Calling a Spade: The Political Importance of the Fascist Framing

[Tamyrlin79]

Many Americans would be shocked to hear that the Republican Party is under the control of an American version of fascists. Indeed, the reaction I've gotten the few times I've said it among Republicans and Bush supporters, the response has been one of simple shock that I would say such a thing.

Democrats are often called communists. Communists were the demon of any leftist ideology through the Cold War, and the anti-communist McCarthy Era represented an increase in the power of the political right. Painting Democrats with the same brush and playing on anti-communist fears is an easy and predictable tactic.

However, the American problem with communism isn't communism itself, per se. Rather, the problem is that, as implemented, communism created a totalitarian system with too much concentrated power. For lovers of democracy and republic-an government, this is anathema.

The problem has been that by running from the boogeyman of the left, we have embraced the defeated boogeyman of the right against which communists and democrats were united during World War II. The commies might be 'bad' to the American mind, but they aren't Nazis or Fascists. For americans, it is generally the difference between just being evil, like Stalin, and being both evil and psycho-crazy, like Hitler. This is essentially why calling the Republicans fascist raises the hackles a little more.

But, if you think about it, the two "evils" here aren't matters of degrees, but rather a matter of mirrored opposites. If one thinks of communism as a system where the government/state controls the economy, then fascism is the inverse: a system where the economy (represented by private enterprise, ie. corporations) controls the state. In either case, you get a totalitarian system, which is unpalatable with the American ideal. So, whether extremist left or extremist right, totalitarianism is the evil that results. Whether it's a psycho evil or not depends on who is controlling the power apparatus.

However shocking to the conscience, it is important that a spade be called a spade: The modern Republican Party is a fascist organization. They seek to deregulate industry. They seek absolute power. That Grover Norquist has talked about making the state too weak to function, so small that it can eventually be drowned in the bath water, only serves to prove my point. They seek concentration of wealth and power to the detriment of the average American. They erode civil liberties. Like Stalin or Mussolini, they have become a threat to democracy and the American Republic. And this subversion of democracy and the people's will is the greatest treason possible under a republican form of government.

To combat Norquist and others like them, people must realize that what is going in America now isn't just irresponsible; it's dangerous. The only way to reverse the current "pro-business" tilt in our politics is to point out how concentration of more and more power into fewer hands hands achieves what Americans most fear (totalitarianism) but from the opposite direction. That the Cold War is over and that anti-communism now simply means talking bad about Fidel Castro has helped the well of fear dry up.

By playing on fears of communism, that the state will control the economy and take Americans' freedoms, the Republicans have created a political platform to shift power from government to private enterprise, allowing the powers in the economy to exert more and more control over a weakened state and ultimately achieve the very thing Americans were afraid of.

This fear isn't wrong. Any good citizen of the Republic must remember that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty". A healthy fear of monarchy and totalitarianism helps keep the flame of vigilance lit through the generations. Exploiting this deeply-rooted fear, then, has helped the Republicans pull the country to the right.

To counter, this fear must be co-opted and used by the Democrats. This is easy, because it only requires pointing out the plain truth about the modern Republican Party, listing the facts and coming to the clear, logical conclusion. Doing so demonstrates that Democrats have the true welfare of America in mind (ie, not totalitarianism) and their governing priorities straight. While it will take time to entirely take this ground from the Republicans, it can cut into them and co-opt an issue that is deeply embedded in the American psyche. The immediate result would be to cause people to reconsider their support for Republicans and to re-examine them in a different light. If this causes Republicans to have softer support or lose support, then that would clearly be in the nation's (and the Democratic Party's) interest.

The key here is to show people that fascism cannot protect them from becoming a communistic totalitarian society, to point out that both lead to the same disastrous, un-American results, and to remind people that there is a moderate, distinctly American center where liberty can flourish and truth can triumph over ideology. To do so would truly reclaim the center of American politics and save the Republic from the gravest internal threat to liberty our Republic has yet faced. It is the calling of our times, and a test of the patriots of this generation. To use our free speech rights to name the fascist demon, then, is not simply an acknowledgement of the truth, it is our patriotic duty.

[creeksneakers2]

1. Exactly

The GOP tries to destroy anybody who questions them. They must be stopped.

[glitch]

2. Not much difference between the state owning the corporations or the

corporations owning the state when they are the same people running both.
Fascism - where the far left and the far right meet, and embrace.

And you're right about the mirror images - why do far lefties switch over to far righties, and vice versa? Black and white thinkers - say they start out believing white, they look a little deeper, realize it's not working, they flip to black. When they realize black doesn't work either, they'll probably flip back to white, or give up political thought. It's their only other option, they can only see two 'colors'.

Very nice, thanks for posting.