Courtesy of Sharper Iron, I’ve learned of Mike Huckabee’s “Cross ad” (they don’t play campaign ads in Texas, apparently), and of Ron Paul’s commentary, which, according to the title fo the Sharper Iron piece, “links the cross and facism.”
Do’t go off half-cocked like I did upon reading that. Read further (I did that, too).
Paul was quoted from an appearance on Fox News Sunday in which he cited Sinclair Lewis in saying,
“It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, ‘when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.’ Now I don’t know whether that’s a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don’t think I would ever use anything like that.”
I’ve since heard Huckabee say that the cross in the background was incidental. I don’t know. I still haven’t youtube’d it to see it.
Here’s the deal, though – I thin I’d have to agree with Lewis! I have no trouble believing that if facism were to take root here, it would be “wrapped in a flag, carrying a cross.”
Check out Dan Gilgoff’s The Jesus Machine. It is a fascinating read that, in my opinion, remains pretty fair to the “Christian Right.” Having read that, and observing some of the machinations some politically active Christians go through in the U.S.A., I’m with Lewis.
What do you think?
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5 Comments
December 20, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I hear the word “fascism” thrown around a lot, but I’m not sure I know what it means. My impression has been that it has to do with the government trying to control the lives of citizens. Ron Paul as a libertarian would want to minimize that control in favor of more individualism. Mike Huckabee as a social conservative would be interested in not seeing government enforce revisionist morality on the institutions of society. Of course, many conservatives have criticized him for being liberal when it comes to economics. Which of these aspects looks like incipient fascism?
December 22, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Richard H’s definition of facism is more like the definition of totalitarianism. He does not hit on what is unique to fascism. By definition. Facism means first and formost dogmatic respect for personal property. It is the opposite of communism. And a respect for “tradition”. And yes, as a result, a fascist government leads to control of the lives of citizens as many of the other isms do.
I consider myself a religous conservative. I see Hukabee as a member of a group of religous zealots. They are paronoid supporters of the worst of the Zionists. And they make war.
Here’s a quote they don’t seem to recognize….
“He who lives by the sword dies by the sword”
December 22, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Lewis seems pretty prophetic there to me…
December 24, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Bob, has there every been a country that practiced “first and formost dogmatic respect for personal property?” I’ve always heard of Nazi Germany described as fascist, and they certainly didn’t have such respect for personal property. They were National SOCIALISTS. I don’t know enough of Mussolini’s Italy – were they more dogmatic about their respect for personal property, i.e., less socialistic?
By your definition, it sounds like maybe 18th century England – at least in come of the ideology of the aristocracy – as what you mean by Fascist. Or maybe the Ancien Regime of France.
Since you say these fascists control the lives of their citizens, I’m guessing the personal property for which they have dogmatic respect is only MATERIAL property.
I guess I’m having trouble finding a real world example of the fascism you describe.
January 10, 2008 at 9:08 am
fascism is a marriage between corporatism and federal government. We are bumping up against that now and have been for a while. Corporations and huge industrial complexes like the military/medical/financial/communications etc spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying in Washington to representatives who end up working for them when they leave office. Its my understanding that government positions are now highly desired for their competency as a stepping stone in the process of securing one a highly paid position as a lobbyist with any one of the companies that had just been lobbying them only a short time before they became paid employees. I wonder if that would have happened for them if they hadn’t been so amenable to all that lobby money; would they not have been virtually ignored as Dr. Paul has by corporate lobbyists, rather than gleefully employed as soon as legally possible after they leave office? And if hundreds of millions are being spent, on what are they spending it? How much does per diem cost a lobbyist who isnt allowed to BUY POLITICIANS? That is just WRONG. Our government has turned into a gigantic teat that almost every single politician and wealthy corporation has been latched to for far too long, leaving nothing for the middle and lower classes but thorough and unforgiving ruin.
We should be ashamed of ourselves for what we have allowed to happen right in front of our unbelieving eyes. We are no longer the good guys…no, not even we who disagree with foreign policy etc, because after 7 years we are absolutely complicit, every one of us who has sat silent and afraid and dreading. Shame on us. But its not too late, it will be, very soon, but not yet. We have this one last chance before it goes too far, and we cant get it back with anything so elegant as an election. We have got to shrink the government back to a manageable size and cost. We have got to rattle DCs cage so hard that all the crap falls out and we put in NeW FRESH, TRUSTWORTHY, PRINCIPLED faces in place of the status quo, corrupt head of this otherwise stunningly beautiful experiment in freedom. Freedom is a New idea. Never tried before in large societies, we were first, we were unique, we were the good guys; then the greedy bastards came along and started taking it all, until now, 10% of the population divides 95% of the wealth; meanwhile the other 90% of us share the remaining 5 % of the wealth amongst ourselves. That used to be OUR money.
I know I was long winded but I am so absolutely livid and worried, even scared. We have to make a stand here…now…it wont wait another 4 years. If this is not arrested immediately, you won’t recognize this place in four years, not in a good way.