On Feb 20, 2010, at 6:12 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> Doug, your first point assumes only one possible, but unlikely
> scenario,
> namely fascism developing from below. A more likely scenario is
> that it can
> develop from above, when internal conflicts among different segments
> of the
> ruling elites intensifies, and to gain upper hand in that conflict
> some
> segments of that elite will seek allies with fascist elements.
Wait a minute. Do you imagine that President Palin or Romney might suspend elections and jail Harry Reid? Woj, you're a sensible fellow. Where did something like this come from?
> This is the
> scenario that actually did happen recently, in Chile and Yugoslavia.
Chile had an elected socialist president at a time when the Latin American left was strong, who was deposed in a coup partly on the instigation of the U.S. Not sure how that model fits the U.S. itself, which isn't likely to elect a socialist president anytime soon. And Yugoslavia, a cobbled-together country with a rather short history as a nation-state? How is that some sort of model for an imperial colossus with a 150 year history as a unitary thing?