Meaningless Fascism

Because I was reading a newspaper, and because I am lazy and don't feel like looking up the article online to link it, my word will just have to be taken on this. There was a book review in today's Seattle Times that roughly said that using fascism as an argument point in any discussion on the current state of things is a pointless end to the argument because the word fascism is not longer used in its historical context. Actually, it said something more akin to the word having been misused that it no longer carries with it anything, though I would add it still has emotional cachet. Everyone knows arguments based on emotions are rather pointless.

The book in question was something about the political right and the difference between traditional conservatives (perhaps not a bad thing) and those who would prefer to scream and shout and engage people at a visceral level for changes in the government that may not even be constitutional. Regardless, the article gave me a something to think about on the way home from Taco Time. What I wondered about, aside from how the word fascism is fanged but without fangs, was how it seems that in this country the Republicans seem to scream more when they are out of power than the Democrats. Let's just grab Rush, since he is an easy target. I don't recall hearing of him prior to the Clinton administration, but I am guessing he has been doing this since longer than '92, though at some point after the election his frothy style of talk radio just took off. Now he numbers seem to be up again, at least his press coverage is, now that the Republicans are out of office. On the Democrat's side, there really is no one that fills the same shoes, and that could be because Democrat's don't like being told what to do, but more likely because even when out of power, the Democratic party does not feel threatened. You lose, get up, brush off your knees, and start all over. Rush (or any other "name" Republican, until enmeshed in a scandal) is basically a rallying point for people who don't know how to work within the system because for too long they have been fed instructions, just like Rush is doing now. The party of small government isn't really that at all, just different government. President Bush told everyone to be scared and they were, and he said I need to violate the constitution in order to protect you, and the people let him, and now the current administration needs to clean it up, which isn't something that can be done easily, even less so when former administration muckity-mucks decide to bray.

While President Obama is doing little to discourage the stereotype that the Democrats are something other than the tax and spend politicians they have been painted as, the times are extra-ordinary, and perhaps they will manage to bring the spending back into the responsible realm shortly. Unfortunately, the situation was damned if you do, damned if you don't, but I do believe it is better to try something based on historical precedent than do nothing, which also has a precedent. Now, if we could only get everyone on board as to the necessity of action rather than knocking the action but not offering an alternative.