Photo by Sara Bruestle

Supporters of the LaRouche Political Action Committee upset many in the community when they used posters depicting President Barack Obama as Adolf Hitler during their campaigning to impeach him.

Two supporters of Lyndon LaRouche offended passersby in Mukilteo on Monday when they campaigned for the LaRouche Political Action Committee using Obama-as-Hitler posters outside the Mukilteo post office.

LaRouche, 87, has been a perennial candidate for president since 1976, including seven tries for the Democratic Party nomination.

Shocked and frustrated with what they saw, several residents called the Mukilteo Police Department reporting the campaign’s association of President Barack Obama with Adolf Hitler.

“I’m appalled that they’re allowed to put a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache at the post office,” said resident Lynne Moore.  “That picture is really gross.”

Choel Kang, Mukilteo’s crime prevention officer, said the police could do nothing about the campaigning because the supporters are protected under the U.S. Constitution.

“They were not violating any state or municipal law,” Kang said.  “They were legally and peaceably on the public sidewalk campaigning for a political campaign, and any other religious or political organization can do the same.”

Mukilteo police were, however, sent to the post office over concerns that the supporters were getting threatened.

Resident Jeff Stone had told police he was going to remove the posters himself if the supporters wouldn’t do it.  But after talking with police, Stone left without a confrontation.

Stone said he understands that while the posters are upsetting, the First Amendment protects even objectionable free speech.  He just wishes there was a better standard for it.

“The president is not a perfect person, and I’m a little frustrated with the government right now, too, but aligning the president of the United States with the mass-murderer of all time is highly, highly offensive to me,” Stone said.

The supporters refused to talk to the Beacon for this story.

The LaRouchePac political literature compares Obama’s health-care plan to Nazi genocide, saying it “will lead to mass murder of the elderly, the poor and the sick.” 

The literature calls for impeachment of the president, a restructuring of the U.S. banking system and the launching of a national irrigation project. 

Workers at the post office said the LaRouche supporters have campaigned there at least four times so far, and that it puts the community in an uproar every time.

Another resident, Mari Atkinson, said she was upset and compelled to talk to the supporters when she saw the Obama-as-Hilter posters.  She said their explanation of the president’s Nazi connections was “ridiculous” and “doesn’t make any sense.”

“I just had to say something,” Atkinson said.  “As a citizen, there’s no way I could drive by something like that and not talk to them.

“If they just wanted to set up and talk about Obama, fine, but don’t do the Hitler reference.”