America Is Ripe For Authoritarianism

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/america-ripe-authoritarianism



America is on the precipice of a fascist uprising. While liberals have consistently leveled the f-word against opponents on the right, much the same way conservatives have appropriated socialist or Marxist against those on the political left, there is now data showing that proto-fascist movements are on the rise.

The kindling for the fire of fascism has already been lit. While the Republican Party holds at least one branch of the federal government, America will never be able to deal intelligently and earnestly with the economic policies that have destroyed the working class and all but decimated the middle class. A GOP congress guarantees that Democratic efforts to raise the minimum wage, reform the tax code and repair our crumbling infrastructure will be thwarted, all in the name of protecting the rich from paying their fair share.

Long-term unemployment promises to be the norm, as well stagnant and poverty-level wages, foreclosures, crippling personal debt and bankruptcies, the evaporation of savings and retirement funds, the outsourcing of jobs, the continued dilapidation of our schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and airports, and the regulations that safeguard our food, water, and clean air. All this comes courtesy of obscene profits, bonuses, taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and compensation being doled out to our corporate overlords.

“It [USA] is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” says Noam Chomsky. “The parallels are striking, and the United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen.”

[RobertEarl]

1. We are lucky

The closest we came to a charismatic was raygun. May he rot in hell.

Obama, it has been said, was a placebo. In that what he did was give hope. But since the voting machines are owned by the republicans every close race in the congress was taken by one of them, so Obama was horn-swaggled from doing much even if he wanted.

Meanwhile nature, which always bats last, is in the batter's-up circle. Looks like Obama is gonna take a walk and then will see what nature has in store. Climate change has the old girl a bit riled, so what may happen may not be anything anyone is really prepared for. Then again, maybe the secret government is prepared?

[Unknown Beatle]

2. The government is prepared.

After hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, martial law was declared in the region. There's plenty of videos showing precisely that it happened in the Big Easy.

A major catastrophe in a large area of the US and martial law will be implemented.

[left is right]

5. Please don’t use a lighter and a can of spray paint to kill that spider crawling across your psst

It might burn down DU

[KG]

3. unquestioning, wild-eyed, personality-cult-like support for a pres.? glad we don't see that on DU!

[xchrom]

4. !

[pipoman]

6. This can't be blamed on the thugs

To the exclusion of dems. I expect the thugs to be thugs, it is the dems who have abandoned labor and the cause of the less fortunate in favor of the same corporate interests that the thugs worship.

As for authoritarians, it always surprises me how many dems love them if they lean left

[Lurks Often]

9. The hypocrisy & the ability to rationalize away authoritarianism from those on the left

as long as it meets their own goals is disturbing.

If it is wrong for the Republicans to do something, then it is equally wrong for the Democrats to do the same thing.

[BrotherIvan]

10. How about this guy?

[pipoman]

14. What about him? I thought we were talking about elected officials,

if we are talking about lobbyists the list gets much longer on both sides.

[Laelth]

7. FDR warned us about this a long time ago.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

We need another FDR.

-Laelth

[xchrom]

8. +1

[renegade000]

11. the Weimar parallel is a bit of a stretch

I mean, I appreciate the valuable message that we too are susceptible as a people to these types of moral/political failings, but the warning of imminent fascist takeover I think is a bit premature. Some of the parallels are there, but they differ significantly in terms of magnitude.

Do we have a 20-30% unemployment rate and only a 15-year tradition with any form of democratic/liberal government? Is our military/government bureaucracy dominated by people sympathetic to the previous aristocratic/military regime? Did we just lose a catastrophic war, and have the victors saddle us with all the economic costs?

Sure, it is certainly conceivable that it can happen here, but I think our government will continue to make poor decisions in its current republican form for the foreseeable future. And that's still a problem.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. "a bit premature"

Shall we wait till it's accomplished?

[Stinky The Clown]

12. And the Democrats are right there helping it along.

If we're going to use the fascist meme about repubicans, then the Vichy meme is fair to use on the Democrats.

[MohRokTah]

15. .