"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power"
- Benito Mussilini
"The dramatic, $700-billion (U.S.) Washington bailout of banks and brokerages has many in the U.S., too, wondering if such radical government intervention in the private sector presages, as the Washington Post headlined a recent essay, "the end of American capitalism" and "market-knows-best" thinking."
- David Olive, Business Analyist, Toronto Star
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What we've all bore witness too in American political circles is a reinvention of government the likes we haven't seen since the new deal. Those that stand in opposition have been cast out as being anti-American, unpatriotic, socialists, communists, radicals, or worse.
The only thing more freightening than the right wings behavior, which is according to the wikipedia definition of the term, fascist, is their bizarre attempt to stop the party in opposition by claiming that it is the true threat to the state.
To spell it out, take a look at the wikipedia definition:
Fascism is a totalitarian and nationalist ideology. It is primarily concerned with perceived problems associated with cultural, economic, political, and social decline or decadence, and which seeks to solve such problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth by exalting the nation, protecting the nation from what fascism deems as the excesses of the internationalist ideologies of capitalism and communism by advocating a Third Position, promoting the territorial defense or expansion of a nation through a constant state of military preparedness and promotion of militarism as well as promoting cults of unity, strength and purity.
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The Republican party after its embarrasing failures in Iraq, Afganistan, Guantanamo Bay, in energy policy, and massive housing and financial market failures finds itself in the uncomfortable position of having the false tissue thin veil behind its true motives and beliefs revealed.
Nothing could make this more apparant than the rise of Barack Obama. The American Idealism of the republican party is terminally threatened; failed immigration policy all but assures the end of the hegemony of white supremicists, which the Republican party has relied on for carrying rural America since the passage of the Civil Rights Act by Lyndon Johnson.
I will make the argument that Republican Party is a fascist movement. It aspires first and foremost to create a state of one party national government. It purports that its values are truly American. It has taken ownership in America's symbols- the flag, the pledge of allegiance, the unofficial motto: In God We Trust, the term patriotism, even the word right which now has fully intended implication that right wing values are "correct".
"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."
- Alaska Governor, VP Candidate Sarah Palin
In this sitation, the decidedly non-erudite governor of Alaska famously projected a Republican vision of America considerably similar to Bush's "for us or against us" State of the Union speech.
Demeaning those who disagree is a necessary step to embolden your supporters to crush and destroy the opposition. The Secret Service saw a spike in death threats against the Obamas during this period. Hate filled individuals with right leaning tendencies- including those with white supremicist leanings (which is hard right, by the way) had the emotional and intellectual ammunition because they were being told that America was under grave threat.
These grievances are not new and certainly not restricted to Palin. Michael Savage, Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh are more effective in selling the vision of a fascist America under the permanant rule of one party than Leni Riefenstahl was of depicted Adolf Hitler as some modern-day Roman emperor in her film Triumph of the Will.
II. Rigging the Vote
Much has been written about Republican efforts to subvert the Democratic process. Each election cycle Republican efforts seek to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands, if not millions of voters, through election registration fraud, caging, and intimidation.
This year, due to the impending Obama landslide, Ohio State Republican party has launched a robocall to inform potential voters that they need to vote by absentee right away to offset the Democrats attempts to swell the rolls with bogus voters and commit voter fraud. This sentiment has been echoed by John McCain who has called the bogus ACORN scandal a threat to the fabric of our democracy. This is the same tactic that has been practiced by the Republican party for more than 20 years where they have rejected nearly every national election that did not go in their favor.
Stickers saying "Impeach Clinton" were on cars before Bill Clinton was sworn in. Republicans were able to remove California Governor Gray Davis undemocratically due to an energy crisis caused by Republican influenced company, Enron. It is of no surprise that the Facebook group "Impeach Obama" had already surfaced the day after the election and that the mainstream media had begun to cover this as if it were viable news.
Further instances of the GOP descent into fascism has not gone without notice in popular culture, Fox's Family Guy showed an irreverent jab at them by showing Nazi foot soldiers wearing a McCain / Palin button. This satirical jab is somewhat less freightening than portraiture showing President George W. Bush with a halo around his head, praying, and being led by God into his crusade against the people of the middle east.
III. Where this is heading
Ask yourselves, in what free country is morality enforced through legal code? Where religious values are placed into law and strictly upheld. If the answer you come up with is: not a free one - or - a country practicing Sharia law then you are partly right. The other part of the situation is- well- you are living in a country with an unchecked Republican platform.
God was added to the pledge of allegiance by Eisenhower. Why is it even necessary to recite a pledge of allegiance to a free country is beyond me- but it existed in another form before the religious Ike began to cross the church and state rubicon.
It has persisted since. Prayer in school? Isn't this the religious version of card checking? If the republicans are against the intimidation factor of non-union people employing intimidation to get their ways but have no problems with children of non-praying families intimidated and bullied by those pious little wonderful christian kids who cannot possibly do algebra without first praying to Jesus?
The truth of the matter is the Republican party is not for small government and staying out of your life. It is willing to sell the country to corporate interests for the money necessary to run their campaigns to turn this once free land into a modern day Christian Empire. They have the bitter gun clingers in the palm of one hand and the bible thumping zealots in the other.
IV. Conclusion
The question we have to ask ourselves is not whether we are American. That much is obvious. The real question is whether we wish to continue down a path of national self destruction where we turn on each other and lose sight of our national purpose and unity. Shooting wars start because of things like this. America, as history has proven, is not so exceptional that things like this cannot happen. The Republican Party used to be known as the bloody shirt party- to get their way, they'd wave a bloody shirt representing the sacrifices the country made during the civil war. The term- vote the way you shot was another get out the vote slogan. It is time for the Republican Party to look at what it's done and what we've lost as a nation in their search for empire and power.
Soon enough that bloody shirt will be replaced by a golden cross. You watch. It's already happening