The Seeds of Fascism in the Republican Party

Here's a list of characteristics of fascist nations.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

I'm not going to go through each and every one of these points to make a case, because that would take too long, and I'd have to half-ass a few of them. Not every one of them is a problem in America, but not every one is a requirement for a fascist nation either.

Today I was listening to right wing radio spew its hate. It was some guy named Mark Levin. I wish I could find a transcript of this, but I can't. He played a bunch of audio clips from Democrats saying they oppose the Iraq war, specifically "the surge."

Now, the reason why the surge appeared to work is because it was launched at the exact moment an Iraqi civil war was ending. So violence was naturally going to be down. The right wing takes those numbers, and voila! Only Republicans know how to protect the country! So Levin played all these clips of Democrats saying they have doubts about the surge's success. After it was done, Levin emphasizes, in typical overdramatic right wing fashion, "They were wrong. Every. Damn. One of them. Every. Damn. One of them. They were all wrong." Then he made a logical leap that I think would probably be difficult for even his regular listeners to decipher. "I have the guts to say it. Democrats said these things because they wanted America to lose. They wanted Iraq to turn into another Vietnam."

I'm going to steal an excellent point made by Matt Taibbi in an amazing article he wrote last week.

In fact if you follow Fox News and the Limbaugh/Hannity afternoon radio crew, this summer’s blowout has almost seemed like an intentional echo of the notorious Radio Rwanda broadcasts “warning” Hutus that they were about to be attacked and killed by conspiring Tutsis, broadcasts that led to massacres of Tutsis by Hutus acting in “self-defense.”

He was speaking of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which at least 800,000 people were killed. It was all sparked by hate radio.

Now I'm not trying to say Mark Levin is advocating a liberal genocide. All I'm saying is that when you plant these kinds of thoughts into the minds of frightened, desperate, and vulnerable people, they are going to believe it. If you tell them that someone who holds an opposing viewpoint hates the United States, and that he wants the American troops to die, these people are going to begin thinking some strange thoughts. Timothy McVeigh may have been thinking similar thoughts when he blew up a building.

Why aren't we talking about this? A man walked into a Mosque in Queens the middle of evening prayers, called them "terrorists," and proceeded to urinate on their rugs. A New York cab driver was stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck because he was a Muslim. A Mosque in Tennessee was set on fire by arsonists. The windows of NAACP offices are being smashed. Here's a video of a black man nearly being lynched because the Mosque protesters think he's a Muslim. He was not a Muslim. Just a few weeks ago, Fox couldn't stop jerking off to a made up controversy about the Black Panthers wanting to kill white babies, ergo Barack Obama wants to kill white babies. All of these events are connected, and the hate and rage spewed out of the right wing is sparking it. All of it. If the media's so unabashedly liberal, then why can't it grow a fucking dick and talk about this? This is really scary shit and it needs to be called out now before it becomes normal. Oh wait.

Have you ever bothered to listen to the actual reasons why the tea partiers are protesting? From their own mouths? It's just a bunch of empty nationalist bullshit that makes no sense. Here, try to watch this music video without stabbing yourself.



It's embarrassing and hilarious, I know, but I really want to try to make a point with this. Why do you think right wingers so often attach themselves to terrible songs like this? It's the same reason why hippies did it in the 60s: their arguments are all completely retarded, so they can be easily simplified in a three minute jingle. The result: a likeminded group jerking each other off.

A phrase he sings at 1:13 really bothers me: "peaceful revolution." This guy apparently has no fucking idea what a revolution is. A revolution is the forcible overthrow of a government. Revolutions are not peaceful. Revolutions are violent, and bloody, and terrible, and they should never have to happen unless people are being shot in the streets. The right wing grasping onto this word is really fucking insulting to actual freedom fighters who are dying all around the world. This here is what a god damn revolution looks like.



At least Neda died knowing patriots just like her are fighting the same fight in the United States!

Right wingers need words like "revolution" in their vocabulary because they incite anger and fervor. They need vague hints at an honorable past like the Revolutionary War to get its base riled up, just like how Mussolini always hinted at the glory of ancient Rome to get Italians to support a fascist Italy.

Republicans are anarchists when they're out of power, and they're totalitarians once they get into power. You can fully expect this to get a lot worse once the Democrats are swept out of Congress in November. I'm going to end this post with another video. This is from 1947. I don't care if you didn't watch the other two videos, but this here is really going to drive the point home. I posted this on facebook a little bit ago, but I'm putting it here too because I want everyone to see it. Send it to everyone you fucking know. Please.