You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time...

Michelle Obama rocks, her kids rock, her husband rocks. But you'd never know it by listening to the pundits of the right. It seems they filter every thing through a lens peculiar to their own invention. Their rabid view is so cockeyed it distorts everything. Black is white and white is black. They label things that are good evil and things that are evil good. They willfully take things out of context and twist them with an almost gleeful delight in their own cunning and clever remarks aimed at deceiving as many people as they can with false, illogical and misleading reasoning. They cannot even give grudging credit when credit is due.

That leads me to wonder, are their distortions just an innocent misperception or are they a deliberate attempt to conceal a hidden agenda? If the former is true, then I'd
have to ask, why do they go to such extremes to twist everything. Why diminish an inspiring speech and continue with the same false accusations that somehow Michelle Obama is angry and unpatriotic? Why call a bill that strips away fundamental constitutional rights the Patriot Act. Why set up a separate secret prison system throughout the world to detain, and interrogate by use of torture?

Its far too deliberately lopsided, and sinister in its implications to merely be a real misperception or a fundamental disagreement over policies. Other countries do that, not the United States. The consequences of such abhorrent behavior undermines the very ideals on which this country was founded and rips at the bedrock of its morality and decency.

You may be put off by that term fascism and a comparison between America and Germany but, the definition of fascism is: a collaboration between corporate interests and governmental powers that suppresses opposition and criticism while emphasizing an aggressive nationalism colored by racist overtones. So the question is does the shoe fit? I submit the following:

In pre war Germany there was massive governmental effort under way to strip certain groups of their rights all the while keeping their real intentions hidden, so their intended victims would not panic before they could build their death camps. They had an unhealthy alliance with arms manufacturers and industry in general.

The Nazi deliberately obfuscated their real intentions and were careful to conceal them with carefully worded edicts, by, first denying the rights of the victims to own property and then "resettling them in ghettos" (imprisoned them) and then putting them in "labor" (death) camps. Their use of euphemisms to conceal the truth were rampant.

At the same time their propagandists Gerbbels would demonize their intended victims by labeling them to dehumanize them. Gays were degenerates, Jews were sub human parasitic vermin, intellectuals were decadent elitists whose books and thoughts needed to be eradicated, in fact anyone that opposed them was labeled and thus marginalized. They were all to be gathered, imprisoned and finally exterminated.

There are many other parallels I find disturbing on many levels, between Nazi fascism and a uniquely American variety of fascism. There is a blind fanatical allegiance to the party line and its ideology. There is no room for disagreement, if you disagree you are no longer the loyal opposition raising a legitimate point of view, you are a traitor.

There is a deliberately generated paranoid atmosphere (the war on terrorism) that breeds fear and offers its inner circle of leaders control over others with unnecessary secrecy. There is the propagation of a false, fanatical jingoistic and machismo patriotism based on a pride of strength, linked solely to our military prowess. For example we can muscle and bully others without regard for the consequences. Germany invaded other nations with impunity. They expressed a marked naive assumption that other nations will bow to our obvious superiority without contention and welcome us as liberators.

There is an incestuous relationship between the branches of government and corporate interests. The energy companies wrote the energy bill for the country, now we are faced with soaring gas prices and a uncertain future while the energy companies and governmental officials line their pockets and ordinary citizens wonder why?

They then promote ineffective and unrealistic solutions that only continue their stranglehold on natural resources without solving anything. T. Boone Pickens said bluntly and truthfully, "we cannot drill our way out of this current energy crisis".

Here is a short list of other fascist similarities:

The right wing have corrupting ties to corporate interests that are at best unethical.
The energy companies were invited into Dick Cheney's office and there they wrote the energy policies for this country. They have deregulated industries allowing rampant greed to decimate this country's economic well being.They have weakened and undermined governmental Agencies to such a degree that they no longer work. Corporate lobbyist have been caught in numerous scandals including bribery of elected officials.

The right wing mollifies this nation with the same kind of confusing rhetoric adapted by the fascist of Germany. "The war on terrorism" is a cover story, the truth is this country was sucker punched by people living in mud huts. The invasion of Iraq was really a pretext for controlling oil in that region of the world.

The right wing has exaggerated that threat to implement their politically motivated foreign policies. Namely that we can impose democracy on others through military force.

The right wing has the same fascination with new technology and its adaption for militaristic uses. We are the biggest and the baddest and can do anything we want.

The Right wing willfully distorts the truth and hides behind a curtain of secrecy.
This administration is the most secretive administration in history even more so than during WWII.

The right wing uses flawed logic and false arguments to justify its actions.
The Neocon view is that might is right and damn anyone who thinks otherwise.

The right wing deliberately labels gays as deviants and wants to deny them of their unalienable rights. They seek to exclude gays from their rights by constitutional amendment.

The right wing imprisons, tortures its so called enemies without benefit of due process.
Rendition as its euphemistically called is an ugly fact defended by no less than the Vice President.

The right wing spies on its citizens under the pretext of an external threat that far exceeds the real dangers. It has gutted the fourth amendment with warrant-less wiretaps while protecting the mega rich telecoms.

The right wing invades other countries based on evidence that on its face is manufactured. Mobile chemical labs that didn't exist, WMDs that didn't exist, meetings with terrorist that didn't happen, etc.

The right wing has admitted that it seeks to create a one party system that is never challenged. Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay openly declared that intent and almost made it a reality.

The right wing is authoritarian in their administration of the government to the point of being dictatorial. They continue to hold the congress hostage to their demands through tedious wrangling over procedural issues. They punish those who challenge them.

The right wing has packed the judiciary branch with politically like minded jurist that have undermined the Constitution. They have packed the Supreme court with politically motivated jurist in order to advance their narrow political agenda. They fired federal prosecutors en-mass that disagreed with their political agenda.

The right wing has ignored the Constitution that says the Congress has a duty to oversee the Executive branch.They used false claims of Executive privilege and ignored the lawful subpoenas to testify before congress.

The right wing executive has assumed powers beyond his constitutional authority.
In direct violation of the ninth amendment that says no branch of government or government official can assume powers that are not specifically granted in the Constitution.

The right wing has a nearly a complete monopoly on the American media and their control most of the information channels. They continue to spout the same old lie that the media is liberally biased even though the media is controlled by right winged corporate ideologues. The air is saturated with well paid rabid talking heads; Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity & Colmes, O'Reilly, Beck and that is just a small example of the power they exert.

I could go on, but, if you are somewhat reasonable I think you'd agree that the similarities are at least striking. Even some traditional conservative thinkers are alarmed by the dangerous turn the ultra radical right wing of their party have taken. They have taken us down a path, that I think most Americans agree, is not the direction, this nation should not be headed.

They have used guile and subterfuge and misled many Americans by imparting a false impression of patriotism which cloaks their motives. They use the lie that any taxation is anathema. They said the economy would flourish and that wealth would trickle down. The truth is the average American is struggling and the wealthy have flourished, the truth is wealth has not trickled down, but it has bubbled up and benefited only the rich.

If you're not rich you should not be buying their lies, they view ordinary people with contempt as ill-informed, uneducated, rabble, unfit to govern ourselves and who they can manipulate at their whim. They are the true elitists.

It is time to become informed. It is time we wake up from our complacency. Its time we take back this country. It is time we change direction.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time". —Abraham Lincoln—