Obama still ducking townhall debates

[ajmccarrell]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I don't think YOU know what fascisim is. So why don't you explain your point on Universal Healthcare instead of being a condescending jackass?

According to wikipedia, "Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist political ideology and mass movement that holds traditionalist notions of reversing cultural decline or decadence, and which seeks to achieve a millenarian national rebirth by exalting most commonly the nation state, but sometimes the race, and which promotes unity, strength and cultural renewal."

So, using the authority of the government to takeover a private industry for "cultural renewal" and "unity" and "change" is the VERY definition of fascism. Everything in that first paragraph, including using the race card, is EXACTLY everything Obama says. Michelle Obama says "eschew Middle-Classness", IE avoid "decadence". Obama seeks to use the power of the government to "unite". If you are not terrfied of this man, you don't have a concept of history.

How about this one, "Fascism is] a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti conservative nationalism. As such it is an ideology deeply bound up with modernization and modernity, one which has assumed a considerable variety of external forms to adapt itself to the particular historical and national context in which it appears, and has drawn a wide range of cultural and intellectual currents, both left and right, anti-modern and pro-modern, to articulate itself as a body of ideas, slogans, and doctrine. In the inter-war period it manifested itself primarily in the form of an elite-led "armed party" which attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to generate a populist mass movement through a liturgical style of politics and a programme of radical policies which promised to overcome a threat posed by international socialism, to end the degeneration affecting the nation under liberalism, and to bring about a radical renewal of its social, political and cultural life as part of what was widely imagined to be the new era being inaugurated in Western civilization. The core mobilizing myth of fascism which conditions its ideology, propaganda, style of politics and actions is the vision of the nation's imminent rebirth from decadence. — Roger Griffin, The palingenetic core of generic fascist ideology"

So, the Obama playbook of "profits are too high", you're being "screwed by the corporations", "elect me and I will use the power of government for 'change'", "I work across the isle" That is nothing but fascist sloganeering. His church-like following is liturgical politics. His, "you will have an epiphany" speech is just exactly what fascism is. The reason the young people are so capitvated by this guy is because he IS new to America. We've never seen an old-style European fascist in this country before.

Why should I look up terms for you that you don't understand and explain them for you? That's not being condescending, that is expecting the person that you are having a debate with to have a basic grasp on the historical context of what they are saying. Basically, you don't like Bush and say he's fascist because you heard someone else say it and you thought it sounded good. Right? Bush has problems, certainly. Fascism isn't one of them.