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roachboy · 05-25-2009, 05:31 AM

how quaint---so you not only claim vindication from obama's continuation of some bush policies, but also try for some imaginary moral superiority because you imagine yourself to make these claims with a greater degree of decorum than your imaginary political adversaries.

to fill you in on a couple things: typically, i was pretty careful about the way in which i used the term fascism---more often fascism-lite---with relation to the bush administration. to have understood the points of contact you'd have to know something about how fascism worked ideologically (the unified nation fulfilling its world-historical destiny--which is a militarized destiny---through War with an Enemy that is everywhere and nowhere blah blah blah) and legally (the legal arguments that the bush people were so fond of repeated the fascist critique of democracy in the name of dictatorship---the Leader was a Decider; a state of emergency required Decisions; democracy is too slow, too abstract; so states of emergency (national security) can become the Justification for an evacuation of democratic process--this *was* the bush administration's legal philosophy in a nutshell. it's the case whether you like it or not).

now obama may be continuing some of the "national security" theater put into place by the bush people but it's also the case that the ideological frame within which we are operating in no way resembles that of the bush period, and the legal philosophy being advanced by the obama administration bears no resemblance to that of the bush period---so if there's no linking of obama to a fascism-lite, it's not because conservatives have some Higher Decorum---it's because the empirical co-ordinates aren't present.

what the right is also trying to do here is empty meanings from the associations of fascism-lite and the bush administration.

i think paul krugman is right in his editorial this morning about the cali-crisis: the limbaugh republicans have gone insane from lack of power, from the situation they created for themselves...they've alienated moderates, lost them in great number and have scuttled to the extreme right. from there, unable to separate accelerating the sinking of their ship from stabilizing it, they dream the world is other than it is.

05-25-2009, 05:31 AM	#122 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	how quaint---so you not only claim vindication from obama's continuation of some bush policies, but also try for some imaginary moral superiority because you imagine yourself to make these claims with a greater degree of decorum than your imaginary political adversaries. to fill you in on a couple things: typically, i was pretty careful about the way in which i used the term fascism---more often fascism-lite---with relation to the bush administration. to have understood the points of contact you'd have to know something about how fascism worked ideologically (the unified nation fulfilling its world-historical destiny--which is a militarized destiny---through War with an Enemy that is everywhere and nowhere blah blah blah) and legally (the legal arguments that the bush people were so fond of repeated the fascist critique of democracy in the name of dictatorship---the Leader was a Decider; a state of emergency required Decisions; democracy is too slow, too abstract; so states of emergency (national security) can become the Justification for an evacuation of democratic process--this was the bush administration's legal philosophy in a nutshell. it's the case whether you like it or not). now obama may be continuing some of the "national security" theater put into place by the bush people but it's also the case that the ideological frame within which we are operating in no way resembles that of the bush period, and the legal philosophy being advanced by the obama administration bears no resemblance to that of the bush period---so if there's no linking of obama to a fascism-lite, it's not because conservatives have some Higher Decorum---it's because the empirical co-ordinates aren't present. what the right is also trying to do here is empty meanings from the associations of fascism-lite and the bush administration. i think paul krugman is right in his editorial this morning about the cali-crisis: the limbaugh republicans have gone insane from lack of power, from the situation they created for themselves...they've alienated moderates, lost them in great number and have scuttled to the extreme right. from there, unable to separate accelerating the sinking of their ship from stabilizing it, they dream the world is other than it is. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite