisabeth said...

How many people are aware of the fact that Obama opposed the rescue of infants who survive abortion? or understand what it means to be a "community organizer" (i.e., agitator)? or the nature and reality of Black Liberation Theology? Or the claims Islam has on his heart - which is in his autobiography, by the way -

There are a lot of things Obama has said, and not said, that are alarming.

And as happened 70 years ago, we are already seeing the suppression of First Amendment Rights in opposition to his candidacy - so we can only imagine that similar and worse will occur if he is elected.

Obama has already made it clear that he will not tolerate opposition, once he is in the White House.

We need to be cautious - and afraid.

Joe said...

Okay, I am not quite as concerned as you are and maybe I'm wrong. By the way, as Mark (in Spokane) will tell you, I'm not averse to being challenged. So I take these arguments seriously, but never personally. :-).

Elisabeth said...

Joe, you're always welcome to challenge me. I'm new to politics - but I can't help but draw comparisons between what we're seeing in Blog Talk Radio and other places where free speech is suppressed in favor of Obama, and Corrie ten Boom's story of the persecution her brother Willem, who had preached against Hitler and National Socialism, faced once Hitler had invaded Holland.

I believe we're in for a rough ride if Obama is elected.