7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat

[Shallah Kali]

Why the right-wing extremism must be stopped in its tracks or else we face the threat of outright violence and goon rule

http://www.alternet.org/politics/141929/7_ways_we_can_fight_back_against_the_rising_fascist_threat?page=entire

Print version http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/141929


In the post about fascism, I pointed out that the most insidious part of it is that by the time it's finally obvious to absolutely everyone that these people are dangerously out of control, it's too late to do anything about it.

snip

First: The teabaggers must not win this one

snip

It only takes a small handful of thugs to terrorize people into giving up their civil rights, abandoning democracy and doing what they're told, just so they can keep their jobs, windows and families intact.

The main imperative in life becomes staying off the goons' radar. All the enforcers need to do is make an horrific example out of one or two troublemakers every now and then -- and the resulting fear will keep everybody else quietly in line.

Conservatives have tried to subdue other Americans this way for centuries, so there's nothing new going on here. And this is the way they've always done it: they used race (and yes, the birthers and anti-health care rioters are, at root, all about race) and economic calamity to whip up a posse of terrified, well-armed vigilantes, and then turned them loose on society to "enforce order."

Given their colossal investment in organizing and indoctinating the teabaggers, we'd be stupid to believe that this is all going to go away when Congress returns to Washington in September. Having had a taste of power and publicity, these newly empowered mobs are very likely to stick around town and see what else they can do to keep the muck stirred up. {emphasis added}

Our choice now is stark: knock them back while they're still new, small and not yet entrenched; or deal with them later, when they've got some real power to fight back with, and the cost to all of us will be so much higher.

Pleas read the rest here:
http://www.alternet.org/politics/141929/7_ways_we_can_fight_back_against_the_rising_fascist_threat?page=entire

Print version http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/141929

[villager]

1. it would've been easier to stop the Nazis in the 20's...

than it turned out to be in the late 30's, or, obviously, the 40's...

Point taken...

[Doctor_J]

2. Unfortunately we're well into the 30's

They're bringing assault rifles to Obama appearances w/ no reprisal, the have complete control over the media, they're making open threats to politicians and regular citizens who don't agree with their Nazi policies, and the country as a whole is speeding toward bankruptcy, with the only growth sector being the death business (prisons, war, and health care rationing).

The time to head this off was 10-12 years ago. It's way too late.

[cabluedem]

4. Yeap. Should have banned all assualt waepons and confiscated them in 1994. nt

[notesdev]

3. a technical quibble

the author's definition of fascism is wrong. Fascism is the merger of government and corporate power, according to the guy who led the first officially fascist regime (Mussolini).

[TrogL]

5. I think there's a little more to it than that

The merger of government and corporate power could be accomplished democratically without a haircut getting mussed.

Fascists prefer:

violence

subjugation of minorities (ie. non-pure people) even if this wastes fascist resources

uniformity of behaviour, dress etc. etc.

[notesdev]

6. Fascism was created democratically

Mussolini was elected; so was Hitler.

On your points - violence is inherent to government; the very definition of a sovereign government is one which holds a monopoly on violence over a defined territory. Subjugation of minorities is an unfortunate human trait not at all confined to fascism; while it may be a hallmark thereof, it is not an essential part of its definition. As to uniformity of behavior and dress, any identifiable culture can be accused of the same.

In contrast, the merger of state and corporate power is not inherent to democracy; that is what qualifies it as a defining feature of the fascist political system, as pointed out explicitly by Mussolini.

What we have today in America is already fascism; it has been for some time, but as of recent years the mask of civility, the pretense of representation has been lifted. When you see an ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs (Hank Paulson) at Treasury handing over $700 billion to Goldman and other corporations of its type, so those corporations can then in turn use that money to facilitate government policy ("the Ownership Society"), and even further back, one can point to the repeal of Glass-Steagal, or the regulatory capture of the SEC, OTS, and the FDIC, so that they acted as facilitators for rather than checks upon corporate influence; that is fascism.

It is unfortunate that the word 'fascism' has become a generic epithet, thus its actual meaning obscured; it makes it all the more difficult for people to recognize true fascism when they see it.

[D23MIURG23]

7. Excellent article.