THE LEFT'S WAR ON REALITY

Over the years I have become impatient with the Left's war on reality and its partisans' increasingly hysterical screeds against the tyranny of the Bush administration.  I hold no brief for the president.  He has been a profound disappointment.  However, the Left's denunciations of Bush as a schemer who is provoking war to divert attention from his fascist or theocratic designs upon America is lunacy.

Moreover, it demonstrates a moral obtuseness among the sanctimonious sorts who populate the left end of the political spectrum.  Unhinged comparisons of Bush and his administration to the monstrous regimes that plagued the twentieth century is a frivolity devoid of any decent regard for the hundreds of millions who did suffer and die at the hands of real tyrants.  The fact is, despite the corrosiveness of the welfare state, America remains a land of liberty where the Left's war on reality can rage on without fearing any retribution from the government.

It was in this frame of mind I enjoyed columnist Mark Steyn's recent exchange with one of the loony left ...

AMERICA IS SO TOTALLY FASCIST

I was watching you [Mark Steyn] on C-SPAN this morning and you seem to think that this country hasn't fallen into fascism. Let me educate you a little. Here is what Lawrence W. Britt has determined as the fourteen signs of fascism.

1.” Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.” Does "stay the course", you're with us or against us, WMD's etc. ring a bell with you? What about all those little flag pins conservatives are so proud to be wearing at the most shameful era of American history?

2.”Disdain for the importance of human rights.” One need only look back on the drowning people in Hurricane Katrina while our government elected officials refused to cut their vacations short to do anything about  this crisis.

3.”Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.” The axis of evil. We must kill them all.

4. “The supremacy of the military/avid militarism”. One need only look at the budget to see what is spent on military.

5. “Rampant sexism.” Yes, lets criticize Nancy Pelosi for the price of what she wore to the SOTUS. I notice none of the men got the same criticism.

6.”A controlled mass media.” Since the majority of our media is controlled by six major corporations who all want to emulate Fox News, need I say more. The news is biased and unprofessional. Did you know there was a major revolution going on in Oaxaca, Mexico that could directly have an influence on our immigration problem, yet there was hardly a whisper in the news?

7. “Obsession with national security.”  Wiretapping of citizens without a warrant and no habeas corpus anymore and an emerging police state with people already being disappeared, the undocumented workers caught in an INS sting that no one knows where they went.

8.”Religion and ruling elite tied together.” Where do I start. Creationism being taught in public schools. Rev. Moon being crowned the Messiah in a public building in Washington with members of Congress attending. The Terri Schiavo circus led by political conservatives and the President's brother, Jeb Bush.

9. “Power of corporations protected.” Yes, more and more corporate welfare. All those profiting from the present wars at the expense of taxpayers. The prescription drug benefit for the PHARMA industry at the expense of seniors and the taxpayers. The upcoming universal health care plan at the expense of taxpayers and for the benefit of the insurance industry. Boy, you wanna talk about welfare queens in cadillace, how about those guys in corporate jets?

10. “Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.” Union busting started with Reagan and goes on today. Jobs are allowed to be outsourced to third world countries at the expense of middle class working Americans. Expoited document workers at the expense of the domestic work force. Homelessness becoming institutionalized.

11.”Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.” The marginalization of the other voice the liberal voice, since Bush took power in the media and in the mainstream. Anyone who doesn't follow in lockstep is called unpatriotic. Michael Moore being demonized for his opposition to the GOP party line particularly when the Bush administration fell down on the job before the 9/11 attack. Of course emerging evidence would suggest that they liked the attack. It was their Pear Harbor that would give them the green light to conquer the Middle East and bring it's oil under USA and British control.

12. “Obsession with crime and punishment." I only need to say AbuGhraib and Guantanamo. You know that no rules or Geneva conventions were honored in those places not to mention many other lessor known venues of incarceration and torture.

13. "Rampant cronyism and corruption". The Bush administration seems to be staffed by cronies from Reagan and Poppy's administrations. Then there is Brownie, Condi, Karl, Kenny boy and this list just grows and grows.

14. “Fraudulent elections.” It's pretty much been proven that Gore won election 2000 that the Supreme Court, stepping out of its jurisdiction handed over to Bush. There is also emerging evidence that Kerry actually won 2004.

(See here for more on Lawrence Britt.)

Now as a conservative you strike me as a little more clever that the rest of the sycophants supporting this festering administration, well you did until you bold-faced lied about Bush's reading material. Even a third grader knows when a fellow classmate hasn't done his homework. Please stop thinking that the average American is that stupid.

However, my point is your denying that we have descended into fascism and how serious it is since none of us have ever lived in fascists regimes. Isn't this a rather naive statement on your part? Many of us Americans have lived overseas in fascists regimes and many have immigrated here from fascist regimes and we know one when we see one. But I thought I would send you the fourteen signs of fascism just in case you never saw them. I'm sure you have but you are again making the assumption that many conservatives do that all Americans are as dumb as the people you brainwash with your giibberish on a daily basis.

You can dismiss me if you like, but recent polling would suggest that the majority of Americans pretty much know the truth about what is going on and it's not the picture that conservative media people like you would like us to believe. We can't do much about it except to protest and I think noticing the trends these days from those who are disenfranchised at the moment should give you pause before you tell your next lie. You are carrying the water for a rogue party and administration who are globalists only loyal to the corporations they represent. They are unpatriotic and one of these days will be regarded as traitors and war criminals and you and all those who supported them will go down with them too.

Laura Sheehan

STEYN REPLIES:  Hey, thanks for “educating me a little”. For a start, I’m not really interested in what Laurence W Britt has “determined” are the “14 signs of fascism” because I wasn’t aware he had proprietorial rights in the concept. And reading through the “14 signs” they seem to be little more than semantic sleights-of-hand. Whether or not you approve of, say, a creationist school board, in the real world it has no meaningful equivalence with Fascist Italy or the Iron Guard’s Romania. None. Nor do “flag pins”. And let me say again what I said on C-SPAN: there are many people around the world who have lived under Fascist regimes, and every time you apply that word to the Bush Administration or Republican Congressmen you are insulting millions upon millions who know what it really means. You dislike Bush, you disagree with his policies, you think Fox News is biased, star-spangled bumper stickers creep you out. None of that makes America Fascist. It makes it a free country of different viewpoints freely expressed. Grow up.