In current usage, and not that of 40+ years ago, Carrol is about 90% right. It's not just the "fascist" - it's the whole obsession with The Right. It overlooks how awful the Dems are, and typically operates as a way of pushing the reluctant into the Donkey's arms. You see it in the CP press (represented here by Cde Brown), you see it in all the little foundation-funded orgs that obsess about the neo-Nazi threat, etc.
Doug
CB:Mic check, Factcheck: Wrong, the Communist Party USA does not use "fascist" to describe Ron Paul or the Tea Party or the rightwing. I know because I am totally familiar with their lit and talk to John Rummel and Sam Webb. Gus Hall used to say Reaganism had a "whiff of fascism", but he was very explicit about not terming Reaganism _fascist_. Ha ha ha ha ha. U don't know what is in the CP press. Their line is something like Marv G's on this.
But even more importantly, I'm correct and u, Carrol and the CP r incorrect. It is important to warn how close the Tea Party in places like Michigan and Wisconsin are getting to fascism, especially with the new uhhh NDAA. How about Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann deciding whose connected to Al Q. Would that qualify as fascist ? duhhhh Ya'll be saying "first they came for the CP, but I wasn't CP so I hadn't voted for Dems, then they came for the trade unionists , but the trade unionists backers of the DP , so I hadn't voted for the DP....then they came for my non-DP voting ass.
Also, u and Carrol and the rest have an ultra-left , Peter Pan Politics position on the DP as I've explained frequently. It is very important to defeat the ultra-right, proto-fascist Tea Republican Party in November 2012, because we have an idea of what the US will be from what the Tea Republicans have done in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Maine, Florida, et al Your anti-DP line is getting more and more out of touch with political reality as we approach November 2012. Wake up .