> The McCarthy era - which was much broader than old Joe himself - was
> horrendous....
Right. ...and the GWB era is much broader than Junior himself, and getting
your brains blown out on the floor of a subway car, or the tarmac of an
airport is NOT horrendous, right? [ROTFLMM/FAO]
> In many ways things were worse in 2002 and 2003 than they are today
Your point is... we're getting used to it?
> Calling it fascism is a perverse form of self-aggrandizement.
Ad homs... never to approach the content of my argument (I yawn...).
All in all, a pretty ineffectual argument, Doug. IMHO (...always seems to forget the 'IMHO' part), a pretty good example of what constitutes 'left thinking' today, and yesterday. ...and the generation before that.
Squabbling over terminology is Soooooo... Soooo... usless for anything except maintaining existing structures. We ARE interested in changing those structures, aren't we? I also don't accept Carol's presumption that using terms out of their historic, traditional meaning clouds the issue AT ALL. (unless being able to verbalize coherently, in non-specialized language, clouds people's thinking.)
I believe using the word 'fascism' has a galvanizing effect on conversation, wherein the discussion will turn to... is, or is not... and in that discussion, common ground for belief in the necessity to change can be found, and finding 'common ground' has NOT been a tendency to which most (theoretically driven) 'leftists' subscribe.
Leigh www.leighm.net http://leighm.wordpress.com/