The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.
Over at Kiwiblog, David Farrar is having a connipition at some school principal in Invercargill who, on his Facebook page, vindicates Godwin's law by comparing Anne Tolley to Hitler. DPF then notes that this is evidence that the campaign against National Standards in schools is becoming "more deranged", before sarcastically declaiming:
Yes having the Ministry of Education call a school up is of course Nazi Germany all over again, and a principal who calls the Minister, Hitler, is exactly the sort of leadership we want in our schools.
You might wonder at whether David Farrar has a bit too much time on his hands if he's scouring Facebook looking for things that annoy him (as well as wondering whether that's not an endless task ... ). But I think we can all agree with him that people who compare their political opponents to evil dictators responsible for the deaths of millions of people are a bit silly and, in John Stewart's words, need to take it down a notch.
Unless, of course, they are your opponents. And they are proposing something you don't like.
In that case, the only reasonable response is to create a series of giant billboards in which some of the worst mass murderers in history - Mao Tse Tung, Kim Jong-Il - praise your opponent and their policy. Because that's not deranged ... it's merely "a clear statement that we regard [the relevant] legislation as anti-democratic and unconstitutional."
Or, rather, when I do it, it is OK. But when someone else does it, it is not OK.