Paul: US inching toward 'soft fascism'

PressTV ^

[mnehring]

"We're not moving toward Hitler-type fascism, but we're moving toward a softer fascism," said the 10-term Texas congressman Sunday.

Speaking on PBS Sunday, the presidential candidate affirmed that the American people are giving up their rights and privacy, 'all in the name of safety and security'.

"Loss of civil liberties, corporations running the show, big government in bed with big business," said Paul of the downhill situation that awaits Americans.

"So you have the military-industrial complex, you have the medical-industrial complex, you have the financial industry, you have the communications industry. That's where the control is," the libertarian-leaning politician explained.

The Texan concluded that what is happening will be very 'dangerous' as the situation is getting to a point that 'is hard to reverse'.

Paul, who ended up fifth in the Iowa caucus last week with 10 percent of the votes, is becoming immensely popularity among the American youth as well as the educated elite.

[G.Mason]

"Paul, who ended up fifth in the Iowa caucus last week with 10 percent of the votes, is becoming immensely popularity among the American youth as well as the educated elite."

The same American youth's & educated elite that watch those popular television programs & go to Hollywood movies?

Those well rounded & functionally illiterate folks, of whom many are independent (reads Liberal) voters, or non voters?

Those people?

[Homer1]

newsflash - we’re already there.

[ChurtleDawg]

hogwash. Dwight D. Eisenhower felt it was an important enough issue to talk about it in his farewell speech.

you don’t think there is a nexus of collaboration between government and big business? who do you think pays for all of those K street lobbyists?

[The Last Rebel]

“Any time someone brings up the “Military Industrial Complex”, that means he is a ignorant liberal.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

TLR

[DM1]

Ron Paul is Mangeto!!!!!

[ChurtleDawg]

the RKBA is far from being the only right people have. I’d like to think that I have the right to be free from government spying, arrest without charges being brought etc etc

[Jokelahoma]

The SWAT teams are local. The "military industrial complex", as I've heard the term used (and have no reason to doubt Paul meant as well) refers to the US Military, the federal government, and the contractors who provide them with goods and services.

So no, in this instance, not the same thing. Sounded to my ears as though Paul was blaming corporations for getting us into Iraq.

[M203M4]

It is about the coupling of government with private interests, basically making external entities extensions of the government. Big government is bad no matter how you slice it - public private partnerships are in no way superior, and are not part of a genuinely free market. There is nothing wrong with corporations, but there IS something very wrong with corporations (or any special interests) in bed with the government, using government fiat and taxpayer dollars to do what they cannot do through voluntary association.

Totalitarianism in all forms should be rejected. Paul is right. And I can see the logic behind those who sought to implement campaign finance reform, but I think Fred Thompson (and others, like Paul and Goldwater) realized that the only way to solve the problem is to attack it at its root. The federal government needs to be starved; a "new" federalism (that intended by the framers, who foresaw these ills) is needed.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Ron Paul could be extremely popular to the rank and file of the Republican party, and he could do so without compromising any of his principles, if he did just one thing.

Make a list of the top ten things that he strongly advocates. Then *ask* the rank and file what *they* support. He would find that many Republicans support *some*, but not all of what he is advocating.

Based on that list, let’s say that the vast majority of Republicans *agree* with him on 6 of the 10 items on the list, and *disagree* with him on the other 4.

All he has to do is then to say, “I promise to do those six things, but leave the other four alone, if I am elected President. Because they are unpopular changes, they will remain the status quo while I am in office.”

He doesn’t have to compromise his principles one iota. This is because NO President gets everything he wants anyway, no matter how truly he believes in something.

But by promising to just leave some idea that he believes in, but is unpopular, *alone*, he can get *most* of what both he, and the Republican rank and file want.

It would be a sign of great personal discipline that even if he personally wants something, he is willing to set that desire to one side for a time, so he can get something else both he, and the Republican rank and file want.

Again, he does not have to surrender what he believes in at all, just agree that if it is unpopular among his supporters, he will set it aside for now and work on other things.

If he was to do this, his popularity among Republicans would jump. But he has to be honest. If he says, “Read my lips, no new taxes”, but increases taxes anyway, he will be punished and deserve it.

That is, if he agrees to leave an unpopular change alone, not try to force that change once elected, then he will be honest.

[jd777]

Like Eisenhower.

[pissant]

Good Frickin grief. You think the Military industrial complex wanted to be neutered by Clinton and before him Carter? Who was the man that rebuilt our military? Ronald Wilson Reagan. So if there was ever a guy who actually supported the military industrial complex, it is the Gipper. Ikes term was used repeatedly by leftist stooges all during Reagan’s tenure. it is utter bunk. The military has less influence on policy making than the AARP, for crap sakes. Otherwise, you would not see a Navy that has atrophied to less than 300 ships, or an Army that lost multiple divisions after Reagan left office, a B2 bomber program that was drastically undercut by libs in the congress, or the anemic budgets for missile defense during the Clinton years.

Sorry, it is BS term, used by libs in this era.

[wintertime]

What about the “Education-Social-Welfare Complex”?

[M203M4]

Don't forget, the fascist nations of Europe were uber-socialists. Heck, the Nazis were "national socialists."

That's something that gets buried far too often. Socialism, fascism, and communism are all variations on the same theme. They all seek to maximize the realm of compulsory collectivism, dissolve the concept of the individual, redefine freedom and liberty in terms of 'positive rights', and essentially make a god out of government, hoping to usher in a utopia on earth.

[mnehring]

We’re the freest people in the history of the planet, but this pimp makes millions selling platitudes of hopelessness to borderline psychos.

Thank You!
Any time I hear people crying about how we are living in a fascist country or are socialist or communist or whatever, I want to scream you ignorant fool. We are the USA, we are the freest country in the world. We are the most prosperous country in the world.

If we were really fascist:

• The government would determine your job based on the good of the state.
• The government would control industry, not the other way around.
• Your political party affiliation would be mandated.
• Media would be a single outlet controlled by the government.
• All citizens would be categorized into boxes based on some factor, be it race, family ties, beliefs, whatever, and your job, your salary, where you live, what school you go to, and your rights would be based on that 'box'.
• Private schools would not be allowed to exist.
• Only one, government mandated religion would exist and that religion would be controlled by the government.
• Military service would be mandatory.
• Police would be a branch of the military and would regulate law based on martial law rule.
• Travel would 100% regulated.
• All speech would be licensed and subject to regulation.
• Blogs would not exist.
• YouTube would not exist.
• FreeRepublic would not exist.
• No person would be free to make a speech decrying if the government is fascist, communist, or whatever.
• Failure to comply with politically correct speech or correct thinking would subject you to imprisonment or worse.

As Ayn Rand said, the only difference between Communists and Fascists is the color of their uniforms.

 

[Doc91678]

Ron Paul is mistaken. The Progressive Marxist Left is drfting eaxcatly into Socialist Marxism.

[Wallace T.]

At the time Eisenhower made his "military industrial complex" remarks, he was pretty well anathema to conservatives. Not just the fringe like the Birchers, but the mainstream conservatives like the National Review staff of the time disliked him for failing to repeal the New Deal social and regulatory legislation and for not being sufficiently aggressive against the Soviets and their satellites. Eisenhower was blamed for letting Castro take over Cuba and not intervening when the Soviets suppressed the uprising in Hungary and other Communist states. John Kennedy ran for the White House with accusations that Eisenhower's poor administration had led to a "missile gap" with the Soviets.

The context of Eisenhower's speech dealt with the close association between the military and defense contractors, one that persists to the present. Leaders in these industries and many high ranking officers of the time were aligned with Eisenhower's nemesis in the GOP: the conservatives led first by Taft and later by Goldwater. Numerous active and retired generals like Douglas MacArthur, Charles Willoughby, Edwin Walker, and Curtis LeMay had strong ties with the conservative wing of the GOP and even the "farther shores" of conspiracists such as the John Birch Society. Think about movies like Seven Days in May and Dr. Strangelove from the early 1960s, where right wing generals are the villains trying to overthrow the government or start a nuclear war with the USSR.

It is ironic that Ron Paul, whose political support draws in part from the lineal descendants of the 1960s era conspiracists and old school conservatives, such as the 9-11 Troothers, cites the old Eisenhower rhetoric originally aimed at those very people.

[mnehring]

Post #27 & 28 has that actual section of the speech. It isn’t what a lot of people like to make it out to be.

[wideawake]

corporations running the show

Thanks, Chairman Mao.

Is the Workers World Party the latest addition to his donors' list?

[TexasRepublic]

Paul, ... , is becoming immensely popularity among the American youth as well as the educated elite.

youth = useful idiots

educated elite = communist leadership

[Doc91678]

Ron Paul is mistaken. The Progressive Marxist Left has drifting into Socialist Marxism.
If America allows all the Social programs the Left is asking for, what next? We might as well hand our salaries to the government.