:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Sunday, September 19, 2004 ::

More Required Reading

Dave Neiwert is starting a new series on American Pseudo-Fascism as expressed in the "Conservative Movement." As with his previous series, "Rush, Newspeak, and Fascism," it's guranteed to be a must-read for everyone of moderate or liberal standing. The first installment, "Part 1: The Morphing of the Conservative Movement," lives up to the promise, as it does the best job I've seen yet of characterising all that is wrong with Dubya's presidency and the extreme lengths the movement has undertaken to cover-up those deficiencies in the public discourse. To force y'all to read the whole thing, I'm just going to put the last graf here:

All of these appeals [made by the movement - ed.] have come wrapped in the twin themes that are central to the appeal of the conservative movement:

-- An insistence that the movement represents the only "real Americans."

-- Pervasive expressions of contempt for the weak.

These latter traits, in particular, expose the underpinnings of the "conservative movement" for their genuinely corrosive and divisive nature.

But does all this add up to fascism?

Not in its fullest sense. But it does replicate, in nearly every regard, the architecture of fascism in its second stage of growth -- the stage at which, in the past, it has obtained power.

All that is needed for a full manifestation of American fascism, at this point, is for a genuine crisis of democracy to erupt. And if that occurs, it is almost inevitable that the differences between fascism and pseudo-fascism will vanish.

One wonders what such a crisis will be, and one hopes it doesn't happen on November 2nd or 3rd.

:: The Squire 11:03 PM :: email this post :: ::
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