"The Republican Fascist Party."

[elfs]

So, I've got a question. Without asking the Democratic National Committee to vote on it, should we start referring to the Republicans as "The Republican Fascist Party?" As it turns out, the Republican did not pass their much-ridiculed resolution, instead passing one that accuses the Democrats of "pushing our nation toward socialism." (Hey, did anyone see Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his recent statement that, if the government is going to hand out Pell grants for students, it ought to optimize those grant amounts toward majors the government feels it needs more of? Now that's a socialist idea! And this guy is the spokesman for the Republican's "smaller government" wing!?)

But, y'know, the voice of the Republican's "national security" wing is going around saying stuff like this in public:

And when they (our enemies) see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

In short, Dick Cheney believes that debate, democracy and the rule of law are themselves "weakness" and present terrorists with "opportunity." What this country really needs is a strong man, a leader, a dictator, a tyrant (sorry, finished season one of HBO's Rome last night), to show those evil terrorists what's what about America. What's great about us is the industrial might we can leech dry for generation after generation, not our freedoms. Dick Cheney and his ilk hate us for our freedoms.

Why shouldn't we call that "The Republican Fascist Party?"

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

No reason at all why we shouldn't call a spade a spade.

But simply calling it that isn't enough. We need to *replace it*. Not just destroy it; that would be bad. And besides, recycle, reuse, don't throw away. (We need *somebody* to flip burgers and ask us if we want fries with that!) But we need a proper opposition around here.

Besides, it's not like the Current Occupant is proving to be a hell of a lot better than the Previous one, on certain topics (torture, domestic spying, TSA hands of blue, anyone? Bueller?)

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Funny... the Fascists *were* socialists.

No, I think that it's just that Dick Cheney wants more power than the legal system will give him.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Cantor's idea isn't that bad, actually. Medicine first, Math, science & engineering second, social studies third...

Business majors DEAD FUCKING LAST. Even below "Underwater Basketweaving" and "Piano Tuning for Hamsters."

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, no, actually, I don't think Cantor's idea is a bad one at all. But Sean Hannity was ranting just weeks before that the government's picking and choosing of what to fund for "job retraining" amounted to "socialism!" I mean, he was screeching. And here's Cantor, just last week, discussing doing exactly that for initial educational funding, as if somehow he was completely unplugged into what his own base is saying.

But that's the current GOP right now. They're even shouting past each other, never mind the opposition.

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

"No, thanks' on the newspeak, there: "fascists" aren't "socialists" in ANY meaningful sense - and weren't. "National Socialist" was just the name of the Nazi shop....

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

I've started calling them the Stepford Party, in honor of the lock-step, knee-jerk, animatronic quality of their, um, personnel....

[elfs.livejournal.com]

See, now you've put the image of a compliant, willing, open-legged Ann Coulter in my mind, and I'm going to have to go scrub the inside of my brain out with bleach...

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

(*recoils in horror*)
I did *NOT* mean to do that to you!

[gromm.livejournal.com]

So the fact that the NAZIs nationalized... practically every large German institution means nothing I suppose.

The same goes for the National Fascist Party in Italy, where the name came from in the first place. In fact, before Mussolini formed the Fascist party, he was Italy's greatest promoter of Socialism, and Fascist philosophy was grounded in Socialist philosophy, the intention being of improving Socialism.

Modern Americans associate Fascism with dictatorship, nationalism, and intolerant idealism, but you don't have to be Fascist to be a nihilistic dictator. If anything, Cheney seems to want a dictatorial state where nationalism, intolerant idealism, religion and capitalism are front and center. He also seems to like classism and cronyism. Most of these ideals are not what Fascism was about, in either theory or practice. Only nationalism and intolerant idealism are the same really.

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

Here, these will help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

It's really not hard to tell them apart, once you're familiar with the basic concepts - good luck!

[latheos.livejournal.com]

Well, heck, it's not like you told him to think of Cheney in a hot pink spandex speedo or anything...

:-P

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

true - but it wasn't really a step up from it, either....

Reasonable Expectations?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's a reasonable standard to expect every Republican politician to agree with everything every Republican-brand talk radio host says. That level of agreement isn't possible in a party fit for a reasonably free society. I suppose they might manage it if they were really America's new Nazi Party.

The best we can hope for is that a Party X politician might disagree for the *right reasons*.