Dave Franklin is running for the Michigan House of Representatives seat in Michigan’s 54th district, a seat currently held by Michigan gubernatorial candidate Alma Wheeler Smith. Dave Franklin hates him some government. And Dave Franklin especially hates him some Democratic Party grassroots organizers.
Yesterday, on the Facebook page for a Tea Party protest on the campus of the University of Michigan, I refuted the accusation of one commenter that Organizing for America is an “astroturf” organization (since they are part of a political party and not secretly funded by corporate backers.) Here is his response:
OFA is the equivalent of the brown shirts. It’s an ANTI-LIBERTY and PRO-GOVERNMENT organization. It’s astro-truf “grassroots” in it’s [sic] truest sense. There is nothing freedom oriented about OFA.
Oooo…very classy, Mr. Franklin. I wonder if, by chance, you’ve ever heard of Godwin’s Law???
Organizing for America is the volunteer organization for the Democratic Party. It has staffers in every state, paid for by the DNC, but is mainly staffed by volunteers across the country. I know what I’m talking about here. I’m the Community Organizer for OFA in Ann Arbor. The vast majority of people I work with, both in Michigan and across the country, are either working people with other jobs or retirees who are doing the groundwork for making sure Democrats get their policies passed in Congress and to get Democrats elected in every election.
They are dads.
And moms.
And grandmothers.
And grandfathers.
And students.
And retirees.
And professionals.
In other words, they are citizens of the United States of America who are engaged in their civic duty as Americans to participate in the political process.
And Dave Franklin thinks they are the equivalent of the Nazi paramilitary organization commonly known as the Brown Shirts (aka, “Sturmabteilung” or SA.)
So who, exactly, were the Brown Shirts or SA? From teh WikiGodsTM
The SA carried out numerous acts of violence against socialist groups throughout the 1920s, typically in minor street-fights called Zusammenstöße (‘collisions’).
Their maxims were “Terror must be broken by terror” and “All opposition must be stamped into the ground”.
The Republican party has grassroots organizers, too. I wonder how Mr. Franklin feels about them?
On the same Facebook page, Franklin also says this:
As a person who loves and advocates liberty, I have been unhappy with EVERY president in office during my life. The parties, in essence, work together along side the corporations and banks to maintain power and take our liberties and wealth away. If you want to be free, you need to realize The State is the true enemy of liberty, and that it’s proper roles is soley to protect liberty.
Emphasis is mine, grammar and misspellings are Dave Franklin’s. Total lack of understanding of the term ‘astroturf’ also Mr. Franklin’s.
For someone running for office, this man sure has an odd view of government.
Adding…this is certainly not the first use of the term “Brown Shirts” to describe OFA. It’s just the most recent and it’s the only one I’ve seen coming from a State-level political candidate. It’s also the most personal for me. Other examples are HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and, well, tons more HERE.
UPDATE: Just after I posted this, Mr. Franklin apologized on the same Facebook thread:
Brown shirts was, in hindsight, not what I intended to say. I was not trying to compare the OFA to Nazis. I was trying to associate the OFA with blind allegiance to taking orders from the top down. I apologize for the comment.
Oh. Well. Thanks. That’s SO much better…
I’m just sayi…
