My offspring have all graduated from watching children’s cartoons. I haven’t watched them in a long time. I am not much of a television of movie person, but the Disney shows seemed entertaining and generally wholesome.

I recently happened to catch a portion of a morning cartoon on the Disney channel. One of the program breaks was not an advertisement, but rather what may be called a teachable moment. My jaw dropped when I saw what they were teaching our children. The subject was something called the “Snack Police”. The animated segment had cartoon children with badges, who were called the snack police. They were searching for violators. When they came upon a kid eating a candy bar, they asked the tv viewing audience “can you see what is wrong?” They highlighted the candy bar and asked “Should we write him up?” They came upon another with a can of soft drink, again asking the viewers if they could see what was wrong. Another child was laying down under a tree. He should be out getting exercise and doing something worthwhile. Again viewers were asked “Should we write him up?”

I understand the concern over our children eating healthy foods and getting exercise. It is not a bad thing to want our kids to get good nutrition and engage in healthy activity. It is, however, extremely bad to teach our kids to accept fascism, which is the primary lesson from that segment.

Parents should take responsibility to make sure that their children get adequate nutrition and exercise. Parents, in all cases, should also emphatically and energetically reject the idea that any “police” or government official has any business telling them how to raise their children.

Some people may think that the term fascism is a little strong to describe a children’s cartoon lesson. After all, they don’t even know what fascism is. Adolph Hitler, the Nazi dictator said “He alone who owns the youth, gains the future”. That is a pretty sobering line to consider when all of our major politicians are so interested in “the children”.

Grownups are also being effectively desensitized to fascism. People are coming to accept anti-smoking legislation, radical anti-obesity campaigns, laws limiting the foods that restaurants can serve and laws restraining freedom of speech during political campaigns. “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand contained a memorable speech by the protagonist, Howard Roark. He made the following observation: "The 'common good' of a collective – a race, a class, a state – was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over man,”. “Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetuated by the disciples of altruism?"

Government programs to force us to live lives that politicians consider healthy are eerily reminiscent of Hitler’s own anti-smoking, anti-drug, and anti-obesity programs. He was interested in the health of the good German. He also was interested in the children. He determined how people were to live and forced them to obey, for their own good, of course.

How could anyone possibly equate the words of Hitler, the murderous tyrant, with our politicians, who are so well meaning? The answer is: by listening to presidential candidates speak, by reading the laws already in place that increasingly undermine personal liberty, by hearing the lies most congressman and state legislators tell constituents. Hitler came to power through entirely legal means. He used the tools at his disposal to consolidate power legally. He used compelling rhetoric to convince a naïve public that they should trust him.

The German people of his time were tired of the difficulties, poverty and hard times imposed by the old socialism and conditions after the loss of World War I. They were looking for a savior, someone to believe, someone to lift them up. Unfortunately for the German people and the world, his theme was that “The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one”.

The people of The United States are under the spell of big liars. Americans believe those who say they have the power to end poverty. They fall for the lie of free health care for all. They accept, without question, that government officials know what is best for them. The snack police are not just cartoon characters. They are lurking in the halls of government, waiting for the opportunity to make you a better person, just like Adolph was.