A Kind of Fascism Is Replacing Our Democracy - MUST READ

(And I'm not talking about the anti-Green wars :evilgrin: )

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpwol183376588jul18,0,3380237.story

July 18, 2003


Sept. 11, 2001, hastened a significant shift in our nation's self-understanding. It became commonplace to refer to an "American empire" and to the United States as "the world's only superpower."

Instead of those formulations, try to conceive of ones like "superpower democracy" or "imperial democracy," and they seem not only contradictory but opposed to basic assumptions that Americans hold about their political system and their place within it. Supposedly ours is a government of constitutionally limited powers in which equal citizens can take part in power. But one can no more assume that a superpower welcomes legal limits than believe that an empire finds democratic participation congenial.

No administration before George W. Bush's ever claimed such sweeping powers for an enterprise as vaguely defined as the "war against terrorism" and the "axis of evil." Nor has one begun to consume such an enormous amount of the nation's resources for a mission whose end would be difficult to recognize even if achieved.

Like previous forms of totalitarianism, the Bush administration boasts a reckless unilateralism that believes the United States can demand unquestioning support, on terms it dictates; ignores treaties and violates international law at will; invades other countries without provocation; and incarcerates persons indefinitely without charging them with a crime or allowing access to counsel.

The drive toward total power can take different forms, as Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union suggest.

The American system is evolving its own form: "inverted totalitarianism." This has no official doctrine of racism or extermination camps but, as described above, it displays similar contempt for restraints.

much more

Eloriel

everyone should read it

And Newsday published an editorial by a professor who admires DiTocqueville?????????? Will wonders never cease.

What's next - Rove promoting eco-tourism?

What's next - DU observing a positive post by sangha?

" Americans are now facing a grim situation with no easy solution. Perhaps the just-passed anniversary of the Declaration of Independence might remind us that "whenever any form of Government becomes destructive ..." it must be challenged." - what RADICALS our ff's were :evilgrin:

i am glad the 'egg heads' are speaking up and out - though we need more
because this WILL have a lot more impact then bpilgrim going on about it, at least with mu friends and neighbors ;-)

just sent it to one of my good friends who was offended the first time i brought up the creepy parallels.

this prof broke it down very clearly even accounting for the known differences in our societies yet pointed out how they are achieving the same result.

thanks :hi:

peace

No, wait she'll write a book on how great Hitler was.

I wanted to say though that I have been reading about WWII and Nazi Germany lately. I have been struck by the similarities of how Hitler and Bush came to power. Neither was elected. Hitler couldn't win an election against von Hindenburg for President of the Weimar Republic. Although their system was different than ours because it was parliamentary, (a thing that led to the downfall of the Republic because of the fractiousness of too many parties), there are some striking parallels.

As the leader of a minority party, Hitler only gained power by backroom deals creating a coalition with other parties to gain numbers. He did not believe in the working class party propaganda the Nazis originally gained membership with. He was in it for a different agenda. I don't think Bush is a true American conservative who honors Democracy either. Hitler worked within the system to gain control without having to stage a revolution and a coup as Bush has. Once in power he advanced his own undemocratic agenda dismantling all the checks and balances in place to limit his power.
So has Bush.

Hitler was reluctantly named Chancellor by President von Hindenburg because of the clout he had gained from the political bloc he created in a deal with other parties that had similar goals with the Nazis. I am thinking of Bush's support from the fundamentalist Christians and the NRA, which has greatly inflated the power of the GOP and gained him the presidential nomination. He was of course nominated by the Supreme Court as most DU’ers believe. Other than the five justices who prevailed, I am sure the rest of them were reluctant.

Hitler took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the Weimar Republic as did Bush in America. Hitler no more kept his oath of office than Bush has.

Hitler wanted to cherry pick various Eastern European nations for their access to various other geographical areas, their wealth and their living space for Germans. We seem to have invaded Iraq for similar reasons. An excuse was cooked up to invade Poland. German prisoners were dressed up as Polish soldiers to attack German soldiers. This gave him an excuse to attack Poland. WMD’s and nukes anyone? All through this as he was picking off countries in his wake, British P. M. Neville Chamberlain was accommodating him in spite of the alarms being sent up by other Western European countries. Tony Blair anyone? Well enough for now. I could go on and on about more similarities.

I know I have somewhat simplified a complicated scenario and I am doing it off the top of my head from memory so if anyone wants to correct me, please do.

I think the similarities are too glaring to ignore though.

Good find!

But you left out the most important one.

Hitler engineered the destruction of the Reichstag building in order to create public support for his war against the Communists. The majority of the German people bought the story.

Junior and PNAC needed another Reichstag (or a "new Pearl Harbor", in their own words) to create public support for the imperial takeover of the Middle East that they had planned years before the Bush Jr pResidency.

Either they created such an event, or they have the best case of dumb luck in the history of mankind. :grr:

Thanks for adding it in.

I think a comparison like this would be extremely useful and interesting to DUers. Perhaps you could copy what you have compiled off the top of your head and add to it and sometime do a whole thread on the subject? I'd personally really appreciate such a thread.

Eloriel

I also thought of doing a futuristic thing of the possibilities of how this fascist movement could eventually fall. William L. Shirer, who wrote THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH aptly named his last chapter, "Gotterdammerung: The Last Days". It is truly weird stuff, about a government that had descended into psychotic madness and denial, yet I can see it happening to the Bush administration, on a certain level, because it seems that once you have created this fantasy world around you with lies you start believing it. Look what happened it Iraq with the Baaths and Saddam. However, since I get things done very slowly, I don't know when. It is truly scary stuff though.

and just kept thinking that this is America in a few years.

Of course a major theme in that film is the fact that the Jews just did as they were told until it was too late. They followed the rules just hoping it would get better, right until they were completely helpless.

I turned to my wife an asked whether we'd do the same thing. At what point do you know it has gone too far and fight rather than get led to slaughter? For me, I think that point would be a draft, for example.

At some point, I think you have to run or fight. You can't just keep believing things will be okay.

They just folded. The Reich micro-managed every aspect of their lives including their religion, what they read and how they played and no one spoke up. They just went along with it.

Keep your chin up against the small nasty group of Kerry fans who attack you.


BTW, they're getting close to the burn time in Anniston...I'll keep you up to date (if I can...government will not give exact info..)...

I will let you know soon.

On both counts. ;-)

I saw a brief piece on TV the other day with a Rufus Kinney of Jacksonville State U who is obviously an activist on the subject. Just came in at the end of the segment. Jotted down his name. I don't feel good about this at all, but maybe I'm just an alarmist. I hope so.

:hi:

Eloriel

Both our last gov (Dem) and current gov (repub) are kind of shocked at the lack of safety measures the federal government has done for the city of Anniston and surrounding areas when they begin burning WMD in the next few days.

I'm west by about 80 miles but am still concerned because of the strange winds blowing lately and the fact that we are getting into hurricane season...

DUers on this subject. People need to stop cooperating.

:kick:

Thanks for posting it. As long as people with this much insight can see what's going on, we can't be completely lost. Can we?

That's a powerful, rather amazing article. It expresses what has seemed fairly obvious to many of us here, I believe.

How we can continue to ignore the many, many parallels between the rw takeover of this country, and the Nazi takeover of Germany, remains a mystery to me. It seems as though history is being completely disregarded, and replaced with massive ignorance and stubborn stupidity.

Thanks, Eloriel.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

The CFR is an organization that stems from the German Illuminati.

EVERYBODY needs to read "Rule by Secrecy," by Jim Marr. I don't agree with it 100%, but it is an important book.

Jim Marrs follows some of the "out in left field" line of thinking that many who have studied ancient cultures follow concerning people from other planets. That is too much for some people to swallow. But his research on the structures of power in the world is spot on.

HOWEVER, there was a HUGE thing in the mid-nineties where three (3!) aircraft that hoverred over Arizona for over an hour. It was in all the papers for .... 2 days. You never heard another word about it. It was seen by thousands of people, and reported widely. Then ZIP!

I always wondered why there wasn't more follow-up on it. But Marrs, in this book, takes one to the threashold of seeing the possibilities.

Besides....freepers aren't from this planet. I don't care what anyone says.


:kick:

Thanks.

We live in very scary times. It's amazing how many people are blind to the real dangers we are facing.

Let's hope a lot of people read it.

...so glad that you've posted it again. Americans need to have a better understanding about what's going on in their name.

That's right, just behind where the Speaker of the House sits, there's an American flag flanked by two huge gilt Fasces entwined in laurels.

Sometimes you don't even have to make this stuff up.

When Democracy Failed
by Thom Hartmann
March 16, 2003

. . . the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.

"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.

Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere, even printed large in newspapers suitable for window display. . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0316-08.htm

very pertinent to the discussion of parallels between the Hitler and Bush regimes

14 Points of Fascism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm

Eloriel

... and some even before 9-11. There is no question about it, IMHO. This is absolutely not a 'tin foil' perception. It's very clear and very present. It's good to read a decent op/ed on this. We need more.

:kick:

Another :kick:

:kick:

Russ Bellant warned us of the emergence of fascists into American politcs in "Old Nazis, the New Right and the Reagan Administration: The Role of Domestic Fascist Networks in the Repbulican partyy and Their Effect on US Cold War Politics," published by Plotical Research Associates in 1988. Bellant chronicled how many of NAZIs who emigrated to the US after WW2 from eastern Europe were actively supporting Reagana and Bush.

This is what the Bush Organized Crime Family most Fears

Fascists particularly loathed the social theories of the French Revolution and its slogan: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

*** Liberty from oppressive government intervention in the daily lives of its citizens, from illicit searches and seizures, from enforced religious values, from intimidation and arrest for dissenters; and liberty to cast a vote in a system in which the majority ruled but the minority retained certain inalienable rights.

*** Equality in the sense of civic equality, egalitarianism, the notion that while people differ, they all should stand equal in the eyes of the law.

*** Fraternity in the sense of the brotherhood of mankind. That all women and men, the old and the young, the infirm and the healthy, the rich and the poor, share a spark of humanity that must be cherished on a level above that of the law, and that binds us all together in a manner that continuously re-affirms and celebrates life.

This is what fascism as an ideology was reacting against — and its support came primarily from desperate people anxious and angry over their perception that their social and economic position was sinking and frustrated with the constant risk of chaos, uncertainty and inefficiency implicit in a modern democracy based on these principles. Fascism is the antithesis of democracy. We fought a war against it not half a century ago; millions perished as victims of fascism and champions of liberty.

— Chip Berlet, from his Introduction to Russ Bellant’s “Old NAZIs, the New Right and the Reagan Administration."


Bertram Gross wrote "Friendly Fascism" in 1980. The following provides an excellent overview:

Classic Fascism versus "Friendly" Fascism

questionsquestions.net commentary, 15 September 2002

Dissidents have begun to use the "F-word" in regards to the Bush Administration's rush into militarism abroad and flagrant attacks on civil liberties at home. Justified comparisons are being made between the fog of official lies surrounding the 9/11 "terrorist" attacks and the Nazi's infamous 1933 burning of the Reichstag. A hidden danger in this response to the current offenses, however, is the tendency to downplay the much more subtle but insidious advances towards tyranny that the US system has been making for years.

In his provocative 1980 book Friendly Fascism, Bertram Gross argued that fascism in the US could come about not through the obvious heavy-handed demagogery and violence of the classic early 20th-century fascist states, but instead through an exceedingly gradual, velvet-glove approach which preserves the outer appearances of freedom and democratic institutions. Although his analysis does not touch on all of the aspects of criminal and covert government that we must contend with, many of his predictions have turned out to be quite prophetic over the past two decades.

The Bush Administration has shown traits of both overt "classic fascism" and modern "friendly fascism." It would be a mistake to focus only on the more aggressive and blunt moves that have been made by this administration at the expense of obscuring the continuing "friendly fascism" trend in America, which was already a very strong presence in the Clinton era and before. It would also be great mistake to see the current root dangers of tyranny as emerging solely from the hot-blooded political fringes, or from fanatical grassroots extremists, when the real abiding danger is from the seemingly respectable corporate center.

The following comparative chart, from Gross' Friendly Fascism, illustrates the difficulty of tossing around the term "fascism" in our current political environment without first dealing with some of the baggage attached to it:

CLASSIC FASCISM: A tight Government-Big Business oligarchy with charismatic dictator or figurehead, and expansionist, scapegoating, and nationalistic ideologies.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: An integrated Big business—Big Government power structure with new technocratic ideologies and more advanced arts of ruling and fooling the public.

CLASSIC FASCISM: Liquidation or minimalization of multiparty conflict and open subversion, with little use of democratic machinery and human rights.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: Subtle subversion, through manipulative use and control of democratic machinery, parties, and human rights.

CLASSIC FASCISM: Negative sanctions through ruthless, widespread, and high-cost terror; direct action against selected scapegoats.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: Direct terror applied through low-level violence and professionalized, low-cost escalation, with indirect terror through ethnic conflicts, multiple scapegoats, and organized disorder.

CLASSIC FASCISM: Ceaseless propaganda, backed up by spies and informers, to consolidate elite support and mobilize masses.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: Informational offensives backed by high-technology monitoring, to manage minds of elites and immobilize masses.

CLASSIC FASCISM: Widespread benefits through more jobs, stabilized prices, domestic spoils, foreign booty, and upward mobility for the most faithful.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: Rationed rewards of power and money for elites, extended professionalism, accelerated consumerism for some, and social services, conditional on the recipients' good behavior.

CLASSIC FASCISM: Anxiety relief through participatory spectacles, mass action, and genuine bloodletting.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: More varied relief through sex, drugs, madness, and cults, as well as alcoholism, gambling, sports, and ultraviolent drama. *

CLASSIC FASCISM: Internal viability based on sustained, frantic, and eventually self-destructive expansion.

FRIENDLY FASCISM: Internal viability based on careful expansion, system-strengthening reforms, multilevel co-optation, and mass apathy.



* comment: add psychopharmaceuticals.