Firstly, I think the word ‘fascist’ is bandied about far too much and slapped on everything that leaves a bad taste in the opposing side’s mouths. This weakens the term and increases the likelihood that the use of the term will be met with :rolleyes: even when it is legitimately being used.
From my point of view, everything conservatives do, from moderate to neo- to paleo-, is generally not fascist. That doesn’t mean it can’t be nasty, socially and politically backwards, and not deserving of the loudest vocal opposition that can be mustered. On the other hand, I think there are people who occupy prominent positions in the media and politics who have a very good potential of becoming fascists should the shit hit the proverbial fan. (I share a birthday and an alma mater with one of them.)
Fascism really only comes out as a force in situations where, politically and economically, society is falling apart at the seams, and revolutionary elements are presenting a real challenge to the old order but are not fully organized to realize that challenge, and the old order does not feel confident enough to meet and eliminate that challenge without further eroding its precarious position at the top. Germany and Italy both had these periods of intense radical, quasi-revolutionary challenge, and in both cases the fascists stepped up to offer their services and were gladly taken on (King Victor Emmanuel appointing Mussolini PM, Hindenburg appointing Hitler Reich Chancellor after a decade of the Nazis working on the ground). In neither case were they a part of the system but began their work from the outside.
The eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency were not fascist. Nor did they move the country towards fascism. (A lot of the last forty years have seen the growth of a police state in the US, but that is not the same thing.) The country is not in the same sort of political crisis that Germany and Italy were in the 1920s and 1930s (although absence of real economic recovery would go a long way towards provoking one) and therefore there is no precarious balance of power for the fascists to tilt.
There are, of course, fascist organizations out there. They’re active. They’re not the “Tea Party” idiots and Palinite bigots; they’re genuine Nazis. Fortunately, they’re still on the margins of society. They are a danger that needs to be taken into consideration and opposed.
Fascism in America will arrive on an anti-Fascist platform. – Huey Long
The District Attorney of the United States recently dropped charges of voter intimidation against two Black Panthers who harassed and threatened white voters at a polling place. Meanwhile, a young white man who displayed a noose to demonstrators in Jena is doing hard time.
Sure, fascism may be coming to America soon. But it won’t be the kind of fascism the OP had in mind.
Maybe Kenneth Gladney and the SEIU? I’m with Steve Benen’s take on the situation, though. Dude’s hamming it up for his 15 minutes. On the other hand, there’s the incident in Tampa, Florida, when wingers were ready to beat down the doors and windows because the place had reached capacity. Not to mention the ugliness and shouting inside the place.
You appear to have been misinformed. The right is specifically organizing and instructing these people to scream and disrupt the proceedings. Cite. (PDF)
This is because the right can’t win on the merits, they’re wrong about healthcare and only by outright lying to people can they drum up the outrage they need to disrupt the process.
Death panels, bureaucrats, and Hitler are stupid lies propagated by the right, including members of congress and people with a national platform.
And the administration website you mention isn’t to turn in people. It is to have a list of the lies that Republicans and their drones are telling so the administration can actually inform people. Maybe if something outrages you, you could take a couple of minutes to find out if the person who told you about it was lying or not. Doesn’t that seem like what a rational person would do?
There isn’t a whole website devoted to this. There is one entry in a blog at the White House site. I don’t have the link immediately available, but it seemed to me that the blogger was simply asking people to let them know what kind of misinformation is out there so that they can prepare responses to it. They’re not asking for names or personal information.
It is a government web site where people are asked to forward electronic mail so governement employees can scrutinize it. The White House is asking for people to turn in emails that aren’t in line with the President’s policy. Seems personal to me.
You forget that Comrade Palin exposed the nefarious plans of Der Reichsführer Rahm Emanuel and the Supreme Overlord Obama and their Death Camps of medicine.
Her saving us from the death camps should at least buy us a decade or so from the evils of the Fascists.
Interesting, Magiver, would you agree that one of the prime methods for spreading disinformation in the USA is through chain mail? I’m not American but from the amount of pit threads they’ve generated it seems to be a issue for a lot of people.
What do you think is an appropriate way for a government to a) Find out what people are saying about their policies b) correct wrong and hurtful information?
I think its disingenuous to try and claim that anyone in the Whitehouse cares about private email correspondence.
Even after a decade, you guys have not stopped hanging off OJ Simpson’s curly, black scrotum hairs. Yes, he brutally murdered those white people and got away with it. So what. What’s curious is that I’m sure not one person here shed a shred of outrage for Rodney King, Malice Green, or Robert Davis and the exoneration of the police officers that beat them to a pulp - on camera. Far as I’m concerned, the mournful wails of Goldman family can add to to the chorus of minorities who, since their arrival on these shores four hundred years ago, have been bitch-slapped by the justice system and ground to dust by law enforcement, while whites looked on in mild indifference or detatched amazement. Sad to say it, but maybe we need more OJ’s so that whites can see just how unfair the justice system is and how it needs to be reformed from the ground up. Money and power should never tip the scales of justice nor should it untie the cloth folding around her eyes. The sooner this occurs, if it can indeed happen, the U.S will have taken a significant step in unearthing the convenent in the Constutition to “insure domestic Tranquility” for all.
So, the President doesn’t only want to hear people agree with him, but actually wants to find out what people who disagree say? Oh the horror. After 8 years of Bush, I can see why you’d think this was unAmerican.
Meh. There’s a BIG difference between disrupting town hall meetings with noisy blowhards and disrupting town hall meetings with armed paramilitary groups. Not all “extra-democratic means” are the same.
I vote for alarmism. I think it’s desperation, pettiness, and bad form on the GOP tea party types, but not a step toward fascism. This too shall pass. The tactic will still be in the Dirty Tricks Playbook from now on, but in 6 mos. to a year, it won’t be used as vigorously/frequently as it is being used now.
You should be glad your President cares what you think.
The important question is what he does about it. If he responds with words, information and legislation that does not equal fascism, if he responds with police action, intimidation and silencing free speech that’s fascism.
And I’d like to see the web site if anyone has a link.