American Fascism
69
Ruining Democracy, NAZI style
When I saw the "Code Pink" ladies protesting and disrupting meetings, I was appalled. There is freedom of speech and then there is disruption. I do not side with the tactics, even if I am sympathetic to the message.
But recently, it was reported in major US papers that a right-wing group was going to disrupt town meetings in Democrat-controlled districts throughout the US. OK, protesting outside the meeting is one thing, asking inconvenient questions while inside is also OK, but shouting down speakers and cat-calling, giving no one a chance to speak, working as a group to basically stop Democracy from working, those are just fascist techniques as perfected by none other than Adolf Hitler and his Brownshirt NAZI thugs. Amazingly, they did the same things to shut down their opponents and stop Democracy from working. And, sadly, they succeeded.
As I said in my opening, Code Pink was wrong to act as they did, but they were escorted out and later were allowed to just sat quietly with their protests worn on their clothing. End of story.
This recent batch of thugs, however, is not only vocally bullying town meetings that are supposed to be the foundation of Democracy in the US, but they are also physically intimidating people, such as one of several men who stood up and demanded that a person asking a legitimate question. He shouted and gestured, "Sit down! Shut up! Sit down right now!", screaming at the man as he tried to ask his question.
My grandparents came from NAZI Germany, they lived there until they were able to escape to freedom, and I learned from them that this is exactly what the NAZIs did to destroy a democracy, because most people will just not fight back. It is brutal, thugism at its worst, and most unconscionable of all, you Americans are ALLOWING these thugs to steal your Democracy from under your feet! Worse yet, some of you actually believe this is a wonderful thing to do! How sad for you!
Why do these thugs do it? Who knows for certain? They have an agenda. Get Obama out of office. Stop his programs from going forward. Maybe they have many reasons, starting with true political ideals and ending with racism. Whatever the cause, they are acting like storm troopers and I have yet to see any angry protest of their tactics!
Moreover, they are scripted by a Republican-backed organization, under the direct control of good old Dick Armey, a shady character and former Republican U.S. Representative from Texas. They are defended by right-wing and right-leaning organizations such as the famous "Fair and Balanced" FOX News.
Folks, these people are out there to make their agenda the ONLY agenda American follows, and they are doing it in such a way as to take over your country, with a minority representation, and to breed fear and paranoia throughout your nation. Are they succeeding? You betcha!
And that brings me to my second observation. The other day a woman named Nancy Genovese was arrested outside Gabreski Air National Guard base. She had an XM-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and around 500 rounds of ammunition. She was caught by the local sheriff's department, who asked her what she was doing. She replied, "Nothing." Yet she had been scouting this place out for a few weeks previous, had questioned the guards, and apparently was seeking to find out if it was a secretly run FEMA camp, what ever that is supposed to be. She wrote on her MySpace page that she believed Glenn Beck, the FOX News "entertainer" (as Beck calls himself, sincve he is not a reporter or journalist, and proudly denies being either), when he apparently said FEMA had such camps secretly stationed around the country. They, according to Beck, are up to no good for "patriots" who suide with him and his agenda. Just where Beck got this "intelligence" is beyond me, but he has been ranting without anyone to check his facts or to counter his argument, much as does Rush Limbaugh, and now the loonies believe them enough to take up arms and free the government from the evil plans of Barack Obama. So you've had armed and dangerous nutcases out there training, planning, murdering, preparing to take over when the time is right.
These nut cases think they are patriots, like the minutemen of old, and they believe the government is their sworn enemy. And what does America do in the face of this expanding internal bit of terrorism? What have you done to protect your Democracy from the lunatic fringes? They are there, both Right and Left, but right now the angry Right, fed BS from such notables as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Tea Baggers and others, are thinking, perhaps even planning, to make an armed revolt to take over YOUR nation! I can hardly believe they use the analogy of the Boston Tea Party! If you want to protest taxes, that's fine, but to make it sou8nd as if your government is like that of George III - it's ridiculous!
OK, don 't believe me. "It can't happen here". Hide your head in the sand and hope for the best. Yet, something is going on, and if I were you, I'd check it out and do something to quell this mini-revolt before it becomes a major internal war.
The NAZIs did this and they took over Democratic Germany. Have you read your history lately? Those who ignore it are prone to relive it. Just because it hasn't happened in the U.S.A. in the past does not mean people haven't TRIED to make it happen. They have, and they were stopped by a concerned and aware citizenry. Those people, the true patriots of your nation, were not too busy downloading songs and eating out and buying things they didn't really need to take quick, positive action to keep their freedoms and their Democracy.
Are you?
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Ivan
You said "Get Obama out of office"? He is not the only one to blame. ALL POLITICIANS ARE SELFISH BASTARDS more or less. But your idea that he may be responsible for stirring the kind of extremism you're talking about is too extreme.
On to Sarah Palin, well, she is an idiot who resigned before her first term is up to RUN FOR PRESIDENT. SHE WILL FALL FLAT ON HER FACE. AND HARD
Im Sorry, I didn't bother reading the rest of your article after the first Nazi reference.
McSwiggins has found bliss.
Hi Ivan: "Cabals" have been part and parcel of the rise and fall of all great world powers. Why would this time in history be any different? The human species is profoundly involved in it's evolution. Simply put, it will adapt and survive or it won't. Remember the words to a song: "Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be. The future's not ours to see. Que Sera Sera."
Qwark
Hi Ivan
"History repeat its own History"...
ColdWarBaby, I guess some people just like hiding their head in the sand. They just can't believe that there are some people, both Left and Right, who use thug and brownshirt tactics to take power.
Fishskinfreak, read the statements as a train of thought:
"Why do these thugs do it? Who knows for certain? They have an agenda. Get Obama out of office." That is, their agenda is to see Obama fail, and they are taking these actions to make it happen. I DO NOT agree with them and I am not the one calling for Obama to leave office. They are.
Also, I am not saying Obama is the cause of the problems, I am saying that these people have an agenda, to keep Obama's programs from being created. It is the very core of their argument that they are out there to make sure Obama fails. they are even saying it will be his "Waterloo" if they can trip up his attempt to finally bring America into the 21st century by providing universal health coverage that all the other major nations of the world already have in place. It's a sad comentary that here in little old SPAIN we have had universal health coverage for more than 5 decades, and that it was a fascist leader, Generalisimo Francisco Franco who started it.
McSwiggins, you probably won't return here to see that I added your comment and have to say it's too bad you didn't read on, because it's one hell of a hub, and it reflects the outrage people in Europe feel over the way you allow your two major parties to act in such thugish ways. Sorry, there is no other word for it than these people are being thugs. To steal away the DEMOCRACY that your nation has told us is so great, and it is, to sell out to corporations and political parties and aparachiks who only want their agenda to be followed, is both criminal and insane. If you don't want to face that, then sobeit. My grandparents loved Germany but had to face the reality that things were going very sadly wrong there when the NAZIs began to disrupt the Weimar Republic and steal away the democraticly ruled country. they could accept the depression, worked hard and lived through it, but the outright racism, disguised as patriotism that the Nazis displayed, was too much for them. Although Catholic, not Jewish, they knew that the slippery slope had begun. It was not too long before such thug tacticfs were welomed by "all good Germans, patriotic and true." Sorry, I see the same thing beginning in your country, and I may be right, in which case, my friend, you really WILL be sorry.
As for former citizen of the US, I took my civics and history classes and we learned that town meetings were the best expression of the give and take of Democracy. Their entire purpose, and your entire Democracy, is based upon civil discourse, not shouting down opponents and organizing little a little putsch like Hitler did to keep disrupting the government so it didn't work. The Nazis were very adept at making sure government failed, so they could then point to that failure and claim they had the solutions. I see this latest tactic as more of the same thing, and therefore, my claim remains, your nation is starting tp show signs of fascism in the style of the NAZI party. If you donb;t like it, tough.
Qwark, I agree, but this latest round of hooliganism is too much. Both the Right and Left have been guilty of it. I didn;t agree with the poitical agenda at the Democratic Convention in 1968, I don;t agree with Code Pink shouting down congressional meetings, I don;t agree with religious groups shouting insults at funerals and I don;t agree with right wing groups seeking to disrupt toen meetings, which are at the very core of your nation's Democracy. It smacks of political terrorism at its worse. By the way, I lked that song.
Jolinarodriguez, yes, history is a repeat of itself all too often. Ine the 1940's the U.S. was in danger of bring taken over by Communist and Fascist groups that osught to take advantage of troubles they helped to create, in order to over throw the government. It didn't work but the groundwork was laid for future attempts.
OK, one and all, thanks for the comments. Watch your Democracy is my parting word at this time. The rest of t6he world does not want your nation to fall into any sort of extremism.
Hi Ivan: Doris Day sang it well.:-) I disagree with a lot of things we that we members of an infant species do. Things happen whether I like it or not. I, as a realist, cant get excited about those things I have no power to control. My responsibility in this life is to survive, enjoy and live for as long as my genetic programming will allow. Stress is a killer. I let the world "buzz" around me and live, as Sinatra sang: "...doing it my way." As mankind "metamorphoses," so will this adaptable "animal."
Qwark
I was stunned at the tactics used and the weight of the groups behind sending out information to, first of all, disrupt the meetings on purpose, and second, make sure to act in concert to keep the pandemonium going. I am a student of history and I know these tactics were used in the past by many extremist groups, and not just in other countries.
I can also say that groups like Code Pink and others set the current stage for this kind of backlash, and it seems that when one's own "side" is doing this it is heroic, but when the "other side" does it then it becomes evil.
There should be more dialogue and less demgogery, but I realize such a pollyanna state of being is not going to happen. we are, for better or worse, and I happen think for worse, jusr under-evolved creatures that as a whole need to start using our minds and depend less on others to do our thinking for us.
Hi Ivan: " we are, for better or worse, and I happen think for worse, jusr under-evolved creatures that as a whole need to start using our minds and depend less on others to do our thinking for us." Amen!!!
I just read where some Limbaugh wanna-bes are rejoicing that discussion were disrupted. I am getting angrier by the minute. These bully tactics are wrong. The people behind them are seeking to undermine Democracy and civil discourse. They are anti-American. They should be arrested when they do this crap, much as others would be.
They don't want answers, they only want to obstruct
There was a time when I respected Republican leaders such as those Senators we had in Illinois. But this new crop of idiots will never get my vote. From now on if a Democrat running for office does not appeal to me, I will just not vote for anyone in that office.
My friend look,it's not possible where uniforms exist ,even in sports, for people to feel absolute free,its the name of the fucking game ,in history,big fish eat smaller,and in 2000 last years stronger and bigger is the one who keeps bigger GUNS.So every where NAZI'S exist.I spend 2 years in the Greek army because i had to,and believe me where logic stops army starts
OK, now the other side in this issue is also disrupting meetings, guarding doors, etc. This whole thing makes me wonder. Just what is going on here? Anger and hatred. It is ripping our nation apart!
Gusripper, I sympathise & understand because I spent my military time in Viet Nam and I had to shoot people I didn't even know, and later I learned that our entire purpose for being there was bogus. Kennedy started it, Johnson made it worse, and finally it was Nixon who got us out of there. As much as I detested what Nixon did in Watergate and his imperial asperations, he was brilliant in foreign affairs. His trip to China opened up the world of diplomacy and his getting us out of Viet Nam was master statesmanship.
Chef Jeff, we have angry meetings here as well, when protesters shout and carry signs, but our political meetings are held outdoors, so they don't get much traction if they are at a distance.
I didn't much care for Presidet Bush but I abhor tactics where people shouted him down or tried to interfer with his speeches.
We experienced a Civil War here in the 1930's which kept us under a fascist dictator until Franco died. Even after he was dead the Falange (Fascists) tried to keep the whole thing going, but were soon out of power and out of our lives.
The Right still tried hard to avoid any connection with Franco. He was the evil dictator some make him out to be, but he was certainly no friend of democracy.
Also, for every Limbaugh there's another on the other side of the spectrum shouting just as vehemently. I heard this Limbaugh during my last visit with family in the U.S. and I thought at first he was a Monty Python type caricature of humor. Someone told me he was not trying to be funny, so I laughed even harder.
Love the hub Ivan. Americans need to hear more from people like your family that survived German occupation of Europa and can confirm what history buffs and political science geeks like me and CWB have already been screaming.
Not only can it happen here; It has almost happened before (READ: Prescott Bush et al attempted fascist coup to over throw FDR circa 1930's) and it is happening right now!
Hold your Wind and Ready on the guns mates. As the boys in the East say; we live in interesting times.
Well they didn't talk about it too much when I was young, but later I listened to the stories as the adults talked. Hitler was revered in Germany by many people who, rightly or wrongly, felt that the wrath of Europe had ruined Germany between the wars. The thing is, false rumors and outright lies fooled the people into a paranoia that went fat beyond the norm,al German sense of superiority based on inferiority, if you comprehend what I mean. Germany was a new state in europe and people felt proud, but also somewhat unworthy since Italy and France were older, had been organized much earlier, and in that way Germany and America have much incommon. Both were rather recent creations when compared to most of the rest of Europe.
Hitler fewd on that nostalgia for the "good German way of life" where others did Germany's bidding and that Germany somehow had a manifest destiny in eastern Europe. Many people did not know Germany occupied huge swaths of the Ukraine and other areas right before WWI ended. Also, German troops were training tank manouivers in the USSR under Hitler, as he prepared to over-ride and ignore the treaty against Germany having a large army.
But most of all Hitler used proxies and his cronies to get the message out there - hate someone, inhis case the Jews, Gypsies, Gays and others who were "NORMAL" by German fascist standards. Slavs and others were inferior, but could be used as slave labor, but the undesirables were to be put to death. Kids born with birth defects were slaughtered, the mentally ill as well, kids with down's syndrome were disescted while alive to see what "Jewish" influence they had in their bodies. I was told that the NAZI doctors, using false science created under Hitler as a demi-religion, believed that some organs (Liver, genitals, intestines) were larger on anyone who had some "Jewish blood" in their ancestry. Of course today we know this is both ridiculous and false, but they believed it because Hitler told them to.
Also in the U.S. before WWII there were German Nazi sympathy bunds that attracted "pure and pretty Aryan children" into their ranks. Some of them were even given moral support by some congressmen! Chanrles Lindberg was somewhat sympathetic to the Nazis, as was Henry Ford and Prescott Bush, same family as two of our presidents. Neither of the Bush presidents followed their father's strange obsession, as far as I know, however.
Lindbergh, if I am not mistaken, did some promotional test piloting of new planes for the Luftwaffe some years before the invasion of Poland. The real purpose of which was to give the Nazis good press in America to make up for the bad press they were getting from the likes of Winchell (who later made the mistake of falling in with McCarthy) I am not sure how far from the Berries fell from the Bush when it comes Prescott's Get; I think they more learned from his mistake and decided to make their treasons far more subtle. Thankfully Smetley Butler decided he loved his country more then he disliked Roosevelt. I still don't understand how the conspirators escaped the noose.
Let me see if I have this right. It's perfectly alright for George Soros to hire busloads of Union goons to trapse around the country and disrupt conservative gatherings. But, let one or two crazies from the right ( far from being a true representation of the party spout off and we're all NAZIS.
Also, your final photo is not an advertisement from the right. It's another propaganda spoof from the left, as is your first poster. Don't stoop to insulting the intelligence of the reader by inferring in your caption that it is anything other than that.
You are in SPAIN and you still have the gall to throw around terms like 'fascism' so irresponsibly and hyperbolically? Have you gained no sense of the history of the place where you live? Your hub smacks of nothing more than another extremist being dramatic to flatter his own ego.
ColdWarBaby 2 years ago
The wheel just keeps turning.
Throughout history, whenever all the wealth of a society has been concentrated into the hands of the smallest possible number of people, the result has been, without exception, bloody revolution.
Here we go again.