>
>One of my reasons for being increasingly unhappy with the label
>"fascism" is that it tends to blur the repressive power of the "rule of
>law" in capitalist democracies. (The other reason is a belief that
>fascism is not the only kind of repressive regime, and a focus on
>fascism puts us to sleep in identifying real threats.)
Right on both counts. In addition, the repressive tolerance of capitalsit democracy is much less repressive than fascist repression. We here on this list in the advanced capitalist countries don't normally fear the knock in the middle of the night, and publish our gripes under our own names.
>
>There has *never* been a "rule of law" for _all_ of the population of
>the U.S. Varying proportions (sometimes fairly large sectors) of the
>population have always lived in a police state,\
Or worse. For blacks in the Jim Crow South under lynch law, a police state would have been an improvement.
while other sectors have
>enjoyed most or all of the rights and privileges detailed in junior-high
>civics texts. What we are seeing now is not something at all new.
>Practices more or less standard for some citizens are being extended to
>larger sectors of citizens.
Well, there are hints in that direction, so far no more than hints. The citizens being targeted for toral suspension of their rights are Muslims, Arabs, and in one case, a Peurto Rican ex-gang-banger.
>
>Take the instance of bail. _Any bail at all_ is impossibly large for
>many.
And yet what does one do? I am opposed to carcereal policies. But some people should be kept off the streets, and while (what Bill doesn't grasp) pretrial detention isn't legally punishment, how do you people charged with violent crimes to show up for trial withour jail or bail?
This, combined with the oppressive conditions in most county
>jails, means that large numbers of people can be _and have been_
>imprisoned indefinitely without benefit of trial.
Not indefinitely.
Choice: Plead guilty
>and receive probation, or spend 6 months in Cook County Jail waiting
>trial. Obvious choice is to plead guilty. Next arrest (for anything):
>violation of probation and off you go to prison.
Not if if plead to a misdemenor.
>
>Ten years on death row followed by success of appeal and release:
>triumph for the rule of law or utter absence of rule of law?
>
Not utter absence, but any death penalty is a disfrace.
jks
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