American Morning
President Obama and the "F" word
The music had barely ended at the Inaugural Balls when conservatives took aim at President Obama's big government policies. Since then their aim has only sharpened.
Townhall.com's David Limbaugh may have one-upped his conservative brother Rush by telling a radio audience in San Francisco that the President is the head of a "Gestapo government."
Glenn Beck actually dropped the "F-Bomb" (as in Fascism) when talking about the Obama administration's plan to stimulate the economy. "We're into socialism now (but) that's not our final destination. Our final destination is happy-faced fascism." Watch
And the American Spectator's Quin Hillyer of the Washington Examiner wrote a column in the American Spectator" titled "Il Duce, Redux?"
Hillyer told CNN that when he looks at the Obama administration what he sees are "historical comparisons (to) Mussolini's Italy." He says that "it first started with the takeover of the banks, and when you start taking over banks you've done the very first step that Mussolini did."
The University of California's George Lakoff isn't surprised at the conservative furor over Obama's big government solutions. "This is part of a general conservative mode of operating to get the base stirred up for electoral reasons and reasons of support," he says.
CNN's chief political analyst Bill Schneider says it's unusual that opposition attacks started so early in a new President's term, but that may be because the Democrats have hit a conservative nerve. "The complaints are really about economics, and they are very loud," says Schneider. "But these are things that (are) core beliefs of Republicans."
Lakoff adds that Obama's scrutiny of failing banks and business "is something that conservatives hate, the very idea there is any kind of regulation from the outside."
As for the public, CNN's own polling this week shows that two-thirds of Americans think the President's plan to get involved in how businesses are run is either just about right, or ought to be increased.
What do you think of the comparisons between President Obama's administration and Fascism?
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Good for you Scott McDonald. Too true that labels are flashed around with no one knowing what the word means – thanks for the definition & I hope CNN pays attention & does more educating than flame-fanning! One point though, in our current situation the banks, car companies, etc. came crawling to the government for bailout money, so it is only fair that the government have some control to insure that our tax dollars are used wisely for the country's benefit.
By the way Americans, if you get uptight about the word "socialism", take a look at the statistics for socialist countries & you will find their populations are for the most part better educated, healthier and happier with their system than we are.
I hope all who support our President will bring Obama Rally Signs to the nearest Tea Party on April 15th, or make your own Obama sign to show your support for our President.
No system is perfect, but some are much worse than others. Case in point, socialism/communism.If anyone remembers when there were only three networks, the networks all ran an evening news program that was more honest news than leftwing propaganda. They frequently showed the lines of people in Russia waiting two or three days for a loaf of bread and a roll of toilet paper. Is that where we really want to go? Obama is definitely heading in that direction with his pro- universal health care, pro-union, anti-capitalist agenda.
Why do republicans thrive on mockery, labels, and scare tactics. Isn't this the same group who stooped to terms like "freedom fries"? They aren't opposed to government intrusions into personal privacy or denial of basic human rights; instead they scream "foul" at the one person who has the guts to take on the status quo of big money and straighten out the economy–because it might hurt their rich friends–and it might change the way they themselves have to do business. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Name-calling and labeling will never be part of any solution.
all.....ALL....systems are flawed. they are put in place and run by imperfect humans. I agree that having the definition would have been useful – its been ages since i was in school; what i remember from being in school, the definitions made all of the different systems sound good.
Where to start? You make this way too easy.
"GlenLarsRushLouSeanMichelle and the rest of the stooges are excellent arguments for passing President Obama’s entire budget especially the provision for education and mental health."
The vast majority of Obama's budget proposal is in regards to Government interference into commercial markets, dictating what products companies make and consumers can purchase, dictating what kind power generation is used and punishing other forms of generation with obscene taxation, limiting how much energy individuals can use, so on. If you are truly concerned about raising the intelligence of republicans the "entire budget" is not relevent, if you are merely pushing a leftwing agenda, the "entire budget" is definitely the way to go. I do find the Democrats penchant for child-like name calling, "Repus-Stoges", to be an extremely good example of their superior inteligence, I wish I could be that intelligent.
"If left to the present elected Repus-Stooges, who is making it clear their love and loyalties are for the Repus ONLY… not the country nor its citizen; just the party and the power their missing. "
Welcome to American politics, and I think politics everywhere. The Democrats are the exact same way but in the opposite direction politcally.
"Now we know how wonderful it is to have an intelligent, smart, wise President...", likewise, now we know what it is like to have the world's greatest tax and spend Democrat run us into bankruptcy as a nation. Aren't we just so lucky?
"we will not settle for any more uneducated, out of touch people in jobs and/or position they are clearly unqualified to hold."
Obama has made major gaffs in foreign policy just in the past few weeks, the gift exchange with Gordon Brown, snubbing Gordon Brown for the normal joint press conference when Brown visited Washington DC, Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen's back in violation of British protocol, Obama balked at the normal French greeting of kissing the French President's wife on the cheek, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia indicating to the world that the US was subservient to the Sauds, he insisted on speaking to Iran, then Iran announced it had opened yet another nuclear processing plant, he stood idly by and allowed North Korea to test fire a long range missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon into the US, and he has snubbed all of our allies and "made nice" with all of our enemies. How is he "qualified" to be our representative to the world? How does anyone with even limited intelligence consider him to be "an intelligent, smart, wise President"?
GlenLarsRushLouSeanMichelle and the rest of the stooges are excellent arguments for passing President Obama’s entire budget especially the provision for education and mental health. If left to the present elected Repus-Stooges, who is making it clear their love and loyalties are for the Repus ONLY… not the country nor its citizen; just the party and the power their missing.
Now we know how wonderful it is to have an intelligent, smart, wise President with Godly faith; we will not settle for any more uneducated, out of touch people in jobs and/or position they are clearly unqualified to hold.
It is noteworthy that both the blog piece above and the story that went to air completely omitted a definition of fascism. If the reporter were to begin by defining the word, perhaps the piece would have been a factual analysis of the administration's policies, rather than a commentary on commentary. In fact, the piece aims to discredit those who are applying the term, based on the charge that American's currently disagree, rather than actually examining whether or not the term applies.
When an honest man actually considers that fascism is a political system under which the nominal private ownership of capital is maintained while the government exercises de facto control of the economy, it is very difficult to view recent actions in the financial and automotive sectors as anything but the expansion of fascist style controls.
Some will make the inaccurate argument that fascism requires racism. While this is not true, it is fair to say that most fascist systems have incorporated the hatred of some "other" to rally the people in support of government controls. While our society has moved beyond the point where race-baiting works in this regard, the persistence of the morality of altruism has lowered resistance to appeals to class-warfare. Thus, “bankers” and those who earn more than $250,000 a year have become the scapegoats whom we pillory when praising the chains that the government lays upon us.
That leaves us with an interesting question. Why is CNN avoiding actually examining the labeling of these policies as fascist, and instead painting those who have made this identification as extremists? Is CNN in the business of journalism, or have they joined the cause of the state? Regardless of CNN’s position, those who love their freedom should not stay silent. CNN may criticize you for your opinion, but integrity has always been more important that the approval of others. In fact, liberty depends on the former and is destroyed by the latter.
The bogus claim that conservatives just hate regulation is ridiculous when one considers that it was Dodd and the democrats who reversed the Roosevelt era regulations dealing with banks. Get a clue Carol.
"CNN’s chief political analyst Bill Schneider says it’s unusual that opposition attacks started so early in a new President’s term." Really? Bush was getting attacks from the Democrats even before he took office with false cries of, "he stole the election." Those attacks continue even today, three months after he left office.
Attacks by Republicans on Obama's policies are fair game, and to be expected, the democratic and republican approaches to life in general and government policy specifically are diametrically opposed, to ask Republicans to lie down and take it now would be akin to asking Democrats to lie down and take it when Bush was in the Oval Office. We don't elect a king, we elect a president, that president has to follow certain procedures, he has to expect opposition, and we that oppose the president's policies have an obligation to do so.
"As for the public, CNN’s own polling this week shows that two-thirds of Americans think the President’s plan to get involved in how businesses are run is either just about right, or ought to be increased." Actually, this CNN poll shows that the American people don't understand what socialism/communism and fascism really are, nor do they understand the similarities between Obama's policies and the way that socialism and fascism historically start out.
If Obama and the Democrats don't like the opposition from the Republicans, they can just suck it up, that is how American politics work, always have and always will.