Thanks to cowardly lefties we're not allowed to mention FASCISM CREEP

[Proud2BAmurkin]

or the fascism enablers they call liberal pundits will call us shrill

[prodigal_green]

1. Who is banning the F word?

I've been using it for years.

[deutsey]

2. Just define what fascism is

Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because
it is a merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini

See also:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html

"Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application. Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage....

"...For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence." (these are also Mussolini's words)

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

"Fascism, in many respects, is an ideology of negativism: anti-liberal, anti-socialist, anti-Communist, anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, etc., and in some of its forms anti-religion. As a political and economic system in Italy, it combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-communism."

By these definitions, Bush is a fascist and that's what I call him.

[Az_lefty]

3. What are you talking about?

I've been calling repug's fascists since the election. I can't do that anymore around here?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

4. around here you can but not on TV or newspapers

you're not allowed to mention it until the dictator is already installed

[Minstrel Boy]

5. The left's gatekeepers are dependent upon foundation money.

It's not because the Ford Foundation wants a vigorous left that they fund, for instance, The Nation.

[Mist]

6. Why not just refer to the fascists as "unAmerican"?

Time to dust that one off and use it again!

[pfitz59]

7. Sean Insanity just inked new contract!

$25 million to demonize liberalism, and turn back the progressive tide! I would suggest Sean is a well-paid FASCIST! What "LIE-BRUL MEDIA"?

[Robbien]

8. Are these the same Democratic leaders who are silent on the

Pentagon report which stated Iraq is a mess?

Are these the same Democratic leaders who counseled the party to concede even before all the votes were counted?

Are these the same Democratic leaders who have lost seats in the House and the Senate in every election in the past twelve years?

These Democratic leaders?

[Zhade]

9. Typo - it's spelled "cowardly DLCers" not "cowardly lefties".

Look to the DLC for the enabling.

[Raskolnik]

10. Speaking as someone who has bitched *a lot* about this...

...I would say that my problem is not about comparisons to fascism, but instead people being sloppy in their use of terms like this. You can make a very convincing case that this administration is pushing us closer and closer to a form of classical Italian fascism, and I think we'll see more discussion of this in the coming years.

My problem, however, is when people use hyperbole and name-calling as a replacement for reasoned argument.

Unfortunately, a lot of people use "Nazi" and "Fascist" interchangeably, and this further muddies the waters. When people use these terms, they too often use them as synonyms for "very bad", which they are not. They represent very specific things, and when we use the terms sloppily, we look silly to a lot of people and lose credibility.

[AP]

11. Yeah, Nazis gave Fascists a very very very very bad name, and prior to

Naziism, Fascism was just a very very very band name (even though many Americans during the first two Roosevelt terms proudly described themselves as fascists and embraced European fascism as a great political system).

Fascism is very legitimate way to describe a government that is of and by and for the corporations.

You look at America's health care system and it's Iraq strategy and its energy policy and it's proposed Social Security plan and it's not a stretch to say that we have a government that is of and by and for the corporations.