See below...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Henwood [mailto:dhenwood at panix.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 3:59 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Another Comparison of U.S. to Fascism
>
>
> Chip Berlet wrote:
>
> >But even if the word fascism is used, the issue is how it is
> used. If
> >the claim is that there are echoes and elements of fascism
> in the Bush
> >II administration's rhetoric and actions, then this is
> defensible. If
> >the allegation is that the Bush II administration is a
> fascist regime,
> >this is easily refuted.
>
> Chip, no one I know is saying the Bush admin is fascist. That's
> absurd, since, among other things, none of us is in jail. But...there
> are rather frightening affinities and sympathies, don't you think?
>
> Doug
So Doug, if reality was determined by everyone you know, bell hooks would be President.
There are a small yet significant number of people on the left who claim that the Bush II administration is fascist. Some of the conversations on this very list have toyed with that idea. Gore Vidal's work represents a type of hysterical conspiracist caricature of the Bush II administration that feeds into this paradigm. You apparently were willing to believe that the neocon slug Ledeen was a fan of Italian fascism.
So, yes, I think things are frightening and there are echoes of fascism. And I am working against it. Abby Scher and I just wrote an article on political repression in the US for Amnesty USA's magazine. But many of the articles that throw the word fascism around--both on the left and right--are just plain ludicrous.
But the main point that I am trying to make is that if we call the Bush II adminstration fascist rather than rapacious capitalist imperialism, we provide a cover for the fascistic xenophobic racial nationalism of the Pat Buchanan crowd, and help them recruit a coalition from the left by all of us together calling the regime fascistic, when we will be standing next to real fascists at our left-right coalition anti-Bush rallies. Meanwhile our erstwhile right-wing allies are sharpening the long knives for the night that they attack people of color, immigrants, gays and lesbians, feminists, and...the rest of us on the left.
So calling Bush II fascist is a form of priapic polemic that gives our real allies the shaft.
Chip