All This Fascism Talk...

Conservatives really piss me off.

They spend 8 years telling us "deficits don't matter", then when the debt increases under Democratic leadership, they throw a hissy fit. As if domestic spending for new construction jobs, extended unemployment benefits, education funding, and health care is somehow not as worthy as cost-plus no-bid contracts for asshole defense contractors to blow up more brown people.

They spend 8 years defending the absolute worst excesses and power-grabs by the Bush Administration, yet claim that Obama is trying to destroy the Constitution by some imagined effort to take away their guns. Its as if the Patriot Act, torture, warrantless wiretapping, warrantless searches and seizure, indefinite detention, GITMO, destruction of Habeus Corpus, bypassing the legislature, encouraging violence against the judiciary, free-speech zones, and, yes, having federal marshalls confiscate guns during Katrina, all of this, never happened.

Now we have insane fuckers like Glen Beck and Michelle Bachmann peddling ridiculous conspiracy HYPOTHESES about National Service Youth and FEMA camps and a whole host of other wacky, unsubstantiated claims. Glen Beck is just the fucking worst too. He constantly has Jonah Goldberg, the author of the incredibly stupid Liberal Fascism, to argue that its LIBERALS that are the fascists. Give me a fucking break.

To address this, first check out David Neiwert's destruction of Goldberg's fact-less hypothesis.

Beyond the Klan, completely missing from the pages of Goldberg's book is any mention of the Silver Shirts, the American Nazi Party, the Posse Comitatus, the Aryan Nations, or the National Alliance -- all of them openly fascist organizations, many of them involved in some of the nation's most horrific historical events. (The Oklahoma City bombing, for instance, was the product of a blueprint drawn up by the National Alliance's William Pierce.) Goldberg sees fit to declare people like Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and Hillary Clinton "American fascists," but he makes no mention of William Dudley Pelley, Gerald L.K. Smith, George Lincoln Rockwell, William Potter Gale, Richard Butler, or David Duke -- all of them bona fide fascists: the real thing.

Additionally, Jonah and Glenn provide absolute proof that fascism is a tool of the left....the Nazi's were the National Socialists!! Gad damn, he got us thur! Actually, not so much. Besides not knowing what populism is (Glenn thinks populism equals popular), he doesn't understand the difference between socialism and fascism. Geebus, there's at least two folks brave enough to post on Hannity's forums to post some basic facts proving that Glenn is full of shit...

Many conservatives accuse Hitler of being a leftist, on the grounds that his party was named "National Socialist." But socialism requires worker ownership and control of the means of production. In Nazi Germany, private capitalist individuals owned the means of production, and they in turn were frequently controlled by the Nazi party and state. True socialism does not advocate such economic dictatorship -- it can only be democratic. The primary basis for this claim is that Hitler was a National Socialist. The word "National" evokes the state, and the word "Socialist" openly identifies itself as such.

Of Course, the rest of the Hannitites peddle the same bullshit, circular illogic that Glenn does. Anyway, it was nice to witness some rationality on an irrational forum (memories of the Heavy Hitters coming back). But beyond what some liberal blogger or some head cases on Hannity's forums think, lets look at it point by point. Fascism, luckly enough, has several points...14 to be exact.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread

domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Decide for yourself what constitute's fascism. Obama's stimulus plans, or Bush's wars for profiteering. Obama's respect for the Geneva Conventions, or Bush's torture programs. Obama's closing of Gitmo, or Bush's actual structure of black sites and secret prisons. Obama's respect for the separation of church and state, and Bush's....ah, well, you get it.

Nevermind that Bush's granddaddy was a Nazi financier and suspected of being involved in the Business Plot to overthrow FDR and install a fascist government.