Is today's Democratic Party a crypto-fascist movement?

[Robb]

Poll question: Is today's Democratic Party a crypto-fascist movement?

It is impossible to discount anyone with the history a man like Cornel West carries. It would be akin to ignoring the advice of the only firefighter in a burning building.

To be clear, West did not say outright that the Democratic Party has become a crypto-fascist movement. He said http://www.greenchange.org/cornel-west-on-barack-obama">this:

"We have got to attempt to tell the truth, and that truth is painful. ...The Democratic Party, more and more, is not just milquetoast and spineless, as it was before, but thoroughly complicitous with some of the worst things in the American empire. I don't think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama.

If it turns out in the end that we have a crypto-fascist movement and the only thing standing between us and fascism is Barack Obama, then we have to put our foot on the brake. But we've got to think seriously of third-party candidates, third formations, third parties. Our last hope is to generate a democratic awakening among our fellow citizens."

So what is your prediction? Will it turn out to be true that today's Democratic Party is a crypto-fascist movement?

[Donnachaidh]

1. ...

:popcorn:

[LiberalLoner]

7. Yup. Popcorn tastes good. n/t

[Bucky]

2. Dingbat

The people who think it's not Fascist and the people who think it's Fascist, but not "crypto" about it, outnumber those who think it's both. Not a surprise.

[Fumesucker]

3. I think a lot of the leaders would like it to be..

Most of the rank and file Democrats though would not..

I expect that the leaders will eventually get their way no matter what the rank and file might want.

[villager]

4. Enablers of same, perhaps...

n/t

[Romulox]

5. I don't know exactly what "crypto-fascist" means.

There's no question that today's Democratic Party takes money from multinational corporations in exchange for influence, up to, and including, conducting war on third world nations to secure profits for private parties. In addition, the Democrats have crafted one sided trade deals and a "top-down" economic policy which is clearly designed to hollow out the middle class. Modern Democrats also are enthusiastic participants in the War on Drugs, and the erosion of civil liberties.

So...are these things "crypto-fascist"? They aren't things I want done in my name.

[Cid_B]

11. Makes me think of an Italian Bigfoot...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. WTH is a "crypto-fascist movement"?

:shrug:

I do believe that the ideological direction that the Republican Party is trying to take us is not anywhere most of us should want to go but I don't believe that the Democratic Party itself is another side of the same coin (as some people like to argue). If our party has any particular "failings" it's that we are too reasonable and accommodating to crazy ideas and maybe try harder than we should to be "bipartisan" and are, to some extent, allowing the Republican Party to frame the debate and drag us with them towards the abyss. However, at the end of the day, the Republican Party is running out of "electoral time" due to demographics and the Democratic Party has wider appeal to the electorate and still represents the interests of the vast majority of the Americans better than the Republican Party EVER will IMHO.

[OHdem10]

15. I would agree except for Conservative Democrats. I do think

they are just too reasonable. They believe much of the same
stuff as Republicans. Just not as crazy as Republicans.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

37. Right

There are some (but not many) degrees of difference between Conservative Democrats and Republicans. It would be interesting to interview one of them (now that so many are out of office now, it should be easy) and find out exactly what made them decide to become a "Democrat" rather than a "Republican". :shrug:

[nebenaube]

19. Well

You're not going to like this comment but where I have looked at past societies that fell to fascism (and it always fails); I found Christian doctrine at it's core, as if that was the mental construct required to provide fertile ground for nurturing the ideological seeds of fascism.

[jp11]

8. I think it will turn out that today's democratic party is a slice of cherry pie.

[Recursion]

9. Yes, the Democratic party drags people out of their beds and shoots them

:eyes:

It's as silly as when conservatives call us (and their RINOs) "socialist". The fact that the world fails to conform to your ideology doesn't mean it's the world that's out of whack...

[sufrommich]

12. Great post. I agree. nt

[polichick]

10. If you are asking if Dems are corporate whores too, I'd say...

Yes, for the most part.

[L0oniX]

28. I await the time when DU'rs wake up to this too.

[ecstatic]

13. West has absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain if the GOP retakes the White House

Lower taxes on his millions, increased opportunities to vent, etc.

[LeftishBrit]

14. No. But the Republicans might.

[mmonk]

16. The definition of Crypto-Fascist is as follows:

Crypto-fascism is a pejorative term implying a secret support for, or admiration of, fascism.

I think a better description of the party was in a piece titled "The Corporate State Wins Again" by Chris Hedges in the following

The rhetoric of the Democratic Party and the neoliberals sustains the illusion of participatory democracy. The Democrats and their liberal apologists offer minor palliatives and a feel-your-pain language to mask the cruelty and goals of the corporate state. The reconfiguration of American society into a form of neofeudalism will be cemented into place whether it is delivered by Democrats, who are pushing us there at 60 miles an hour, or Republicans, who are barreling toward it at 100 miles an hour. Wolin writes, “By fostering an illusion among the powerless classes” that it can make their interests a priority, the Democratic Party “pacifies and thereby defines the style of an opposition party in an inverted totalitarian system.” The Democrats are always able to offer up a least-worst alternative while, in fact, doing little or nothing to thwart the march toward corporate collectivism.

However, the antecedent to privatization and the Third Way was Mussolini.

[Bicoastal]

17. Can I just say that I never heard of Cornel West before Obama became President...

...and now, having read up on him and his career, I don't really see why I should consider him an authority on Crypto-Fascism or Regular Fascism or Diet Cherry Fascism or anything else of that nature.

[SidDithers]

38. Diet Cherry Fascism is my favourite fascism...

Sid

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. That is not yes or no.

The Democratic party is not a crypto-fascist movement. But there is within the Democratic party a crypto-fascist movement, akin to the one which has almost completely taken over the Republican party.

[Desertrose]

20. +1

[Luminous Animal]

21. I interpret this to mean that there is a crypto-fascist movement coming from the right...

and that if we believe that Obama (and as a leader of the Democratic Party) is going to stand up to it and stop it, we are mistaken. I see nothing here that shows that Dr. West believes that there is a crypto-fascist movement in the Democratic Party. Only that Obama and the Democratic Party are too weak to stop one.

[Robb]

23. That implies the right's goals are somehow hidden.

To whom are the goals of the right unclear? West? Us? Unlikely.

[Luminous Animal]

26. No not hidden but rather an opposition has not been articulated by those with the loudest megaphone.

And those with a powerful organization. That is, Obama and the Democratic leadership.

[Robb]

29. Does "crypto" not mean hidden?

[Luminous Animal]

30. Sorry, I wanted to elaborate but I was mugged the other night and I am having a lot

of trouble thinking (hit on the the head, 10 stitches) and following through.

[Robb]

31. Wow, I'm sorry to hear that.

Rest up and get well. :hi:

[Luminous Animal]

32. Thank you!

[SDuderstadt]

33. That is awful!

Are you okay? May I ask what part of S.F. this occurred in?

[Luminous Animal]

34. I'm not 100% sure how okay I am...

I have an appointment today to see if there is any eye damage.

It happened at 16th St. & Sharon St. (Small street running parallel between Church & Sanchez.)

[leveymg]

22. "Crypto-fascist" was a term that Gore Vidal applied to Bill Rusher of The Nat'l Review on TV during

their televised guest commentary at the Republican National Convention in 1964. That was provoked by Rusher calling Vidal a "faggot" when the ideological debate got particularly intense and nasty. You'd never hear such passionate ideological talk on any network today, except Faux. To my knowledge, Gore Vidal never returned as a network political commentator, while Rusher got his own syndicated PBS show, "The Advocates."

In some ways, particularly economic, the Blue Dog Dems are to the Right of Barry Goldwater and Bill Rusher in 1964. However, I would not agree that the Democratic Party today as a whole is actually fascist, crypto or otherwise. That seems to be far more endemic to the GOP.

[divvy]

24. No ...... did you bump your head?

The direct fascist movement is being foisted upon us via the tea bag movement and the republican party.

We are here to thwart their efforts. How could you miss that?

[Zorra]

25. Some "Democrats" appear to be crypto-fascists, if we define fascism in this way:

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. "

FDR--"Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Recommendations Relative to the Strengthening and Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws"

Crypto-fascism is a pejorative term implying a secret support for, or admiration of, fascism. The term is used to imply that an individual or group keeps this support or admiration hidden to avoid political persecution or political suicide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-fascism

It certainly appears to me that neo-liberal Democrats are crypto-fascists.

That said, IMO, voting third party instead of Democratic would be political suicide at this time.

[xchrom]

27. if we're talking about a political party that morphed away from FDR & JFK and toward

reagan/thatcher -- that basically underpins the goals of the IMF, WTO, world bank, austrian economics -- then yes the party has become 'crypto-fascist'.

that pretty much the stuff west is talking about -- a political party that continues to support the wage & wealth inequalities that have been more or less supported by both political parties.

[XemaSab]

35. Fascists would be a lot more organized

:banghead:

[Erose999]

36. I voted "no" because the party isn't "fascist" overall, but there are elements within who have

fascist intentions. For example, the whole Arne Duncan/Michelle Rhee "hooray for charter schools/lets privatize education" movement.