[The New York Times reports that Glenn Beck, in his closing speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference described "progressivism" as a cancer, "the disease in America." Let there be no doubt that this is nothing more than the stench of fascism, which relies on treating one's political opponents as what Carl Schmitt, the great (I use that word advisedly) Weimar political theorist (who ended up supporting Hitler's takeover in 1933), termed "enemies" who were viewed ultimately as subhuman (as "cancers" are), ulutimately fit to be eradicated "by any means necessary....
It is past time for Republicans to be called on whether or not they tolerate millions of their fellow citizens being called "cancers" and "diseases." We are indeed in a true moment of cultural and political warfare, in which Glenn Beck has made very clear that he has no regard whatsoever for the most basic notions of civility (which begin by granting the possibility that one's opponents simply disagree rather than are "cancers" to be ripped out of the body politic).
What "Beckism" presages is more terrorist violence like that conducted in Austin, Texas, where a demented citizen flew into an IRS building and killed a true American "hero" a/k/a known as a public servant who had dedicated his life to tax collection. One might remember that Justice Holmes called taxes "the price we pay for civilization." Part of our move toward fascism is to view as "heroes" only those who carry guns and are prepared to risk their lives while preparing to inflict fatal violence on others. We must recognize that all public servants are, in their own ways, "heroes." The Republican Party for the past generation has systematically viewed all public servants, save for the military, as chumps, who if they had any real talent, would be working in the private sector (perhaps in Goldman Sachs, etc.). I truly fear for our country.
Hear! Hear!
We need to dramatically raise the cost for Republicans to continue indulging the growth of protofascism. Dramatically
After seeing Capitalism: A Love Story today, I thought I'd give my own review in response to the one by metamars.
Two big criticisms are made against the otherwise excellent film, only one of which stands up under scrutiny. Yes, Obama is left virtually unscathed by Moore's damning critique of Congressional acquiescence to Wall Street's fear-mongering. As we all witnessed during last year's debacle, Obama was one of the chief proponents of the Wall Street bailout in the U.S. Senate, pushing for the no-strings-attached version that ultimately passed. That Obama is as responsible as any other player in the nation's economic meltdown and the massive swindle that accompanied it cannot be ignored or denied, and Moore's acknowledgment that Wall Street contributed heavily to Obama seems like a punch undeservedly pulled.
The second big critique is that while the film's message rouses outrage, little or nothing is given in the way of what can actually be done about all of it. Having now seen the film myself, I can see all kinds of ways in which We the People can fight back - not the least of which is using the power of the vote. But there's more, much more, that can be done, and Moore illustrates them with great relish.
Factory workers denied their final paychecks when the company shut down its site took barricaded themselves inside and refused to leave until they got the money owed to them.
People whose home was foreclosed upon found aid in the form of an organization formed to keep families in their houses by way of squatting. Police were called out, only to leave without enforcing the order to vacate after it became clear that no one was leaving.
I saw a bread-making factory, a co-op, meaning that each employee owns a piece of that factory and helps run it through a democratic process. The CEO has no more or less say in how the company is run than anyone else, and surprisingly (or so Moore depicts) everyone makes at least a somewhat decent wage.
Last, and by no means least, is the power of the ballot. Moore calls for a democratic revolution in Capitalism: A Love Story, the kind expressed at the ballot box. Yes, We the people do have the power of the vote, and therefore wield far more power collectively than the top one percent of Americans. Why else do you think there is such massive effort expended to disenfranchise us at the polling station? Why else do you think we are encouraged to self-segregate ourselves along racial, religious, and class lines? Why else do you think we are discouraged from even mentioning forming and using third political parties as a means of reshaping the two major ones? It's because the powerful know that if We the People were to truly rise up at election time and vote in genuine representatives to replace the corporate whores, their days of power would be over. Sure, they have the military and gobs of money, but if they were to drop the pretense of democracy by going all-out in their war against us, the rich would lose their only real weapon: our compliance.
Resistance through noncompliance worked for India. It can work for us - if we have the will to use it.
All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators. With each new outrage, the small handful of us who'd made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it? Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?
Previously, the answer had been "As bad as this looks: no -- we are not there yet.". Now, though...
In tracking the mileage on this trip to perdition, many of us relied on the work of historian Robert Paxton, who is probably the world's pre-eminent scholar on the subject of how countries turn fascist. In a 1998 paper published in The Journal of Modern History [pdf], Paxton argued that the best way to recognize emerging fascist movements isn't by their rhetoric, their politics, or their aesthetics. Rather, he said, mature democracies turn fascist by a recognizable process, a set of five stages that may be the most important family resemblance that links all the whole motley collection of 20th Century fascisms together. According to our reading of Paxton's stages, we weren't there yet. There were certain signs -- one in particular -- we were keeping an eye out for, and we just weren't seeing it.
And now we are. In fact, if you know what you're looking for, it's suddenly everywhere.
Ah, for the good old days when angry white supremacist guys attacked our black President and Latina Supreme Court nominee as racists. That the week before last. This last week its fascist thugs hurling accusations of fascism.
I'm nostalgic for the good old days simply because the new ones have brought us to the brink of mass violence. There have already been some blows, and a hyping of threats (from TPM):
Based on the news that health care events are edging into violence, an anti-health care reform protester in New Mexico named Scott Oskay is calling on his hundreds of online followers to bring firearms to town halls, and to 'badly hurt' SEIU and ACORN counter protesters.
Popularized in part by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, the hashtag symbol he's using, #iamthemob, has gone viral on twitter, appearing several times a minute according to a recent search.
Anti-reform activists have scheduled a protest outside SEIU Missouri offices tomorrow, and officials there are taking these threats seriously.
On the other hand, there's an upside to this sharply increased threat level, which is two-fold: First, it has the potential to lead to lead to a sharp rejection of what the movement conservatives are up to. Second, it's a whole lot easier to document the projection involved. That's because the dynamic of wealthy special interests supporting street thuggery against "the left" is exactly how both Mussolini and Hitler came to power.
Jewish American peace activist groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are beginning to become exasperated over Israel's progressive leaning toward ethnocentric fascism, as indicated by this review of recent untoward, anti-democracy developments by the right wing government. Requiring loyalty oaths from Palestinian-Arab citizens, outlawing anniversary celebrations of Nakba Day, the day of the year that Palestinians commemorate the "catastrophe," the ethnic cleansing of 1948, and other rules such as denial of Israel as a Jewish state, which seem intent on discriminating against Israel's minority Arab population, are cited.
Muzzlewatch, JVP's propaganda watch site, recently published this news about what is essentially the curtailment of free speech in Israel.
It has been so easy lately for anyone who disagrees with anyone else in politics to label them as radically as possible. In the past week or so, for instance, I've heard Obama, with his handling of the Economy and his goals for healthcare and education, called a "socialist", a "communist", a "fascist" and other things, some too nasty to mention.
Both parties (the major, parties, that is... the hundreds of mini-parties, those single-issue groupings of certain individuals, are prime offenders at name calling, but have relatively little effect) are guilty of this kind of stuff... and they do it to themselves as well as the other side (just look at what Republicans are doing to Michael Steele and what Paul Krugman is pumping out about Obama.)
Italy today is experiencing an unprecedented racism and xenophobia. What began as a hate for a religion, Islam, has moved on to race, ethnicity and old fashioned hatred of different skin colours.
A Roma (Gypsy) woman in Milan. Recently, the Italian government decided to fingerprint all Gypsies, including children. What began as a targeted campaign against Muslims is now spreading to become a larger, white supremacist movement under color of a Fascist political takeover.
Gabriele Marranci is an anthropologist who was born and raised in Italy. He is currently doing research in Singapore, but he frequently visits and is closely attuned through family and friends to Italy. Link to complete essay after excerpt.
Gabriele Marranci writes: In Italy, in a new and unrecognisable Italy, everybody is losing. Yet only few Italians seem to notice this. Italy is today probably the most concerning and least friendly country of the EU, marked by the return, from bottom-up, of a fascination with a defeating, and defeated, past called Fascism. Notwithstanding the similarity in the terminology, dress styles, and references (the Lega Nord, the most social nationalist party of Italy, has 'green shirts' only because it cannot refer to brown ones), this revival of fascism is not like the historical one.
The progressive stages of xenophobia that has marked the home of pizza and 'bel canto' began with the fear of Muslims and their cultures. The great majority of Italians, though not hating Muslims, have formed chimerias about Islam. Fallaci helped after September 11 to develop them from 'concerns' and 'fear' of a different unknown religion, to hate for whomever practiced that religion. She wished to bomb mosques, or at least one of them. Although Fallaci and others (in particular within the Lega Nord ) were responsible for, not always cleverly disguised, ideological incitement toward violence, there were other individuals who decided (as usually happens) to make real, what Fallaci and others fantasised about.
The reality is that Italians, the majority of them, do not care. Too busy with economic issues and social instability, endemic unemployment, workers alienation and unbelievable exploitation (my sister had to work without salary for months as 'probation' before she was granted a temporary contract of three months), the majority of Italians remain silent; a minority celebrated the beginning of the new crusades, and a few others, often from the radical left, protested. Lega Nord, with the European MP Mario Borghezio took part in the planned, but than forbidden, Nazi event against Islam organized in Cologne. An event that even Robert Spencer felt the need to distance himself from and rejected.
Lega Nord is a social nationalist, populist party, and a dangerous one, whose main force comes from the fear of others and the idea that immigrants can take over the white-celtic man. Vulgar in its language, reminiscent in its populism of Fascism, Lega Nord, mixes a fake Celticism (to replace Aryanism) with a new idea of the- again fake and historically nonexistent- superior nation, the Padania, Lega Nord shifts recently from targeting mainly Muslims to all not-white (hence non-Celtic) foreigners.
Italy today is experiencing an unprecedented (and unusual in its violence even during historical fascism before the German-imposed racial laws) racism and xenophobia. So unexpected and violent has been the phenomenon that even a post-Fascist like Gianfranco Fini (today president of the Parliament) had to raise the alarm. There is no area of Italian civil society which has not been affected by this new wind of xenophobia and violent racism.
Recently during the match for the World Cup qualification in Sofia, the Italian supporters started to invoke the 'Duce', sung 'Fascist songs' and attacked the hosts because they were 'communist', despite the historical changes in Bulgaria. Children are not spared from this white supremacist new culture: finger prints for little Roma (Gypsy) even when they are Italian, vandalism of children's work representing their perception of multiculturalism, attempts to form 'migrants only' classrooms and impose an 'Italian-ness test' for entry into Italian schools on children of legal migrants. I have been informed of racism within school and even Sunday Church schools.
What began as a hate for a religion, Islam, has moved on to race, ethnicity and old fashioned hatred of different skin colours.
Friday, at DKos, BarbinMD sampled the press take on the state of play following Childer's romp in MS-01. In shortened versions, from the New York Times:
Republican defeat... waves of apprehension across an already troubled party... heavy losses in the fall... a once-steadfast Republican district... foreshadowing more losses for the party in November... level of distress was evident... the Republican Party had been severely damaged... could lose 20 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate... putting into play Southern seats that were once solidly Republican... the string of Republican losses suggested a problem with the Republican label... vast dissatisfaction, frustration and discouragement...
Stunned House Republicans... their third straight election defeat in once-friendly territory... the worst since Watergate and far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats... President Bush is unpopular... Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee enjoyed a cash advantage of $44 million to $7 million... We're not going to be able to scare people into voting Republican... the loss of three seats in special elections was a significant blow... They are canaries in the coal mine, warning of far greater losses in the fall...
House Republicans turned on themselves yesterday... contemplating widespread Democratic gains in November... decried their leadership as out of touch with the political catastrophe they face... "The Change You Deserve" -- came under mocking fire... mirrors the advertising slogan for the antidepressant Effexor... a deficiency in our message and a loss of confidence in the American people... ..Republican strategists were downcast... fail to understand the deep seeded antipathy toward the President, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures... a tense closed-door meeting... I've never seen members so frustrated or demoralized...
After that, D-Day went on to cite a whole boatload of BushCo dirty laundry that's come out in the last month.
And yet, despite all this whole lotta shakin' goin' on from below, all these cracks in the conservative hegemonic order of things, it's still the case--as I pointed out in a diary last weekend--that "A List of 50 Top Pundits Illustrates Conservative Hegemony In Action". And so it was no surprise that today Glenn Greenwald wrote about the continued prominance given to a kindergarden gay-baiting screed at the Washington Post in place of serious commentary on Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama.
All of which is to say, this was a week in which the battle-lines of this election cycle were sharply drawn.
Italy's new parliament met for the first time today with applause for Rome's mayor-elect, Gianni Alemanno, a day after followers celebrated his triumph with straight-arm salutes and fascist-era chants.
Alemanno, a former neo-fascist youth leader, took 54% of the vote in a run-off on Sunday and Monday, crushing his rival, Francesco Rutelli, a deputy prime minister in the last, centre-left government.
Silvio Berlusconi, who won a general election earlier this month, welcomed the latest evidence of Italy's leap to the right by declaring: "We are the new Falange". Although he took care to wrap his remark in a classical context, his choice of words appeared to be a nod and a wink to his most extreme supporters.
The original Falange - the word means "phalanx" - was the Spanish fascist party, founded in the 1930s, which supplied Francisco Franco's dictatorship with its ideological underpinning.
The worst days of history are not necessarily behind us, and Western democracies are not necessarily tolerant.
"I don't know what the left wants [but] we are ready," he told reporters. "If they want conflicts, I have 300,000 men always on hand."
On Monday night, the area around Rome's city hall rang to chants of "Duce! Duce!", the term adopted by Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, equivalent to the German "Führer". Supporters of the new mayor gave the fascist Roman straight-arm salutes.
Now that Mr. Reid will be making a critical decision on the FISA legislation and we need so desperately our Representaitives to be vocal about their opposition to immunity, let's be clear about where Kucinich stands:
"I object to any immunity for telecommunications companies and demand a full accounting of these companies' involvement to Congress and to the American public. When corporations cooperate with the government to strip people of their Constitutional rights, that is a text book description of fascism. There must not be any place in America for this type of conduct." -Dennis Kucinich
I hate giving extremists attention, but someone has to start calling out Tom Tancredo for the fascism he is spewing. I never thought I would see the day that a U.S. Presidential candidate would offically advocate for the prosecution of legislators for introducing a bill.
New Hampshire Democrats Lily Mesa and Susi Nord recently proposed House Bill 404 is described as "an act prohibiting state and local law enforcement agencies from enforcing federal immigration laws". To use the favored term of anti-migrant advocates it would have made New Hampshire a "sanctuary" state. For those of you that were wondering, sanctuary is a negative term for people like Tancredo. Concepts like mercy and justice make Tancredo's blood boil.
Though there are many varied and contradictory definitions of Fascism, there are certain elements that characterized Fascism in Italy and Germany and were common if not universal in other fascist states. I do not believe that the United States fits a reasonable definition of Fascism, but I hope to show in this diary that there is a core of our government and our society that operate independently as a fascist state. That core is composed of what are commonly called the Prison Industrial Complex and Military Industrial Complex. Those two institutions encompass major corporations and corporate leaders, millions of employed Americans, Republican and Democratic Congresspeople, significant portions of the executive and judicial branches of government, countless hordes of lobbyists, and by my rough estimates are worth several trillion dollars. (For comparison, the Federal budget is approximately 3 trillion dollars, and the entire GDP of the United States of is 13 trillion.) The four features that I would argue are present in these American institutions and characterized the fascist governments of Germany and Italy are Institutionalized Racism, Militarism, Corporatism, and Unrestrained growth of Government power.
