thehill.com
BY BRAD DRESS – 08/28/22 11:45 AM ET
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Sunday called for President Biden to issue an apology after the president compared the “Make America Great Again,” otherwise known as MAGA, wing of the Republican Party to “semi-fascism” last week.
Sununu told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that the president’s comments were “horribly insulting.”
“The fact that the president would go out and just insult half of America [and] effectively call half of America semi-fascist,” Sununu said. “He’s trying to stir up controversy. He’s trying to stir up this anti-Republican sentiment right before the election. It’s horribly inappropriate.”
At a Democratic National Committee fundraising event in Bethesda, Md., last week, Biden said the U.S. was seeing “either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy.”
“It’s not just [former President] Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism,” the president said.
Biden has previously criticized the MAGA wing of the GOP, saying that “this is not your father’s Republican Party” and calling it a “different deal.”
Sununu conceded there are “elements of fascism and white supremacy” in the U.S. but explained it’s also not true that “all the Democrats are communists.”
“When we allow ourselves just to talk in these extremes, we polarize the country,” Sununu told CNN on Sunday, adding that Biden on the campaign trail had “said he was going to bring everybody together.”
“And then to call half of America fascists?” the GOP governor asked. “He owes an apology. That’s not appropriate. That isn’t leadership.”
Well folks, I thought it might help if I provided some insight as to what a fascist is. If half of the US is made up of fascists,, we need to know what they stand for.
Let’s start with what life is like under a fascist regime.
Fascist governments control the way people live.
Those who criticize the government or do not obey are punished. They must leave the country, go to prison or are often executed.
Wait, isn’t that what Biden just did by calling his pollical opposition fascists?
Fascist leaders want to make their state strong and powerful. They claim that only the strongest and fittest in the population can survive. With the help of a strong army they go to war and expand their territory.
(BLM and Antifa?)
School teachers show children that only the state is important. Pupils must exercise to stay healthy. Young organizations are often created in which children admire the state and learn slogans and songs. They are trained to march and follow the beliefs of the ruling party. (Critical Race Theory and gender studies for grade schoolers?)
Fascist governments try to give all people work, mainly in the industries they need. (Solar panels, and electric cars?)
They build roads, hospitals and industries which help them rise to power.
In fascist countries no other political parties are allowed. The government controls newspapers, radio and television. (national media)
There is no freedom of speech (social media censorship)
What am I missing here? Is not the very thing Biden is accusing the MAGA Republican of, the very same thing he and his party have been doing since he took office?
You would think that the president would steer as far away from the word fascism as he could.
Why in the world would anyone ever turn to fascism? All we have to do is look at history for the answer.
People in Europe lost faith in democratic forms of government following World War I.
They began to look for alternatives that would bring them out of the devastating world depression, rebuilt their failed economies and weakened militaries. (runaway inflation, supply line shortages, open borders, crime, the Afghanistan fiasco, threats by China and Russia?)
Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany promised to return their countries to
greatness. Once in office, however, these Fascist dictators suspended all civil rights and began a program of terrorism against their own citizens. Italy and Germany then helped the Fascist leader Franco gain power in Spain in hopes of solidifying their strength in Europe.
As stated earlier, the world experienced a severe economic depression after World War I. In Europe, the Great Depression caused many citizens to lose faith in their democratic governments Recent polls show that many Americans have lost faith in our government.
In many countries, people turned to extremist political groups. Some
turned to communism; others turned to fascism. People began looking for new leaders to help them solve their problems and rebuild their countries.
Often these new leaders became dictators, or rulers with complete power and control over their countries. Many of these dictators believed in denying people civil rights. Fascist dictators eventually rose to power in
Italy, Germany, and Spain.
Fascism was a new political movement that emphasized autocratic and nationalist policies. The Fascists believed that the state, or nation’s government, must be all powerful.
Rights of the individual were less important than those of the state.
That is what we are seeing with the protests over the Supreme Court decision to turn the abortion issue back to the states and therefore, the people.
It is also clear to see that the federal government thinks they know what is best when it comes to immigration and therefore, they ignore the concerns of the border states and the people who live there.
Do we even need to discuss education? Obviously, the Federal Government thinks they know what is best when it comes to educating our children.
Folks, the list goes on and on.
Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany, and Francisco Franco in Spain were three such Fascist dictators that gained control of their countries.
When their reigns ended, Hitler and Mussolini left their countries in near ruin.
Millions of people had died, and the world had fought its second world war.
Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being compared to these three simply because I don’t agree with the policies of Joe Biden.
Fascism
After World War I, Benito Mussolini, organized the Fascist movement. He derived the word Fascist from the ancient Roman symbol of authority, the fasces-a bundle of rods surrounding an ax.
This picture was meant to suggest the power of a strong central government uniting all its people in one goal. Fascists favored dictatorship and nationalism; they opposed democracy and communism.
Fascists believed that democratic governments were weak and inefficient.
Fascists supported the seizure of power by force and violence. They believed that dictatorship was a strong and efficient form of government
Under fascism, the government would control every aspect of human activity. This is called a totalitarian state.
Fascists exaggerated the accomplishments of their nation. Biden: 0% inflation)
They supported imperialism so their nation could develop and rule an empire. They glorified war and claimed that military might was proof of the nation’s strength and vitality. Only superior nations would have power in the world.
The Fascists opposed the Communist ideals of Marxism. They did not
support the idea of a classless society or a worldwide revolution of the working class and peasants. They believed that having a property-owning class and a worker class would maintain a stable and healthy economy. (Maybe I am a fascist)
So, let’s review where we are.
Fascism is any system of government where the people have what they consider a mainstream state-of-the-art government compatible with their culture – and then make one additional modification. They install a leader who gives them such hope and unity that they entrust him to make occasional exceptions to the law for important and pragmatic reasons.
(Sound familiar?)
Fascist regimes can vary widely because the whims of the leader tend to result in a changing and somewhat incoherent mishmash of rules – like a new parent with a 2 year old. Also, fascism can develop in diverse cultures with unique problems.
Another difference in fascist regimes is that early stage fascism, where the leader has made only a few popular exceptions to the law, looks significantly different than late stage fascism, where the leader’s will has entirely supplanted the law.
Although fascist regimes have several common characteristics, the only principle common to all fascist regimes is unity, everything else can vary depending on the will of the leader, which is a triumph of practicality over principles.
Some characteristics of each fascist regime are more common than others. For example, the probable path to fascism is likely to begin when the people feel convinced that they are all in agreement on the direction their government should take, and when they also feel that they are currently faced with an overwhelming crisis for which their system of government lacks the authority or the will to manage effectively.
For the good of everyone, the leader must have the power necessary to fix any problem as well as the power to unite everyone. Therefore, any threat to the leader’s will is thus a threat to the people themselves. Therefore, any form of repression is reluctantly accepted as justified.
(I am struggling here. Is it Trump or Biden that is the fascist?)
Fascism tries to respect state-of-the-art government such as the right to private property, private business, and self defense, but these increasingly become illusions because all wealth and all activity by any individual or any organization becomes increasingly regulated and controlled for the good of everyone as the leader sees new ways to optimize the use of money and labor and to eliminate opposition.
The obsession of the people with unity tends to result in peer pressure to conform and thus anyone who engages in political dissent will be bullied.
(You bunch of MAGA loving deplorable fascists!)
As the fascist regime matures, such bullying is likely to become extreme.
Faith in the government and especially in the leader increasingly becomes cult-like as competing sources of faith, hope , and unity, such as religion, are supplanted by government.
Fascism tries to respect the rule of law and due process, but the rule of law and due process increasingly become illusions as the law increasingly gives way to the will of the leader.
However, the will of the leader might increasingly be interpreted as the law, and the leader tends to overturn existing law only for very important and pragmatic reasons, which thus maintains the illusion of the rule of law when in fact it is the opposite of the rule of law.
Well, there you have it folks. I don’t know about you, but I am confused.
Based on the research I have done, I don’t know who the fascists in this country are? Is it the Trump following, Maga Republicans? Or maybe it is the Far Left Woke gang of four led by Ocasio Cortez?
Maybe it is just all Republicans, or all Democrats. Where do Bernie Sanders and the Libertarians fit in?
You know what I think? I don’t think it is any one of these groups.
I think our founding fathers had it right.
Unfortunately, over the years, the federal government itself, held at different times, by all political parties, has become the fascist behemoth controlling all of our lives.
Perhaps the answer is to start fresh. Set the clock back to 1789. Go back to the limited federal government that our founders designed and leave the damned thing alone.