Obama Calls For Students to Work Hard, Stay In School, Conservatives Respond With Outrage

In a recent interview with student reporter, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 -- the first day of school for many children across America -- he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.

The other day I turned on Fox News to catch the tail end of a commercial warning of "your children being exposed" to someones "radical agenda." I wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about, but I knew it would be hilarious. It turns out President Obama's bland and innocuous Back-to-School announcement is driving people absolutely crazy. Many on the right have already made direct comparisons to Chairman Mao, the Hitler Youth, and other Orwellian regimes.

Glenn Beck has repeatedly referred to it as an "indoctrination", telling his viewers to be on guard, and that their republic is under attack.

On his own soapbox, Sean Hannity used essentially the same words, to which Michelle Malkin responded "We know that the left has always used kids in public schools as guinea pigs and as junior lobbyists for their social liberal agenda."

Fox News contributer Andrea Tantaros said "They do this type of thing in North Korea and the former Soviet Union," adding: "It seems very cultish, very sort of get in the minds of the kids."

Today's OC Register even has an editorial by Mark Steyn claiming that Obama is trying to develop a "cult of personality" similar to those of such dictators as Kim Jong-Il and Saddam Hussein.

Some are going so far as to keep their children from attending school that day in order to prevent them from hearing the President tell them to not drop out.

Pamela Geller writes:

The fascist in chief is taking his special brand of brainwashing to the classroom. Keep your kids home. I think this man is a threat to our basic unalienable rights. I don't want him indoctrinating my children. Seriously.

Ask your school what their participation is in this leftist indoctrination outrage. Keep politics out of the classroom. Keep communists and their propagandists away from small children.

A sentiment also voiced by Bryan Fischer of the contemptible AFA:

Unless we get public assurances from the White House that the president won't address health care or global warming or the homosexual agenda (under the color of "human rights for people different than us") this might be a great time for parents to exercise their opt-out authority and give their students a biography of George Washington to read while the President turns the minds of an entire generation to mush.

All of which is pretty, well, insane. Especially considering that President Bush Sr. did almost exactly the same thing in 1991, broadcasting a speech in classrooms "to motivate America's students to strive for excellence; to increase students' as well as parents' responsibility/accountability; and to promote students' and parents' awareness of the educational challenge we face," as did Reagan in 1988.

Furthermore, Reagan repeatedly 'proselytized' his discredited and debunked Reaganomics theory of tax cuts for the wealthy, and no one compared him to Hitler (well, at least in that context).