Originally Posted at FreeRepublic.Com March 2005
The Truth About Fascism
There's been a lot of dishonest comparison of President Bush to Mussolini and Hitler. Personally I think the people that make these statements make them out of a combination of ignorance of what Fascism really is and their own blind hatred of anything and anyone conservative. So I did a little digging and came up with a definition of what Fascism is and what it stands for. Here is what I found:
The word fascism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's, that
* exalts nation and sometimes race above the individual, * uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition, * engages in severe economic and social regimentation. * engages in corporatism, i.e. merges state with corporate power
Now I've argued with several people from the left side of the aisle that Fascism more closely resembles modern Liberalism and the current Democratic Party. I'm going to compare the above main points of Fascism with the similiar points of modern Liberalism. You be the judge.
* "exalts nation and sometimes race above the individual"
Modern Liberalism constantly strives to place people in some kind of group. Hyphenated Americans of every stripe dot out culture these days. Liberals tend to also lump people into various "groups". "The wealthy few" "The Welfare class" "the winners of life's lottery" etc. etc. Democrats tend to place more emphasis on what's best for "the group" instead of celebrating personal achievements. Need a perfect example of that? When was the last time there was a score keeper at your kids pee-wee soccer game? Wouldn't want anyone to feel left out or dejected because they didn't score a goal or was told their team lost now would we? Another example of the group v. the individual in modern Liberalism has been the totally idiotic move to stop grading papers with red ink. Wouldn't want little Johnny to think he was a failure because he didn't study for his test by marking all the wrong answers in bright red ink now would we? And let's nort forget the blatant and sadly successful efforts of Liberals to bastardize the original meaning of the Seperation Clause into something that totally negates the importance of religon in the formation of this nation and portrays the mere placing of the Ten Commandments or a Christmas Nativity Scene on the grass of any State or Federal Building as something that's a threat to the very existance of the U.S.A. To listen to the,m talk, Liberals would have you believe that the very core of our existance as a people and as a country would cease to exist if a prayer is uttered at a High School football game in Texas. Or a state judge in Alabama wants to display the Ten Commandments above his bench in his courtroom.
* "uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition"
How many times have we seen over the last few years, and more so in the run-up to the Iraq invasion did we see the frequent and sometimes destructive "anti-war" protests in other countries as well as on our own soil? Look at the Seattle riots during the International Trade meetings there? Look at all the security measures taken at the recent G7 summit in Savannah, Georgia. One only has to look at organizations like MoveOn.org, People For The American Way and DemocraticUnderground.com as examples of modern propaganda organs that have at times tried to spin the facts through advertisements and television commercials and "hard news" stories in Liberal friendly media outlets, into their own myopic view of the country. The best example of this type of propaganda and censorship all rolled into one is the fake story about the President being AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard that was aired by CBS. Never in our history has their been a more blatant and naked attempt by a partisian media outlet to unseat a sitting president. Never mind the fact that this "story" about the President has been proven false on a number of occasions going back to his days as Texas govenor. It's an even more egrious act especially in light of the fact the MSM nearly completely overlooked the very credible and easily proven claims again Sen. John Kerry and his complete derriliction of duty in Vietnam and his anti-war efforts upon his return to this country. Had it not been in large part the efforts of the Swift Boat Veterans For The Truth to get out the true story about John Kerry the MSM would have completely ignored this story. As for the censorship aspect, listen closely the next time a proposal is made to cut funding to some Democrats favorite pet project (like welfare) or introduce legislature to try and stem the tide of amoral interpretations being made these days by activist judges (think Gay Marriage and taking "God" out of the pledge). Not only is the person who made the proposal completely villified by the media, most of the prominent "face time" senators also run to the cameras to belittle the efforts of the collegue across the aisle. The person, depending on the issue and the constituency are called everything from a racist to a homophobe. These statements, usually with little if any facts to back them up are thrown out there becuse in our politically corrcect world calling someone "insensitive" to some group or cause is usually enough to cow the other side into silence.
" * engages in severe economic and social regimentation."
This one is easy to spot these days. All you have to do is listen to the debate about Social Security reform. Democrats engage in class warfare so much you'd think it was a plank in the DNC platform! Think about this aspect of Fascism/Liberalism the next time the issue of tax cuts comes up and the rich fat cat Senators and Congressmen from the Democratic party run over each other trying to get to the first camera they can find to cry and moan about how "the rich don't pay their 'fair share'" and how the "working class" is getting the raw end of the deal and how it's not "fair" that people who have so much money (never mind they probably worked to become that successful) should get to keep more of what they made while the "working class" don't get to reap the rewards of the wealthy. They leave out the act that they consider the "wealthy" any family that makes over $100,000 a year. So if you have two people each making $50K with three kids a couple cars and a mortage, you are considered part of the "evil rich" by Democrats. And what the Democrats fail to tell anyone is that the top 20% of the wage earners in America pay 80% of the taxes in this country. How is it then in light of this statistical fact from the Congressional Budget Office, that the claim can still be made about the rich not paying "their fair share"? Look at the characteristic of Fascism/Liberalism just above this one again. The part about "modern techniques of propaganda". Everytime there is a proposal to reform Welfare or Medicaid or Social Security what is the first play from the Liberal Playbook? Run out and scream as loud and as long as you can that "the Republicans want to take your benefits away from you and let you starve". Then the Democrats portray themselves as the ones who will keep those Welfare checks coming. Why do they do that? It is statistically doccumented that most low income people and those on Welfare vote for Democrats. So they have to do and say anyting to keep that voting block "on the farm" so to speak.
" * engages in corporatism, i.e. merges state with corporate power"
If you listen to Democrats long enough on the subject of business, both on the corporate level and the and how the individual states conduct their business one thing becomes clear. Democrats believe that the Federal Government knows what's "good for you" and what's "good for your state" better than you our your state and local elected officials do. Everytime there's a disaster, or some instance of corporate corruption or some goes on a shooting spree, Liberals bemoan the fact that if there just been more "regulation" more "oversight" by the Federal Government this or that tragic event would never have happened. The message is clear. Only the Federal Government can protect you from that horrible corporate tycoon by passing legislature to take more ofthe business decisions of individual corporatiosn out of their hands and into ours with governmental "oversight". Only the Federal Government can protect you from that horrible gunman by passing laws that completely strip the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms out of the Constitution. Yes if the Liberals had their way the whole "cradle to grave" theory would be much much more than that. It would be the sad reality of our nation.
So when you really look at what Fascism stands for and compare it to what the modern Liberal Democrats believe, it's easy to see how much closer in ideology and policy Mussolini and John Kerry and the rest of the Democrats in this country have in common than they would ever admit to or take the time to discover. If they did they surely wouldn't make the statements they do about President Bush being a "faschist". But since most Liberals are too intellectually lazy or dishonest to look at the facts as they are not as they want them to be, don't look for a change in their tactics anytime soon, no matter how completely they are proven to be fradulent.
