Fascism -- A civic lesson

I don't read newspaper, weekly news magazines, or watching tv news like I used to be. But I feel I am more informed and knowledgeable about the country and the world by surfing the internet for the news sources and commentaries I trust.

I found the following comments by Michael Ledeen educational for me:

Newsweek magazine, which has given us many of the most damaging deceptions about America in recent years (remember the “Koran-Down-the-Toilet” hoax?), now weighs in with a pretentious and embarrassingly ignorant cover story, “We Are All Socialists Now.” To be sure, the basic theme–that the huge “stimulus” and the big big big TARP is leading once-capitalist America down the dangerous road to socialism–is not limited to the skinny weekly. You hear it all over the place, from Right to Left, from talk radio to the evening news (or so I am told; personally, I haven’t watched an evening news broadcast since 1987).

There’s an element of truth to the basic theme (although not to the headline): the state is getting more and more deeply involved in business, even taking controlling interests in some private companies. And the state is even trying to “make policy” for private companies they do not control, but merely “help” with “infusions of capital,” as in the recent call for salary caps for certain CEOs. So state power is growing at the expense of corporations.

But that’s not socialism. Socialism rests on a firm theoretical bedrock: the abolition of private property. I haven’t heard anyone this side of Barney Frank calling for any such thing. What is happening now–and Newsweek is honest enough to say so down in the body of the article–is an expansion of the state’s role, an increase in public/private joint ventures and partnerships, and much more state regulation of business. Yes, it’s very “European,” and some of the Europeans even call it “social democracy,” but it isn’t.

It’s fascism . . .

Well, according to Wikipedia:

Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist ideology focused on solving economic, political, and social problems that its supporters see as causing national decline or decadence. single-party state in which the government is led by a dictator who seeks unity by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation, . . .

A-ha! Seeking unity by declare "I won" so the 46 percent of the voting people's voice will be silenced. Isn't that how we just ended up with the freaque porkulus, uh-m, stimulus, bill in our Capital Hill? So yes, Mr. Ledeen is exactly right! No one admits it yet, but like it or not, the U.S. in 2009 is indeed rapidly becoming fascism!

* * * 1359 days to next election. * * *