"Senator Byrd is correct to equate Bush with Hitler"

Senator Byrd is correct to equate Bush with Hitler

By Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writer

March 9, 2005 (Free Press)—The U.S. Senate's senior constitutional scholar has correctly equated Bush with Hitler, and the usual attack dogs are howling. But they are wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities of an increasingly fascist and totalitarian GOP.

Octogenarian Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia made the equation in the context of Bush's attack on Senate procedures which might slow or halt his on-going attempt to pack the courts with extreme right-wing fanatics. Byrd said Bush's moves to destroy time-honored Senate rules parallel Hitler's ramming fascist legislation through his gutted Reichstag. "Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality," said Byrd. "He recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman has played the holocaust card for the Republicans, saying, "It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party."

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/030905Wasserman/030905wasserman.html

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Uncommon Sense
When fascism comes . . .

By Michael Hasty
Online Journal Columnist

November 20, 2004—Senator Robert Byrd may not be a saint, but he is most definitely a prophet. When he said before the election that George W. Bush was "bent on a ruthless pursuit of power" that threatens to "destroy the Constitution," he was unquestionably speaking prophetically—Bush has stolen another presidential term.

For the benefit of media-programmed readers who, upon reading this, are immediately thinking "conspiracy theory," consider this fact: the idea that Bush "won" is just as much of an unproven "theory" as the idea he stole the election. Why? Because America, unlike other so-called "democracies," does not allow the public to observe exactly how the Republican-affiliated private companies that actually count democracy's most sacred treasure—the vote—count the votes. The vote accounting process is private corporate property—off limits to the public.

As Josef Stalin said, "It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes."

This is the very essence of fascism.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/112004Hasty/112004hasty.html

- that we must never equate Dear Leader with Der Furher - to the sheeple who will never read these editorials.

I hate the corporate media.

...but than again...you've just pointed out another tenet of fascism: corporate/state ownership of the media.

I'm concerned that the handful of Democrats cooperating with Bush don't know that they're enabling fascism. Of even greater concern is that they DO know and want the same thing.

Have Americans been dumbed-down to the point where they don't know the difference between Democracy and Fascism? Or are they simply waiting for a Knight in Shining Armor to save the day and restore sanity?

...but that doesn't make it any easier to convince Americans that their once-treasured Democracy is dying (or dead) and that it's being replaced with a much more subtle fascism than we've seen in the past.

The Founders wouldn't recognize America today. It would probably appear more like the Monarchy and Church/State that they had rejected for the 'experiment' of a Democratic Republic.

What saddens me is that too many Democrats seem to believe that all we have to do is get a Democrat in the White House for all of this to reverse itself or simply disappear.

But our government is 'rotten' to its very core. The only way we can change the course of this country is to demand that the 'rule of law' be used to impeach/prosecute the treasonous acts and high crimes of this executive branch.

This will entail courage on the part of Democrats as they'll have to inform the dozen or so Bush Enablers that they will also end up on trial if they continue to cooperate with and support criminal Bush policies.

There is still a chance to save America from Germany's fate. And it's up to the Democratic party to tell The People the truth about the true state of the union.

"Washington DC needs an enema."

...and all this Neocon/PNAC friends will encourage him to do so. (Not).

The Neocons and RWingers have everything they've always wanted. Why would they stop now?

"Now the Republicans have renominated extreme right-wing judges to high courts from which they were barred prior to the 2004 election. With enhanced majorities in Congress, the GOP is moving to gut rules put in place to protect the rights of minorities within the government. For the GOP, as for Hitler, such safeguards are annoying barriers to absolute power.

These judges are consistent in their eagerness to protect the power and privilege of private corporations at the public expense, while simultaneously promoting the invasion of individual rights by the government. Masquerading as "free market/small government" advocates, GOP conservatives—like Hitler's Nazis—promote an all-powerful central government run by and for the corporations that sponsor them while crushing individual rights and liberties.

While Bush advocates for "democracy" overseas, the GOP is crushing it at home. These judicial nominees mean to further solidify Republican control of the court system, which they have added to their grip on the Executive, both houses of Congress and the media. The GOP is also gutting safeguards within the FBI and CIA, turning them into a personal police force that could parallel Hitler's Gestapo." --- http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/030905Wasserman...

is that Bush has the backing of his multi-generational crime family,
the global fascists, the British Crown and Intelligence, plus the entire political mechanisms of the U.S. govt. Hitler came out of nowhere to catapult into power. When he started down, he had no backing. Bush can and will survive much longer than did Hitler. Furthermore, Bush will never chose to attack any Country that has a reasonable ability to fight back, i.e. Russia, China, N. Korea and of course, France, Germany of England.

The unholy alliance between Bush and his backers will keep him, or at least his Party, in power up until the point that the U.S. totally collapses financially, which ultimately means militarily as well. What will happen to us after that would be pure conjecture. But, it won't be pretty. The Bush and Republican fiasco will be studied by historians 500 years from now.

Hitler really worked on his relationship with the Brits so together they could defeat the "Jewish Bolshevicks" in Russia. The Brits took quite a while to recognize the evils of Hitler. Does any of this sound familiar regarding our primary allies today? There are many similarities between Bush and Hitler regarding leadership style, actually. It's simply a fact.

it shows that the corporate and monied elites don't want to get behind a too-powerful thug. Instead, in our time, a not coincidental rise of gentleman dictators has replaced colonels and pols with members of the club. Thinking, wrongly, as history will also show, that the caste will do it better and not betray its own.

It seems only a facial improvement over the intertwining monarchies of Europe that was supposed to prevent WWI but instead fueled and sparked it. What goes wrong(and wronger among the wrong people) is absolute power
and the suppression of healthy democracy. decadence, brawling, greed fests and galloping unreality in exhilarating disasters out of control. the need to "uncheck" one's power leads to complete ruin, but that is the nature of business, the bigger the badder.

Does one look for the leadership of the common good from people who are champions of greed, wars of conquest, generational privilege, con-men pols? Yet that is the unquestioned source of most historical front men. Does one look for them to be checked by monied interests and elites behind the scenes for the sake of social underpinnings that benefit everyone? Yet the lazy libertarian in all of us harbors some trust in these intellects and "pragmatists" of the world cursed in all our Scriptures for ancient and just cause.

If we are fed fine. If not we grouch and attack inappropriate straw targets unless in overweening hubris some slacker king blunders into the mob's path. King of the hill is a rigged game played by the sorriest lot of humans in gilt clothing. If we are not fed we strike out like someone trying to break the bothersome alarm clock. Along the way the best or at least better people have made progress under these fools or against them. What we have now is a humiliating and possibly fatal backslide into negative human history that should once and for all finish all the false pride and religiosity that sugar coated our own private Disneyland facade.

We die, we starve, we work to death, we are poisoned and robbed. We are little represented and poorly at that in our own government. Call them commies or fascists or Republicans. It is the same mess festering in our house that will kill us all, irrespective for once of race, color, sex or creed. The worst of times demands the efforts of the best of humans. Instead we are dominated by the irrational worst away from saving ourselves or our planet for the sake of selfish delusions.

There is a narrow definition of fascism that comfortably protects history from looking deeper at the larger body of tyranny and greed. What they were and Bush now is, is the most flagrant, darkly comical failure and monstrous abuse of power that exposes all the evil of the world for what is under a bright and shining- and doomed- lie.

Fascists are only embarrassing to the GOP. Secretly they emulate their personae and methods for their own purposes. Simple bullydom. Simple thinking. Simple minds. Simply wrong.

They have a pass to say whatever. Ole Waterman Dan Burton called Clinton a scumbag. That removed any constraints Dems might have been under.

Byrd just warned that the GOP uses some of the same dirty political tools as Hitler. Byrd, bravely and on good intellectual grounds, pointed out parallels; he didn't equate.

and of course there are many, one thing stands out for certain: War is what gives them meaning and makes them more than just a joke.

And Stalin was a totalitarian Communist, not a fascist, therefore that quote cannot be the "essence of fascism". It *can* be the "essence of totalitarianism/authoritarianism", however.