They just don’t know when to quit. Consumed with the singular task of re-electing Barack Obama, progressives across the country will use the holiday season to propagandize their conservative relatives and friends. White House elves are directing the re-education Christmas camp efforts.

On Tuesday, the Obama 2012 campaign released an instructional video titled “Home for the Holidays: Share Why You’re Working to Re-elect President Obama.” Instead of relaxing with loved ones, the president’s monomaniacal campaign staff and volunteers provide “pointers” and “strategies” for converting their “stubborn” families.

Not coincidentally, the operatives at MoveOn.org – funded by Obama donor George Soros – spearheaded a similar holiday re-programming effort at Thanksgiving. Headlined, “Your Conservative Uncle,” the group urged supporters (and e-mailed public school teachers across the country whether they approved of the message or not) to “correct” family members who watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh.

Hark, hear the talking points.

The slickly produced Obama video spotlights testimonials from exasperated young people speaking condescendingly of their Republican-voting fathers and grandmothers. Obama, says one, is the “politician of my generation.” He’s a “people’s man,” preaches another. Those who disagree are ignorant, “stuck in their ways” and “works in progress,” the campaign drones complain.

“If the conversation at the dinner table turns to politics over the holidays,” they advise, “don’t just quickly change the subject. As you head home this weekend, think about how you’ll steer the discussion to the progress we’ve made over the past three years – from health care to ending the war in Iraq – and why the people you’re passing the mashed potatoes to should support President Obama in 2012.”

If those people happen to be medical device makers hit by hidden Obamacare taxes or small business-owners still wondering why Big Labor cronies got regulatory waivers while they didn’t, the mashed potatoes might rightly end up somewhere other than on guests’ plates.

Team Obama and their acolytes mock conservative family members who won’t sing from their hymnbook, but fail to address the commander in chief’s own Boy in the Bubble syndrome. The video also whitewashes away mounting left-flank gripes – like those of former White House cheerleader and Hollywood liberal activist Matt Damon, who this week challenged the president’s, er, manhood.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grass-roots level,” Damon told Elle Magazine. “One of them said to me: ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician.’ … You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

Just like their dear leader, the Obama pep-and-prep squad is convinced that the problem is their communication of White House policies instead of the costly, failed, corrupted policies themselves. If only Grandma would watch Obama’s Osawatomie speech on YouTube one more time. If only Uncle George would just be quiet and absorb one more indignant lecture from his Occupy Wall Street-championing niece or nephew.

The left’s single-minded holiday soldiers remind me of journalist Ambrose Bierce’s famous diagnosis: “A bore is a person who talks when you wish him to listen.” There’s a time for political proselytizing. There’s a place for ideological battles. And there’s a moment when you should give it all a rest.

It’s ridiculous to squander precious time with family and friends on partisan squabbles. Shouting over turkey about the payroll tax holiday? Turning the New Year’s Eve Party into a Democratic evangelical service? Severing lifelong relationships over Kabuki Beltway brawls? My Christmas wish is for a collective deep breath and a dose of perspective before America hurtles into the 2012 presidential primaries and caucuses.

This is the time to celebrate the gift of life. I’ll be counting my blessings, enjoying the company of loved ones regardless of their voting records and engaging in prayerful reflection. And when a liberal family member passes the mashed potatoes, I’ll have only one thing to say: Would you mind passing the gravy, too? Thanks.

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