The Fascist Epithet

The Freeman ^ | June 1994 | Mack Tanner

[optimistically_conservative]

It seems that the op/ed left often writes on similar themes at the same time. Not that might be a VLWC out there, but I thought I would post this in response to a few that have been posted here recently:

GOP ignites liberal flame

Anger Management Liberal anger is justified, but it won't win the election.

Temperament Wars (Dems are nice, GOP is mean)

[jimkress]

Great article! Thanks for posting.

[rdb3]

Not bad. Archived.

[gcruse]

If an opponent is inherently evil ideologically imbedded, then one has no reason
to expect that rational discussion and debate would produce any useful result.

Disagreeing with someone doesn't necessarily make either one of us evil.
And many things besides evil are inherent and incapable of change.

[Gabz]

PING

It may be a bit long - but it is DEFINITELY a MUST read!!!!!!

Many things we have been saying and doing for years.

[RichardMoore]

National Socialism is control of business by government. What we have today is big government and big big business working hand in hand. They conspire to move jobs to cheap labor markets. This is a new form of Fascism.

[The Electrician]

Wow... Well said... I've bookmarked it for future reference.

[Eva]

One statement that the author made that was misleading is that Mussolini offered the Italians the same promises that Roosevelt was making here, in the US. Roosevelt studied Musolini's reforms, not the other way around.

Ann Coulter discusses in her new book that the way Reagan beat communism was to reignite the fire of religious morality and God given freedom in the United States. This is what the left fear most of all because you cannot subjugate a people who answer to a higher power than the state.

[Great Dane]

For later reading.......... thanks.

[LiteKeeper]

INTSUM

[StriperSniper]

Much of modern American liberalism is fascism and always has been. We ought to start calling it that.

Be it dim's fascism or pubbie fascism, it is just a matter of degree.

[optimistically_conservative]

Disagreeing with someone doesn't necessarily make either one of us evil. And many things besides evil are inherent and incapable of change.

I agree with that, but that misses the point of using epithets in politics. Republicans are not called facists by Democrats because Democrats understand the tenet of facism, but because it puts Republicans on the defensive, makes them inherently evil as facists, and therefore Democrats no longer need to engage in rational discussion and debate on issues like national security, etc. It works just as well in reverse.

My point in posting this was to offer that perhaps, "liberal anger" is fueled not by excessive partisanship by conservatives, but by the underlying tenant of anger, hatred and frustration toward anyone that resists the greater good of utopian socialism buttressed by extreme environmentalism. In other words, the modern "liberal theology" is more akin to fascism than the minimalist government liberal represented by our founding fathers.

[Carry_Okie]

Here is a little quote written in 1933 from Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell:

In reality, it was the Communists above all others who prevented revolution in Spain. Later, when the Right Wing forces were in full control, the Communists showed themselves willing to go a great deal further than the Liberals in hunting down revolutionary leaders.

[Snip]

Between the Communists and those who claim to stand to the Left of them there is a real difference. The Communists hold that Fascism can be beaten by alliance with sections of the capitalist class (the Popular Front); their opponents hold that this maneuver simply gives Fascism new breeding-grounds. The question has got to be settled; to make the wrong decision may be to land ourselves in for centuries of semi-slavery.

[DPB101]

Government unions, not corporations themselves, is where fascism lies in America. Calpers, the NEA and the NTEU are buying up corporate America while they lobby government for more government. Nearly 7 million government employees are not in Social Security. Every dime of their pensions is being invested in the private market. Someday we could all be working for the clerk down at the DMV or our kid's teacher. That is fascism--not Boering getting a contract from the Pentagon or McDonalds getting a tax break to advertise overseas.

[tet68]

a strong central government permits, but regulates and taxes, private wealth and property in order to achieve the utopian socialist ideal.

This DOES sound familiar.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Disagreeing with someone doesn't necessarily make either one of us evil."

True, but leftists/socialist ARE evil. The historical record proves it (150,000,000+ dead, and still counting).

[gcruse]

I am merely making the point that demonizing the opposition doesn't always mean the opposition is a demon, and that trying to debate from absolutely fixed positions is a waste of everyone's time, no matter who is right.

[ffusco]

"Roosevelt studied Musolini's reforms..."

I always thought that FDR was fascist-lite, with his WPA, War powers acts, internment of belligent aliens, rationing, progressive taxes....

[thoughtomator]

I find it odd that 'republic' is left out of the forms of government.