Carol Smaldino just posted a new blog that directly addresses the licentious and dangerous use of "Naziism" by health care reform opponents and how that really compares to what is happening in America right now. 

Bullies Delight in Town Hall and Center

By Carol Smaldino, CSW 

A probing and shocking book, The Nazi Conscience by Duke University Professor Claudia Koonz, examines the kind of conscience and ethical convictions that spread throughout Nazi Germany while she makes the reader feel close to the same dilemmas. 

Conscience, as used here, is any set of rules based on an ethic that is not always seen by the rest of humanity as having anything to do with justice or decency.  Conscience, she writes, "tells us to whom we shall and shall not do what.  It structures our identity by separating those who deserve our concern from alien 'others' beyond the pale of our community." She reminds of Greek, Jewish and Christian tendencies to extend charity and care only to members of the group of inclusion throughout Western history.

During the recent town hall meetings on healthcare, we have witnessed a spate of violent bullying and psychological (sometimes physical) assault, moods of hostility and derision which has stooped to levels that defy any clear intention to act for the greater good. It is about conserving the welfare of the "us" against the "them," with "them" being perceived as unworthy, unfit and dangerous to our future.  "They" are accused of trying to destroy the capitalistic way of life and of trying to take away the God given right to ownership and property rights.

One wonders which "God."

In this context, charity is reserved for exotic causes and people far from our shores and comes in packages or checks, but it surely isn't for citizens on our soil who don't comport with our concept of who counts as deserving. To trivialize Naziism as these protesters too often do, or to reduce any side of a contemporary conflict to the degradation of inflamed name calling is not only repulsive, but it is also unhelpful. The electric charge stays in the air and does only damage.  I think it is nothing less than necessary to study with curiosity the human tendency to have aggressive and genocidal strains in our behavior here as well as anywhere abroad.

There is a duality in our midst, and it goes beyond polarization along political party lines. The river running through this dichotomy of values and actions also has to do with the idea of how we see ourselves.  And as long as any group sees the mirror image of good and pure and innocent, there is the implied sanction to assault, eject and negate others who are perceived as "less than." 

 Read the rest of the article here... and learn the conclusions she draws on this important issue.

In the interst of full disclosure, Carol Smaldino is one of my clients. She has a regular blog on The Huffington Post, and I think she is terrific. From time-to-time, when I think it is appropriate, I will share her work with OS readers.