Protofascism anybody?

Running dog Cheney says vote against Kerry or risk deadly attack



The full Cheney quote is well worth reading:

I think every American cares about, our ability to be able to ensure that our children and grandchildren are going to be able to live in a safe and secure world depends upon the basic fundamental decisions we're making now.

We made decisions at the end of World War II, at the beginning of the Cold War, when we set up the Department of Defense, and the CIA, and we created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and undertook a bunch of major policy steps that then were in place for the next 40 years, that were key to our ultimate success in the Cold War, that were supported by Democrat and Republican alike – Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower and Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and Gerry Ford and a whole bunch of Presidents, from both parties, supported those policies over a long period of time. We're now at that point where we're making that kind of decision for the next 30 or 40 years, and it's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice. Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind set if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us.

We have to understand it is a war. It's different than anything we've ever fought before. But they mean to do everything they can to destroy our way of life. They don't agree with our view of the world. They've got an extremist view in terms of their religion. They have no concept or tolerance for religious freedom. They don't believe women ought to have any rights. They've got a fundamentally different view of the world, and they will slaughter – as they demonstrated on 9/11 – anybody who stands in their way. So we've got to get it right. We've got to succeed here. We've got to prevail. And that's what is at stake in this election. (Applause.)

Steve Gilliard, expressive in a way unique amongst bloggers, points out that Cheney's carefully-worded warning to the electorate, "Vote for us or die is reminiscent of the darkest kind of fascist campaigning".

Gilliard's reaction? "Disgust isn't even the term I would use...Utter revulsion". Agreed.

Meanwhile, I've been hearing comments by sources with very interesting backgrounds in historical studies and in the military describing the emotional level of first night of the Republican convention as "exactly like the Nuremberg rally of 1937, with the same kind of responses. What we are seeing is a faith exercise, not a rational one – these are the true believers...scary".

Concern is palpable that there is a dark Bush campaign strategy meant to equate opposition to, or even holding questions about Bush – the two seem to be conflated in the strategy – with disloyalty.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times strikes pretty hard today on the ugly nature of the Cheney attack, pointing out the countervailing truth that 911 happened during the tenure of Bush:

Without Zell Miller around to out-crazy him, and unplugged after a convention that tried to "humanize'' him with grandchildren, horses and wifely anecdotes about his inability to dance the twist, Mr. Cheney is back as Terrifier in Chief....

Mr. Cheney implies that John Kerry couldn't protect us from an attack like 9/11, blithely ignoring the fact that he and President Bush didn't protect us from the real 9/11. Think of what brass-knuckled Republicans could have made of a 9/11 tape of an uncertain Democratic president giving a shaky statement that looked like a hostage tape and flying randomly from air base to air base, as the veep ordered that planes be shot down.

I want to go much further and call attention to some contemporary thought suggesting we should be very, very concerned about the political strains lurking under the Cheney remarks.

Does fascism apply?
An article by Robert O. Paxton, "The Five Stages of Fascism" [The Journal of Modern History 70 (March 1998): pp. 3–5] is highlighted in a marvelous book-length examination of the true nature of fascism versus common use of the term, partly addressing the question, Could real fascism happen here and now? This piece on the Cursor site: Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An exegesis, by the author of the weblog Ornicus, David Neiwert, is highly recommended by Deep Blade. Please explore also the numerous links on Ornicus to many informed discussions of these issues.

Neiwert, following Paxton, writes

Feelings propel fascism more than thought does. We might call them mobilizing passions, since they function in fascist movements to recruit followers in fascist movements, and in fascist regimes to "weld" the fascist "tribe" to its leader. The following mobilizing passions are present in fascisms, though they may sometimes be articulated only implicitly:

1. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual.

2. The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external.

3. Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism.

4. Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary.

5. An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem.

6. Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny.

7. The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle.

Going down Paxton's list, it is fairly easy to identify these "passions" at play today....

Neiwert provides an annotated list current in 2003. Now it's 2004 and we're in the midst of the election home stretch. All of these items remain in play (quotes are directly from Cheney):

1. Group primacy: We have to "get it right".

2. Victimhood: "They've [Muslims?] got a fundamentally different view of the world, and they will slaughter – as they demonstrated on 9/11 – anybody who stands in their way".

3. Dread of libralism: Kerry is the most liberal senator, a big flip-flopping pussy.

4–6. Community, Identity, Authority: Questioning Bush's decisions itself is a disloyal act – so Kerry is a lying traitor, a notion driven into the public mind through nutwing discourse. Loyalty to Bush as carrier of authority therefore is fundamental to community and identity – reinforced throughout the campaign by brownshirt Bush rallies and cadres of mindless Bush-loyal hecklers at Kerry rallies.

7. Aesthetic of violence: War, not criminal justice, is the form the struggle must assume – Kerry thinks that "... terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us".

It is this kicked-up-a-notch strain of fascism that has, as Maureen Dowd wrote, stopped cold thought processes where "Americans were realizing they'd been flimflammed by the Bushies" while the "swaggering Bush juggernaut brazenly went back to boasting about its pre-emption doctrine, tracing imaginary connections between 9/11 and Saddam, and calling all our foes terrorists".

Bottom line, I believe the Cheney remarks fit into the Morissian strategy I discussed a couple of posts ago. He wants to be somewhat controversial in his attack because that enhances Terror War coverage, and any Terror War coverage showing the War to be an unfinished job helps Bush and hurts Kerry. Kerry and Edwards are forced to take the bait – they have no other choice.

There is not much else to do now except to work hard for election of John Kerry in November. Let's hope that this Cheney attack is a Terror War campaign strategy gone too far – that it makes voters reject being threatened with death unless they vote correctly.

Meanwhile, the real threat is ratification of the fascist slope Cheney/Bush now openly declare. I pray for our country and the world to which we belong.