Gov. Paul LePage’s comparison of the Internal Revenue Service to the Nazi Gestapo was closer to fact than fiction if one considers the IRS tactics and operations — if you don’t pay your taxes, you will be sent to jail.

The Nazis stood for national socialism, and communism stood for international socialism. In 1848, they all met in London and hired Marx and Engels to write “The Communist Manifesto.” The second item in their platform for developing countries to adopt was a heavy progressive or graduated income tax. It took them 65 years for them to get it here. It is sad that our state has it.

The Jewish leaders, in reacting to LePage’s radio address when he first mentioned the Gestapo, stated that politicians should avoid Nazi terms when mentioning democratic institutions. They are ignorant of historical facts, for the word democratic or democracy doesn’t appear in any federal document or state constitution. In Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, it is written that every state in the union shall be guaranteed a republican form of government.

The “Communist Manifesto” does say “we have seen above that the first step in the revolution is to win the battle of democracy.”

I do agree with one phrase that the Jewish leaders used in reaction to Gov. LePage’s comment — that “words matter.” Do they ever.

Ignorance is also dangerous.

Eddie Shurtleff, Rumford