Is America Flirting With Fascism?

[Dover]

Mark Seddon on November 3, 2010, 1:32 PM

To watch from afar as the drama of the US mid term elections unfolded as a Brit who has lived in America, likes America and likes Americans, is deeply frustrating. At one level there is puzzlement, at another there is deep concern and still at another there is a feeling that to comment is to intrude on family business, and I am not of the family. I recall a British newspaper, The Guardian, clumsily intervening some years ago, urging Americans to vote for Democrats in swing Congressional districts that that paper’s pointy heads had decided would call the election. Not surprisingly, this was exploited to the hilt by the Republicans – and that was before the Tea Party. After all, who wants a bunch of Brits sticking their oars in two centuries on since the Red Coats were marched into the sea?

That said the perversity on show in recent weeks begs a whole series of questions. Questions that are being asked by many of America’s friends in the World, who are now fearful that the country harbours a form of raucous corporate fascism that is feeding from the resentment of a section of middle America that is losing its sense of identity and purpose. These questions – and they are asked in a genuine spirit of inquiry so as to attempt to understand what is happening in America – may seem starkly obvious to some. The answers could provide ammunition for those who really do hold to the mission of the founding fathers;

..cont'd

http://bigthink.com/ideas/24795



To me it seems more like America is looking the other way while we're all being raped. Numbed by a sense of powerlessness and victimization. Can you say mass denial?

[MsLeopard]

1. We are like a nation of abused spouses

and we just keep taking more and more, afraid to leave. America isn't flirting with fascism - it's here in all its glory and has been since BushCo stole the 2000 election.

[yurbud]

2. your last line nailed it: conservative Stockholm Syndrome

blue collar and others whose futures are hostage to corporate whims are identifying with their kidnapper and racist because the alternative is to realize their defenselessness and vulnerability to further harm.

[tledford]

3. "Flirting with?" We've been fascist for thirty years now. eom

[MrSlayer]

4. +1

God damn right.

[T Wolf]

5. Maybe, if we can convince people that fascism is gay, we can get America to invalidate the marriage

between the nation and the corporations.