Grand Rapids Invaded by Godwin’s Law
Grand Rapids, Michigan is a great town. I live 40 minutes from it and go there all the time. But it’s also a conservative stronghold and home to the evil Amway corporation. And apparently also to crazy people who think Obama is the second coming of Adolf Hitler.
A flyer recently placed on parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids pictures President Barack Obama next to a Nazi swastika, threatening that a “Holocaust is coming.”
“Obama is a puppet,” reads the handout that decries the Affordable Care and the National Defense Authorization acts. “Hitler’s Nazi Germany has been revived in the U.S. and the target is Americans.” …
“Obama’s health care bill is not a health care bill, instead it’s a total government takeover of every area of life (read the fine print) like gun confiscation, euthanasia and so on (euthanizing the poor, the elderly, the ill, those who’ve maxed out their health insurance and so on) there are no jobs and everyone will eventually be poor,” the card states.
There’s nothing on the card to indicate who printed it, but there is a link to a website that urges people to vote for Ron Paul. I’m not shocked by any of this, unfortunately.
Richard Bartholomew:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:09 am
The first time I ever heard of Grand Rapids was when I came across a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth in the 1980s. It was published by Zondervan, one of a number of Christian publishers based there.
Improbable Joe:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:11 am
You left out the part about Alex Jones. This is the intersection of several forms of lunacy… the greatest of which might be not realizing that Obama has governed from a center-right position on nearly every issue while they’re accusing Obama of being left-wing.
bubba707:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:14 am
Actually, given the expanding of the TSA into rail and bus stations, expanded domestic surveillance and still growing militarization of the police, I see the US going more in the direction of the post Stalin Soviet Union. Of course, it could still follow the Chinese model.
Judas:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:30 am
Don’t they know that if enough people vote for Ron Paul it will ensure an Obama victory?
TGAP Dad:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:45 am
I lived near and worked in GR for a while, and I can say that it was a relief when my job was downsized forcing me to move. Grand Rapids is bad enough, but what I didn’t realize was that it was the oasis of progressiveness, from a west Michigan perspective. It forms the eastern tip of a roughly triangular area whose western termini are on Lake Michigan at Holland and Muskegon. Within that triangle is the stronghold of the xtian reformed church (offshoot of the Dutch reformed church) and daily lives are ruled in a sharia-like fashion for both adherents and non-adherents. Just ask anyone who lived there and tried to mow his own lawn on a Sunday how it went. The very next job offer I got was enticement enough for me to sprint from that place, along with my expectant wife and toddler. I can’t believe there’s any place even in rural Alabama or Oklahoma which would be more hostile to non-believers than that area of west Michigan.
From my perspective, this Godwin’s Law incident strikes me as somewhat mundane for the area.
D. C. Sessions:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:51 am
I am sure that Paul and his inner circle know this, and I’m quite sure that if anything they see it as a Good Thing — all the more reason to fear the power of the Paulistas.
I’m also pretty sure that like the teabaggers, the local fanatics are not nearly so interested in results as in purity.
democommie:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:57 am
“But it’s also a conservative stronghold and home to the evil Amway corporation. And apparently also to crazy people who think Obama is the second coming of Adolf Hitler.”
I think that you’re being redundant.
Why didn’t Xeorwhateverthefucktheynowcallthemselves locate their scout camp in MI instead of down south? Is it ‘cuz the locals already do a better job of policing themselves than would be done by paid jackbootedthugs?
raven:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:17 am
Not the greatest effort.
The guy left out the commies and the Space Reptiles. You can’t have a great conspiracy theory without the Space Reptiles!!!
The news yesterday said that Gary Johnson, former GOP governor of New Mexico was going to run for president as a Loonytarian Party candidate.
Wouldn’t bother me a bit if every Tea Partier voted for him but usually out here, the Gibbertarian Party gets a percent or two of the vote and that is it. When they even bother to field candidates.
One guy got 5% once though. He ran on a platform of legalizing marijuana. LOL.
slc1:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Just as a point of information, the late former President Gerald Ford, although he was not born there, grew up in Grand Rapids.
Michael Heath:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Southwestern Michigan isn’t merely a conclave of calvinist Christians similar to southern baptists in the southern states, but also one of the few money centers that finance a nationalistic fascist form of Christianism.
This forum’s readers are well aware of Thomas Frank’s now validated thesis regarding how plutocrats have been successful at achieving their ends by pandering to the bigotries and tribalism of poor through middle class conservative Christians in spite of the plutocratic objectives’ directly harming this voting base. But another aspect also moves conservative Christians directly and that’s those with money who are also true believers in social conservatism; a disproportionate share of that money comes from southwestern Michigander Calvinists, many of whom belong to the Dutch Reformed denomination.
The Prince, DeVos, and Van Andel families are three of the primary financiers, the latter two being the founding families of Amway which Ed describes here as evil. The DeVos family was a founder of the Heritage foundation, which provides many of the dishonest premises used by the Republican party, e.g., Bush’s revenue projection for his tax cuts came from them given that the Congressional Budget Office provided him with a solid model which showed his cuts would not do what he promised it would. Ditto with Rep. Paul Ryan’s fake economic growth projections which would instead result in transforming the U.S. into a far poorer country due to the human devastation of his plan – which prohibits any mitigation efforts when we reach a decline in the business cycle.
slc1:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Considering the calumny directed against the president, a column from last week’s Washington Post should raise alarm if he is reelected. The recent brouhaha in Columbia is only the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/secret-service-problems-much-bigger-than-prostitutes/2012/05/01/gIQA3tO7uT_story.html
slc1:
May 6th, 2012 at 10:39 am
Re Michael Heath @ #10
It should be noted that the Prince family founded the infamous Blackwater Corporation, which has since morphed into Xe and again into Academi. According to Wikipedia, international criminal Erik Prince has relinquished his involvement in the company and has since moved to Abu Dhabi, probably to avoid any possible international arrest warrant which would result in his being sent to the Hague for trial.
Michael Heath:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:01 am
democommie writes:
Southwestern Michigan is a distinctly separate region from the area where the Hutaree militia lived and operated from, both economically, logistically, and culturally. In addition the brand of Calvinist Christianism practiced in southwestern Michigan has little tolerance for outsider populist revolts like the type the Hutaree fantasized about. They see themselves as a key part of the current power structure, which is true.
Instead the Calvinists seek to gain more power over the current government by way of their being a primary player and financier within the Republican party, especially since the advent of George W. Bush who provided them with access to power, e.g., Erik Prince’s subcontracting during the Afghan and Iraq Wars. Militia types are generally poor outsiders who identify more with Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin, whereas the Calvinists see in Mitt Romney and George W. Bush allies they can work with to advance their cause to the point they can wield real power beyond the GOP. This is the same type of maneuvering we see from the Coors family, the Scaifes, and the Koch brothers – it’s a level of operation which the militia types don’t even know exists – or most conservative Christians for that matter.
tacitus:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Obama’s governing philosophy is the last thing on the minds of Alex Jones fans. These are people who believe that no matter who becomes the next President in 2012 or 2016 (Republican or Democrat), they have been groomed by the globalists to execute their agenda of oppression and suppression.
I listened to a few minutes of Alex Jones on the radio yesterday, and he claims we already live in a Stasis-like state where up to 30 million Americans are spying and informing on the rest of us. He and his supporters take all the real concerns people have about overbearing security measures (TSA, phone/net-tapping, etc.) and explode them into a grand globalist conspiracy where (as the leaflet says) Obama is merely their puppet doing only what he is being commanded to do.
One would think that they would be useful allies in the ongoing battle against authoritarianism in America, but it turns out they’re not really that interested in a real political battle — that’s too much like hard work. They prefer throw up phantoms and shadows to rail against, and then pat themselves on the back for speaking out against them and supposedly putting their lives on the line by doing so. It’s all rather pathetic, really.
tacitus:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:12 am
I believe that’s a feature, not a bug. After all, if you can’t look after yourself and your family, then you are unworthy of being supported by the state anyway, or so they believe.
Michael Heath:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:21 am
tacitus:
What’s ironic is the large percentage of these believers who are direct recipients of government largesse, e.g., retirees dependent upon Social Security and Medicare, retired state workers, currently employed public school administrators, and military personnel. This irony really resonates with me because I’m a self-employed businessman who recognizes optimal economic growth requires a competent participatory government at all levels – local, state, and federal.
democommie:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Michael Heath:
I should have been clearer in my snark. What I meant was that it appears to me that the SWM* are the “good germans” who don’t have to be coerced into doing the KKKristian ReiKKK’s work, whereas allathem redneckgoobers are little better than the mud people and must be monitored much more closely.
“Just as a point of information, the late former President Gerald Ford, although he was not born there, grew up in Grand Rapids.”
Further to slc1′s comment, Gerald Ford and I were both born in Omaha. Coinkydink? I think not!
* South West Michigan as opposed to that other theocracy, South West Asia–with whom we have always been at war.
Ed Brayton:
May 6th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Let’s not go overboard on the “West Michigan is a fascist paradise” meme. It’s actually a pretty cool city. And while it’s certainly home to many religious righters, especially of the Dutch Reformed variety, it’s also home to one of the largest and most active CFI chapters in the country. It’s a very pleasant place to live for the most part, with a huge number of what I’m told are excellent local breweries (I don’t drink beer, but my friends who do rave about the local beer scene), very active progressive communities, both religious (the Fountain Street Church, which has a stained glass window of Charles Darwin, is really cool) and secular, and a thriving food culture as well.
dingojack:
May 6th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
…And the trains run on time, let’s not forget the trains run on time. (Not that I take trains in West Michigan, but friends of mine rave about how you can set your watch by the strict train timetabling). So if you overlook the goosestepping and the Jews being rounded up into ghettoes or deported westward into the Great Plains and the ‘boncentration bampfs’ with their permanent smoke plumes – West Michigan is just like paradise…
Right Ed?
:) Dingo
robertfaber:
May 6th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Grand Rapids isn’t as conservative as it used to be, with all the suburban sprawl we have now. Barack Obama carried Kent county in 2008, by 1572 votes (with a much higher margin in the city of Grand Rapids; in some wards by a 10:1 ratio). Sure there was a democratic surge that year, but by comparison, Ottawa county (where the CRC is firmly entrenched) went for McCain by 33,000 votes. The margin for McCain was 61-37.
NoVaRunner:
May 6th, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Battle Creek, about an hour south of Grand Rapids, was where the Seventh-day Adventist Church got its start. There are crazier denominations, but not many. I am fortunate enough to have freed myself from its clutches.
Michael Heath:
May 6th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
NoVaRunner:
Congratulations on your advancement. I hope the scars have faded away. I also bet you have some stories to tell.
NoVaRunner:
May 6th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
@22 Michael Heath
I consider myself fairly lucky–while I was immersed in the SDA church for the first 18 years of my life, I was able to free myself fairly rapidly. I think joining the military, marrying a non-SDA woman, and moving to Europe helped a great deal.
One time about 20 years ago I was on a field exercise and went to get something to eat at a local gasthaus. I ordered a great, big pork schnitzel. Having worked an odd shift, I was one of only two people in the place, the other being a chaplain. Now, by that point I’d left belief in God behind, but I hate eating alone, and the chaplain’s never going to tell you to piss off. So I sat down with him and immediately noticed he was reading a book by SDA “prophet” E. G. White. Now, SDAs do not eat pork of any kind. So here I am, halfway around the world, and I’ve just sat down with a big hunk o’ pig in front of one of the four SDA chaplains in the entire U. S. military. So of course I had to tell him I knew he was SDA because he was reading E. G. W. and I used to be SDA but not anymore (chomp, chomp). I got lulz out of that for weeks.
Little stuff like that really helped, actually. I look back on my upbringing with a great deal of humor.
Ichthyic:
May 6th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
conclusion:
the guy who made the flyer, Vern Jones?
Yeah, he projects too much.
If anything, it’s nutty authoritarians like himself that resemble most the kind of people that ended up make Nazi Germany a reality.
Obama?
nothing but a target to project onto for these people.
Blackwater Watch » Blog Archive » Grand Rapids Invaded by Godwin's Law | Dispatches from the …:
May 7th, 2012 at 1:00 am
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democommie:
May 7th, 2012 at 6:58 am
Hey, I don’t want to be goin’ all, like, six degrees, on GR…but, I’m lookin’ at Xeorwhateverthefucktheynowcallthemselves and their staunch defense of MurKKKin values and it hits me like a ton bricks. Guess who else has “Wolverines”, that’s right! I KNOW that Charlie Sheen is mixed up in all of this, somehow.