Kim Simac, Tea Party Candidate For Jim Holperin Recall, Compares Public Schools To Nazi Regime

Wisconsin tea party organizer and children's book author Kim Simac has admitted to comparing American public schools to the Nazi regime.

Simac, also Republican candidate for the Aug. 16 recall election of Democratic state Sen. Jim Holperin, wrote a controversial post on tea party social network Patriot Action Network last October. The post recently disappeared from the site going into the general election, Talking Points Memo reports.

From Simac's blog post:

I am done raising my kids but if I was a young parent today I would take my kids out of the public school system today. At what point will we stop talking about the comparisons to what is occurring today and what actually happened by the regime of the Nazi's in the past?

Although the original piece is now a broken link, TPM located a cached version.

In response to questions about her post, and its subsequent disappearance from Patriot Action Newtork, Simac told Wisconsin Public Radio's Glen Moberg Thursday that officials must be careful of what is being taught in schools.

"I mean we can't deny the fact that the world is changing and that we need to stand up for our American values," Simac told Moberg. "I don't think that that's a conversation that I should hide from."

Simac has the support of her party, but also has a history of touting controversial views. Last month, she recommended teaching creationism alongside evolution in schools, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Why not put a cross in a school? Why not talk about Easter in our schools?" She said to the Sentinel.

Holperin is one of 14 Wisconsin state Senate Democrats who left Wisconsin for Illinois in February to protest and delay Senate vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill.

Simac has also been connected to conservative political commentator Glenn Beck, who has noted one of her children's books on his show, and reciprocally, Simac's removed post references a Beck commercial. Beck earlier this week criticized Norway's Utoya Island summer camp for kids, calling it "a little like the Hitler Youth or whatever."

Comments

[Jguig]

11:09 PM on 08/10/2011

How is this different than the HP posters who claimed Bush and his evil VP were Nazis? That was constant.

[GustavoRejivik]

03:24 PM on 08/09/2011

I don't see the big deal here anymore .. Public Schools like the Nazi Regime??

For the past 2 weeks I've had to listen to Progressives and elected Democrats call their political opposition "economic terrorists", "Terrorists" , Racist, bigot Homophobe ... all these horrible names and lies ... well ... it loses its effect after awhile.

So, let's explore how our Public Schools are like the Nazi Regime!!
Propaganda..
Programs Like MAS = Mexican American Studies ...
Green Propaganda...
kids are a captive audience ...
grades low if they don't agree with teacher (furor) ...
how else ???

[weareallzombies]

02:20 PM on 08/15/2011

Please list for me one single thing wrong with teaching kids to recycle and reduce their waste.

[Janicot]

02:47 PM on 08/09/2011

The same Kim Simac who authored the children's title "With My Rifle By My Side - A Second Amendment Lesson"...? The same Kim Simac who hasn't published a single children's title that doesn't push an extremist right-wing political stance? I guess as long as we're talking about public schools under the Nazi regime, didn't they create a lot of innocent-looking chidlren's books that taught young kids just learning to read about "aryan" racial superiority, anti-Semitism, eugenics, and the subjugation of the nation to the will of its leader? Gee, no wonder she sees parallels, she must've taken lessons!

[Erik Jay]

06:54 PM on 08/09/2011

Thank goodness there aren't any LEFT WING extremists ... oops, wait ... 120 million dead at the hands of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot ... Hitler was a pantywaist compared to Mao and Uncle Joe, and they make romantic movies in Hollywood about HOMICIDAL MANIACS LIKE CHE ... but yeah, thank goodness you're reeducated me to understand than only non-Democrats can be extreme. Wait... isn't that sort of, well, extreme? I am willing to let Kim Whozerface write whatever she wants, just like I acknowledge that blowhard Olbermann's right to say whatever he wants. How anyone can be so blinded as to see extremism only in the faces of their enemies is beyond me, and would be beyond you, too, if you contemplated your own confirmation biases a bit more.

[CL38]

07:40 PM on 08/05/2011

This is a typical, but very dangerous tactic of the right. Referring to anything they don't want as a Nazi like policy, etc.

The only thing here that's comparable to the Nazi Regime are the tactics the right is using to take control of the country.

Since they got away with blackmail over the 'debt ceiling', the right is escalating its extreme behaviors.

[Erik Jay]

06:57 PM on 08/09/2011

You're joking, right? The RIGHT WING invented the "Nazi" brush with which to tar people? WHAAAAAT? Good grief. It's been a fave of so-called progressives for 60 years. As far as Dems and the GOP today? A pox on BOTH of them. I say, Legalize Freedom. It worked before, it can work again... of course, most folks, left and right, don't want their opponents to be free, they want them to BEHAVE correctly. I won't do that for any of you, right or left or center. Leave me the F alone -- a sentiment I shared with Justice Brandeis. Look it up. Hint: 1928.

[Packattack]

04:56 PM on 08/04/2011

One thing you hear from all the Tea Baggers and republicans is "I" and "ME", They forget "We the People" is how our Constitution starts not "I the Person". In everything they are totally selfish and greedy, they dont even seem to care about their own parents and grand parents. Just their "guns and money". Then they say they are Patriotic and believe in the Constitution. But when they get in any kinda trouble they start begging for help and texas is the worst state. They talk about how THEY would be better off with out the USA, but then they have fires and its OMG HELP HELP we need money!!!! But their schools are sayin help and they say screw you we want formula 1 car racing. After the fires were out the Fire Departments ask for equipment that was damaged or destroyed to be replaced and they were told "No", why?, because they used most of that money sent to balance their budget.

[inmyhumbleopinion]

11:35 AM on 08/04/2011

Funny how the Tea Partiers keep invoking the Nazis when they are the ones that are going to drive this country to fascism faster than you can say "Mussolini".

[El Confusado]

12:31 PM on 08/06/2011

The Tea Party has put up a video on YouTube called "Types of Government, Explained," in which the narrator and some very helpful graphics show you that Fascism, Naziism, Communism and Socialism are all on the left of Republican Libertarianism. Oh yes. Has a lot of bad things to say about Democracy, by the way. One learns so much from listening to the headless these days.

[MChile124]

10:13 AM on 08/04/2011

As someone who hears Simac ads on the radio every day, I feel I should shed some light on the rest of this woman's campaign. Although this article centers on things Simac has said, and they ARE crazy statements and beliefs, the true story of this campaign is what is not being said. Maybe it's no surprise, but her ads are full of "We will cut taxes and lower spending so that jobs will come back to Wisconsin" [side note: Wisonsin has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country] and when asked about how to get from point A to point B, she says "We will cut taxes and lower spending so that jobs will come back to Wisconsin." The woman knows nothing, she doesn't pay her taxes, and last week she even refused to do a Public Radio debate with Sen. Holperin--although the hour-long live debate has become customary in Wisconsin elections, she couldn't find the time in her busy schedule. It's so maddening to know that she will get so many votes, possibly enough to win the election.

[XtfrM2]

09:13 AM on 08/04/2011

This person writes children's books? How very depressing. Poor kids.

[AndyWright68]

08:48 AM on 08/04/2011

All government schools should be shut down. The government should also stop forcing all other schools to comply with government rules. The government has proven how their interferen­ce destroys education. In fact, anything paid with money stolen from hard working people with threats of violence against them is immoral.

Government schooling will be abolished!

[inmyhumbleopinion]

11:36 AM on 08/04/2011

Let me guess: you flunked out of public high school?

[AndyWright68]

12:48 PM on 08/04/2011

Nope!

[Ana4]

02:44 PM on 08/04/2011

We think there's a divide now; imagine how it would look if/when graduates from some states wouldn't know what Thomas Jefferson had written (or what he did), or what Martin Luther King and Luther Burbank contributed. Imagine these children not understanding Charles Darwin's ideas, regardless of what they think about them.
Firstly, these kids won't get into college except in the Red States.
Secondly, they will be useless in the scientific and engineering professions.
They wouldn't pass the SAT or entrance exams, nor would they pass the GRE. They would be laughed out of academic, scientific, and social circles outside their home state.
Okay, why go to college at all?
They would never get a professional job outside their home states area.
McJob -- and perpetual sefdom awaits those without an education.

[ronniesbrain]

03:15 PM on 08/04/2011

Actually I doubt if they would be qualified to evevn get into a college in their state, certainly not the private, non-religious instiutions. I'm not even sure that they could qualify for their own state schools unless those states changed the requirements for entry.

[AndyWright68]

04:01 PM on 08/04/2011

And you can prove all of this? If any of that was true then we would not have survived this long. There were doctors and scientists long before the government turned schools into brain-crushing institutions of indoctrination and violence.

Tests are proven to be garbage, dropout rates are soaring and literacy rates are far lower now then even before schools existed.

People used to educate themselves and apprentice. Communities got together voluntarily and taught their kids. Private schools were free to teach the way they saw fit. The government has destroyed education.

[Joe Colville]

09:29 PM on 08/03/2011

As I recall Hitler, first jailed teachers, union members, and "leftists".

Who would wear the jackboots today if history repeated?

[inmyhumbleopinion]

11:36 AM on 08/04/2011

Bingo.

[El Confusado]

12:36 PM on 08/06/2011

What do you mean "if history repeated"? Kristallnacht coming up next.

[tsemple2]

08:24 PM on 08/03/2011

It's not the truth that Matters it's the victory.......A Hitler.......I swear I often wonder what's the real deal with the tea baggers

[jimmy mack]

01:33 PM on 08/08/2011

The Tea Party itself was created out of anger and fear. However, the people who started it probably felt they were doing what was right. But somewhere it was co-opted by racist groups, the Heritage Foundation, Grover Norquist, Koch Brothers - etc. It became a better way to control regular republicans over threats of replacing them and their seats.
I believe what the Tea Party started out as and what it has morphed into are two VERY different things.

[zippythedude]

04:26 PM on 08/03/2011

Simac says "we need to stand up for our American values,"....what a loaded comment. What are American values? Hmmm....in the 1700's and 1800's our values were to slaughter native American Indians...in the 1800's our values (in the South) were to defend our right to own slaves...in the early 1900's it was to promote child labor and keep women from voting...in the 1950's (and earlier) it was to promote segregation...in the 1970's it was to send Americans to Vietnam...in current times it is to profile Muslims and deny gays their civil rights. So, what American values are we talking about? A gun in every home? A bible in every bookcase? A Wal-Mart on every block? A McDonald's on every street corner? A non-secular government? An elimination of the middle-class? And outsourcing of jobs to Bangledesh? PLEASE tell me, what "American" values should we stand up for?

[jimmy mack]

01:36 PM on 08/08/2011

Good point - but you lost me about today's values. I agree that many still want to deny gay's their rights. However, there is no law to profile muslims. Now there are a lot of 'Christians' who want to ban everything muslim, but mainstream America has not capitulated to that point just yet.

[Dylan Green]

03:55 PM on 08/03/2011

Not that I like anything about this woman, but how does she compare public schools to Nazi Germany? If anything it seems like she is saying that we should STOP teaching about Nazi Germany and using it as a comparison for current events.

What was that little saying about the Holocaust again.....

[candcje]

03:04 PM on 08/03/2011

"Why not put a cross in a school? Why not talk about Easter in our schools?" She said to the Sentinel.

Well, that's pretty simple. BECAUSE THERE'S A CLEAR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE IN THIS COUNTRY. If you want your children to learn about Easter and see a cross or hear stories of creationism, put them in Sunday school, or enroll them at a Catholic school. If you want them to be part of the PUBLIC education system, then you need to embrace that there will be no religious teachings there, and that all information will be based in fact and science, not mythology - no matter how much you may enjoy said mythology.

[Timothy Thocher]

02:53 PM on 08/03/2011

Tea party candidates always talk about our American values, while trying to push our country toward the values of 1930's Germany. Our American values are about a great SOCIETY. The tea party obsession with indiviualizm stems from their masters the Koch brothers infatuation with Ayn Rand and John Birch. I