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..last year I spoke with many people who lived through Nazism and then through Communism and none could really explain how it all happened to them. I suspect there are many Americans feeling the same about the 8 torturous, mind bending years of the Bush regime. The sobering thought is this. The economic and soico-political parallels with pre-Nazi Germany are open and obvious to anyone with a modicum of historical knowledge when it somes to 21st century America.
1. A ruling class run by industrailist oligarchs hell bent on retaining control of the means of production and distribution at any cost to the citizenry, including the destruction of civil liberties.
2. An intellectually bankrupt and corrupt party (the Repugs) willing and able to do their bidding
3. An underlying rump of morons wishing to join the elites as they trough out on the nations wealth calling themselves the "middleclass."
4.A military whose defeat in Vietnam has hardened their resolve to prove their prowess at ANY cost.
5. An artifically constructed economic collapse wherein the working class are cowed into submission by the wealthy and then led to believe it is the fault of mortgage defaulting minorities or Semitic terrorists and home grown terrorists.
6. An efficient and complacent media which serves up propagnada to a gullible and fearful public and then promises deliverance through more subjugation and destruction of their rights.
7. Rampant nationalism parading as patriotism
8. Religious bigotry and racist hatred
The parallels are frightening and more so because of the global reach these fascists now possess.
If I were an American today I would be fearful of the continuing rise of Republican fascism. I would also be fearful of the chaos from the economic meltdown and its effect on the nations communal sovereignty as the politics of divide and conquer increase in their rabid intensity.
This is a testing time for the fragile notions that sustain democracy and the world watches with bated breath to see if the citizens of America will once more rise up against the onslaught of fascism. The only difference this time is that the fascists are right there in your own neighbourhoods.
Hitler silenced his detractors. Glenn I admire your courage and hope that true patriots and freedom lovers like you are never ever silenced again. We live in hope. As we say here in Australia,which incidentally got rid of our version of fascism last year when Howard was deleted from the political stage..Good on ya mate.
