FRAMESHOP:CALLING JON STEWART: GET SAVAGE!

Media Matters has a clip up of Michael Savage comparing Obama to the Nazis--saying that green workers who will be trained to weatherize windows (e.g.) will be equivalent to a 'private army' and no different than Hitler's brown shirts. He also calls Van Jones a 'street thug'--that's Van Jones who says that we should train people to weatherize windows, retrofit buildings, and put up solar panels as part of a broader plan to revive the economy and create a sustainable future.

Nazi brown shirts broke windows and beat up people.

Obama's green labor force will repair windows and lower our energy use.

It's really hard to tell the two apart--if you are Michael Savage.

Listen to the clip and as you do: think about how to get Jon Stewart to take down Michael Savage.

(clip courtesy of Media Matters)

So here is the scenario that Savage says we should be aware of:

1. Obama hires Van Jones as the Green Czar (true)

2. The Green Czar trains thousands of workers to weatherize windows (true)

3. Obama distributes guns to the green workers (wait a sec...say what?)

4. Obama gives green workers with guns authority over local police (deep breath, hold it in...man, this dope is strong)

5. America is Nazi Germany (Dude! I could KILL a plate of cookies right now!)

Seriously, folks, can you smell the LSD-spiked pot smoke wafting through the windows as you listen to Savage ramble on about window repair workers turning into storm troopers?

What makes this all possible is the THC induced argument that Hitler's paramilitary force--who goosestepped through Germany, beat up dissenters, and broke store windows--are the exact same (THE EXACT SAME) as people trained to install weather stripping, triple-pane dormers, and spray insulation foam.

(pause. hit head against desk.)

Van Jones, we are told, is not really interested in weatherizing and employment and lowering energy use--despite writing. Silly, naive, you. Van Jones is a modern day Ernst Röhm whose real job will be intimidate and destroy anyone who disagrees with the Obama administration on anything.

It's all happening around you--can't you see it? Heat pumps and winter door molding is a slippery slope to concentration camps and crematoria.

The money quote from Savage:

"It seems that the Obama appointees actually have almost the same exact policies as the Nazi Party did." - Michael Savage

So, there you have it. Obama and Hitler: same policies. Same exact policies. All our industry will be nationalized--seized. Roaming bands of paramilitary thugs everywhere.

All you have to believe to see this obvious, frightening truth is smoke pot laced with angel dust believe this sentence:

"What you don't know is that the environment is being used in this case by the Obama administration to gain control of the U.S. population." - Michael Savage

But now we know. And thank goodness for it.

Calling Jon Stewart
Now, I have been writing about violent right-wing media long enough to know what is happening in this Savage spiel, today, and also to understand what needs to be done about it (see, e.g., Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons Our Democracy).

Make no mistake about it: Savage is comparing Obama to Hitler in order normalize the idea that violence against the President and his policies are an acceptable form of political behavior. That is his point, and we should all be grateful to organizations like Media Matters for calling attention to it.

But here's the frustrating part: calling attention to Michael Savage's words is not enough to prevent them from doing damage. Something else has to be done.

In American politics, today, satire is the antidote to the violent political mindset of Michael Savage and his ilk. We do not want to block Michael Savage from speaking--we want to make sure that his words are received with the ridicule and derision they deserve when he does speak.

I know of no person better at that task, these days, than Jon Stewart. When he sets his mind to it, Jon Stewart has the platform and the team in place to thoroughly bind right-wing pundits in a crippling web of satire. The result: they collapse under the weight of their own ridiculousness.

So the solution here is not just to get outraged, but to mobilize our contacts and our collective voices so that we can LAUGH at Savage--which is what should be the case.

Barack Obama has more in common with a plate of schnitzel and potato salad than he does with Adolph Hitler. And to compare Van Jones to Ernst Röhm would not even make sense in the last throes of a PCP overdose.

Please, Jon Stewart: wrap Michael Savage in the satire he deserves--for everyone's sake.