We live in a fascist state. It was predicted by Henry A. Wallace, the Powell Memo of 1971 organized it, and Ronald Reagan saw it come into fruition. When I put this together I based this on Dr. Lawrence Britt’s 14 characteristics of fascism. Sadly, as I list them below, you will see that we are in a fascist state.
1. Powerful nationalism- From the right's explosion at Obama for not wearing a flag lapel, to Donald Trump's rambling campaign speech this week, Republicans have a major boner for this country. Even Hillary feeds into this with her jingoism.
2. A disdain for human rights-Really, do I even need to bother to discuss how Republicans hate gays, blacks, brown people, immigrants, Americans, transgender, and anything else I forgot? My problem with Obama has been he is a great speaker on human rights, however, he rarely puts it into action.
3. Using a scapegoat to create unity-Now this one is hard to put on neoliberal Democrats. However, for a party that talks about "Personal Responsibility" like the Republicans, they should really stop blaming others. But then what can they do?
4. Supremacy of military-This falls on both parties, but unevenly. Democrats have the progressive wing pushing for peace, and the Republicans have Rand Paul who is terrified of all those people who aren't Americans, but both parties have what "Fightin' Bob" LaFollette called the "war party." To be exact, he said, "Every nation has its war party…It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition." That is most of the neoliberals.
5. Rampant sexism-Republicans have sexism in spades. Obama has been solid at women appointments and supporting legislation for women's rights. He could do better, but he is doing an acceptable job on this issue.
6. Control of mass media-Two words for you, Corporate Media.
7. Obsession with national security-There is nothing to add. There are thousands of examples of this from the Obama and Bush administrations.
8. Religion and government intertwined-Republicans have forced this onto people. This is why we need a strong separation of church and state movement and why I support groups like American Atheists.
9. Corporate power is protected-Trade deals have been a serious problem since Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton, the best Republican president in my lifetime, took this idea and created the modern version of it. One of the things that I loathe is that Obama finally shows leadership on trying to pass this god awful legislation. Not to say that George W. Bush didn't pass trade deals, but Bush was an idiot and I expect Obama to have more sense than Bush.
10. Labor is suppressed-Inaction sometimes is as bad as taking part. Where people like Scott Walker actively are destroying labor unions, Obama never lived up to his campaign promise to stand by labor unions. I never expected him to protest, I did expect him to use the bully pulpit. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Desmond Tutu said in their own way, "Silence is taking the side of the oppressor." Sadly, Obama never suppressed the unions, but he did nothing to help labor in America.
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts-Republicans constantly rail against both. Whether it's racist Jesse Helms destroying our national arts (And neither Clinton nor Obama did anything to repair the damage.) or Rick Santorum, Jeb BUSH! (I want to make sure he doesn't run from his heritage, so I make sure I punch the Bush part of his name.) or Donald Trump today, our arts and intellectuals are marginalized.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment-I used to wonder why Obama never did anything to reform prisons, then he called the Baltimore protesters "Thugs." Thom Hartmann says that is the 21st century version of the "N-Word." He's not wrong. Where the N-word is degrading, like "thug," "thug" has a way to criminalize the black community. Republicans may have this obsession, (Again, starting with Nixon and seen from how Scott Walker used the police to silence dissent in 2012 and 2013.) Obama is also complicit in his silence. His use of the word "thug" shows he doesn't care about prison reform.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption-Not to say I like every appointment Obama has ever made, that's right, I'm talking about you John Brennan, Timothy Geithner, and Jack Lew, but where was the outrage over the Bush administration? Seriously? Where was the Tea Party when Bush was declaring wars which benefited Dick Cheney? Where was the outrage then?
14. Fraudulent elections-Al Gore won the 2000 popular and electoral college presidential election. Since then, Bush wasted a crap ton of money and only found 10 people who committed voter fraud. Yet zealots on the right keep on harping about voter fraud. No, the fraud was having the Supreme Court appoint a f*ck-up like Bush president and the potential hacking that Rove did in 2004 and tried again in 2012. The last legitimately elected Republican was Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon, Reagan and the first Bush betrayed our country for power, and George W. Bush cheated.
You can see, from FOX News personalities like Sarah Palin, to Texas Governor Rick Perry, from the 5 ultra-Conservative justices on the Supreme Court to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, the fascists have achieved power. Even presidents like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama fit most of these signs. It sickens me when I see this.
I see only two possibilities in fixing this, the first is to form a viable third party, one which can push our country towards a more sustainable model of politics and economics. However, with corporate media, that is next to impossible. As much as I love Jill Stein, the 2012 Green party candidate, I was hoping Rosanne Barr would have won the candidacy and gain the attention of the corporate media with her celebrity. However, Jill Stein, the better qualified candidate won, sadly keeping the Greens ignored despite her many arrests trying to get into the debates.
The second option is more viable, and that is we infiltrate the Democratic party and we push from the inside. If we can primary neoliberals like Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer with real progressives, this would either force them to the right, or expose them for what they really are. Then we can start to move this country in the direction we need to go. In the direction our country was built to go, towards a more fair and just society.
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