Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%

[pbrower2a]

(internal argument excised)

The idea the United States is currently under fascist rule is, I've gotta say, downright offensive to people who've lived under, y'know, actual fascist rule.

As well as the contention that the previous Administration, pathological as it was, was fascist. Most of us are aware of Lawrence Britt's essay in which he compared the Bush Administration to a fascist clique. All of those traits were pathologies; I could associate almost all of those pathologies with Iraq under Saddam Hussein, contemporary Iran, Uganda under Idi Amin, Apartheid-era South Africa, or a Commie regime so nasty as Romania under Ceausescu.   The more pathological a government is, the more it will seem to have traits in common with a pathological regime of any kind -- right?

So the Bush Administration and the Congressional GOP appropriated military style and symbolism, deferred to anti-rational causes for political advantage, exploited religious fundamentalism, favored Big Business over workers every time, enhanced the repressive tendencies of law enforcement, manipulated the media, used political shenanigans to maintain its hold on power, initiated a war of aggression and fostered military overkill, scapegoated liberals, squeezed anyone not already rich, and became corrupt and callous. Something was missing from honest-to-Mussolini fascism: street thugs enforcing the will of the Leader, a secret police, mass persecutions of dissidents, media censorship, and the attempt to politicize every aspect of life, and a purge first of opponents then of those of "wobbly" support for the Leadership.   

Liberals (I among them) were able to get our points across in independent media  -- including the Web. Many of us could see the warning signs... and unlike the case in a fascist dictatorship, we could expose the rot. The 2006 and 2008 elections show that enough people could tire of a pathological government and that we could challenge it in the safest manner possible -- the vote.   

[pbrower2a]

As Eric Hoffer put it in The True Believer, the opposite of a raging fascist is a sober liberal. President Obama is very sober, and he is a decided liberal.

Liberals believe in the rule of law, due process, democratic government,  competitive elections, caution in international relationships, non-violence, personal freedom, social equity, and the rejection of violence. Every one of those traits is a rejection of fascism. Take the Bill of Rights, add the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to the Constitution and you have a clear statement of liberalism -- and what fascism isn't. That's not to say that Constitutional prohibitions of ex post facto laws and a narrow definition of treason aren't essential to liberalism.

Fascism implies that the government can prohibit any expression or assembly that offends the leadership, mandate the dissolution of or prevent the formation of independent organizations that lack the specific approval of the leadership, do domestic spying at will and without warning, seize property at will, arrest without warrant or other due cause, detain without trial or even perform extrajudicial killings, deny the possibility of a spirited defense, torture witnesses and defendants, discriminate at will, restrict the vote to those that it wants to vote or deny the possibility of competition in elections, establish and enforce slave labor, and subject women to men (fascism as a rule is very much a male habit -- all fascist regimes have been 100% male).

When George W. Bush was President, Tom DeLay was the Boss of the House, Rick Santorum was Boss of the Senate. and Dick Cheney took on powers that the President had no right to assume himself or delegate to the Vice-President, and Karl Rove was the Party Boss and exercise powers not defined in the Constitution, America took some "baby steps" toward fascism. We had the baby alligator -- not the full-blown giant reptile. We have since disposed of the alligator before it could get troublesome the right way -- by an electoral process that leaders of questionable ethics could not arrange to assure continuing power. .