Living in the Weimar Republic of America
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
It's become a bit of a cliché to compare the rise of Cheney-Bush fascism to the ascendancy of the Third Reich, but the analogy does reveal a fundamental truth about power and politics.
Fascists or Bolsheviks (just look at the short-lived Alexander Kerensky republic in Russia that fell to the Soviets in 1917) proceed on a premise that liberals are ambivalent about asserting power -- and take full advantage of that weakness.
Bush may be a tin horn cowboy propped up by Rove and Cheney, but almost all of his power at this time is derived by the unprecedented unitary authority granted to him by a Democratic Congress. In short, an utterly failed president guilty of illegal activity, whose poll numbers are in the dust, is able to make enough Democrats fearful that they give him power when they should be aggressively taking it away from him.
In the narrative of "toughness" that Rove has created for Bush -- and that Cheney has backed up with Franco-like substance -- Bush emerges as a "strong" figure, ironically, only because the timid Democratic leadership is so weak.
We are in a moment of history, when the Democrats should be controlling the debate and have Bush, Cheney, Rove and Gonzales cornered. Instead of impeaching Gonzales, they -- due to a lack of party discipline -- just gave him the power to legally spy on Americans without any real accountability, even after he has confessed to at least two programs of illegal spying.
The right wing depends upon a fundamental weakness in the character of "liberals" to achieve its authoritarian goals.
At this point in time, after having failed to protect us from 9/11 -- despite being warned of terrorist acts by bin Laden about to happen in the U.S. -- and years of a failed war against terrorism that has consumed the financial resources of our nation and all too many lives, the Democrats should be making Bush quiver in his boots about the next terrorist attack and how his ineptitude has allowed it to potentially happen.
Instead, the Democrats fear a guy who spent the first ten minutes after 9/11 reading a story about a pet goat with grade school students until his handlers could figure out what to do with him -- and then he went AWOL, just as he did in terms of avoiding service in Vietnam.
The Weimar Republic fell because the advocates of democracy in Germany were too timid to fight back against the thuggish tactics of Hitler's storm troopers. They passed the "enabling act" after the Reichstag fire (read terrorist act) that gave him virtually omnipotent power to "protect the homeland."
The right wing is right about one thing: the Democrats in Congress don't have the will or the wherewithal to put up a fight for the Constitution. Bullying works against a caucus without a backbone.
Hitler's power was legally granted to him by those who thought that the "homeland" faced grave threats.
The gravest threat, of course, that the German homeland faced was Hitler himself.
That is an analogy to Congress's abject surrender to Bush that is, indeed, worth repeating.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
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Weimar?
The real question is Weimore Bushist?
How We Take Back Our Democracy
We force Congress to reconvene and to stay in session until it cuts off all funding for the Iraq war, that's how.
Send this letter to the Republican party today!
Send this letter to the Republican party today!
Copy and paste the letter below and email it directly to info@gop.com the Republican Party and get 2 friends to send this letter and have those 2 friends get 2 friends to send it and so on. Thank you. Drop me a message to info@dmocrats.org with the subject Done after you have sent the email.
Hello
Get your Republican party to end the war in Iraq, with Bush and Cheney resigning, and until you do we stop buying televisions, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, dvd players, stereo equipment, light bulbs from one of your party's major contributors and War contractors General Electric Corporation ( 203 373 2211 ) who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to remove the FICA taxable income cap and tax all of a person's income for social security purposes and enact HR 676 Single payer universal health care into law and repeal Medicare Part D and place the prescription drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80 percent of all medication with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no means tests, no coverage gaps, and completely remove the means test to Medicare Part B and until you do, we will not buy consumer products and prescription drugs from the biggest pharmacy chains and GOP contributors in the country Eckerd, CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens and we will not buy health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna, the 2 biggest health insurance companies that give money to the GOP as well, who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact a $10 an hour minimum wage, and until you do, we will not go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact into law Universal vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants with civil servants registering voters and keeping track of registrations, and until you do, we will not buy any GOP contributor Dell computers or monitors or go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to get congress to pass and enact a law legalizing abortions from conception to six months, and to nine months when the life of the mother appears threatened, and until you do we stop doing business with two of your biggest contributors Dominos Pizza and Curves for Women Health Clubs.
Signed,
????
I am extremely upset by the FISA vote as well, and I totally agree with the Weimar Republic analogy. I blame all the Democrats who allowed this vote to happen for enabling the Unitard, and they should be kicked out of office ASAP. But how could you write this part with a straight face?
Bush may be a tin horn cowboy propped up by Rove and Cheney, but almost all of his power at this time is derived by the unprecedented unitary authority granted to him by a Democratic Congress.
Oh, I see. So the complete lack of any Presidential oversight by the Republicans for the past six years had absolutely nothing to do with the current weakness of the Democratic leadership?
Come on. These guys have all the levers of power so sewn up that the Dems can still hardly move without the Republicans signing off on it. Every time they try to do something, Bush either vetoes it or the Republicans in the Senate filibuster it. Meanwhile, Bush and Co. have also corrupted the Justice Department and the court system, so the senior members of the Administration can laugh off a subpoena with no consequences whatsoever. Impeachment? Mmmmkay, let's see the Republics in the Senate vote for that. Oh right. They won't.
I think we have to be clear here and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Republican Party is a thoroughly corrupt, fascist, criminal organization, and the Democratic Party is basically on track but has some bad apples. If we don't understand that, then we don't understand what's really going on in America.
weimar republic
There were 41 democratic senators who voted for the new FISA act. They should be voted out next election. I grew up with Republican bullies and the only way to win is to fight back. IF that is done they WILL back down. They promote fear because they ARE afraid. They are afraid of losing power. The Democrats need to work with that in mind.
Weimar Republic
Attributing the action/inaction of the Congressional Democrats to lack of courage ignores the real possibility that Democrats and Republicans want an all powerful chief executive. Both parties are bought and paid for by the same big money interests who seek complete control over government.
Spot on except...
Don't go equating the Nazi rise to power with the October Revolution of 1917. Alexander Kerensky is not a figure worthy of praise. Besides continuing Russia's un-winnable involvement in the 1st world war, he appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief as well as prime minister in July 1917.
The more appropriate analogue would be to Stalin's seizure of power following Lenin's death in 1927. We in America have suffered nearly a century of the conflating of two (Lenin & Stalin), when in fact Lenin bore a steadily growing suspicion of Stalin's growing ambition & disregard for the ideals of the Revolution. As Leon Trotsky always said, "The Revolution was betrayed".
the Reichstag fire was an inside job
Let me introduce myself.
I am a 51 year old white woman not prone to conspiracy theories. I don't believe in aliens, do not posses crystals or throw the I Ching. I am connected to the Internet with the fastest broadband connection I could find and spent 6 hours a day researching for articles I write.
When I grew up in Holland I was taught in History class that the Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe, the guy whom the Nazi's alleged to have been the sole perpetrator of the fire that gave Hitler his dictatorial power, was in fact a patsy. Marinus van der Lubbe was a of low intelligence and did not have access to the building, but they told the German people that he was a dangerous communist and he was hung for the crime.
The Reichstag fire was started in multiple areas in such a short time that it would not have allowed a single man to have committed this act. It may very well be that Marinus van der Lubbe thought he was committing an act of rebellion against Nazi Germany and as such have participated with his captors in setting the building alight, but he was not alone and his co-conspirators did have access to the building. They had access trough the underground tunnels that were in control of the Nazis.
Goering has been noted to say that people will not believe a small lie, but they will believe a big one as the reality is just to big and dangerous to admit to.
But facing the big lie is exactly what America must do.
9/11 was an inside job, and it is dangerous for the American people to be kept in the dark about the reality. Do your job and allow an open discussion on this subject on your otherwise impeccable site. You can not afford to deny your readers the access they desperately need to the information about the 9/11 American Reichstag fire understand why the democrats are behaving the way they do. I beg of you, do your job. Be brave and face the big lie, and know that you are not alone. http://patriotsquestion911.com/
www.ae911truth.org
Kind regards
Travellerev (now living down under)
www.crazyrichguy.wordpress.com
9-11: blowback from the Taliban.
9-11 happened because the Taliban got angry with George W Bush.
In July 2001 Bush threatened to invade Afghanistan because the Taliban would not go along with oil and gas pipeline plans that Bush had for Afghanistan.
The Taliban struck first.
Bush provoked these attacks and 2750 people died for oil and gas profits that Bush wanted for his friends in the oil business.
Howie, stop being a door mat for the Bush Crime Family
The Bush Crime Family must be stopped. They have become far too powerful and the Democratic National Committee must stop appeasing this gang of thugs.
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, et al risked their necks to overthrow the British monarchy to create this great Democracy. As chairman of the Democratic Party you must do likewise if there is any hope that this country doesn't end up like Nazi Germany did - in ruins after a nuclear holocaust initiated by the Bush Crime Family.
These thugs are responsible for 9/11 and it is obvious that their cronies such as Larry Silverstein, Rudy Guiliani, Michael Bloomberg, et al directly benefited politically and financially from their criminal acts.
Start acting like the leader you once were as Governor of Vermont.
Blowback Happens, But....
Blowback happens. But it is only part of the story. Did the Taliban cause the controlled demolitions of the 3 WTC towers? To blame 9/11 simplisticly on "blowback" is to support the Bush administration's Reichtags Fire false flag pretext for war and enabling legislation ("Patriot" Act) for fascist takeover. It also helps them feel emboldened to do it again -- since folks like you are unwilling or unable to see the OBVIOUS 9/11 truth. (Another possibility: you are a paid or unpaid disinfo agent.)
War brings out thieves and peace hangs them.
~~~Machiavelli
Have to agree
"Marinus van der Lubbe was a of low intelligence and did not have access to the building"
Sounds like Lee Harvey Oswald's access to the grassy knoll. But that would be changing the subject to the elder Bush's covert work with the CIA at the time.
Finally got around to watching "Improbable Collapse". There are a number of points made besides "pancaking" and "plumes of smoke" that I hadn't thought about. When conspiracy is on the side of Ockham's razor, the government certainly doesn't do itself, or us, a favor by ignoring our questions. At least not if they have nothing to hide.
to:Travellerev
Dear Travellerev,
I think you are precisely correct.
thanks,
dr. rdw
forensic neuropsychologist
How intriguing
I must say that your title greatly intrigues me.
I am currently writing an article, analysing Larry Silverstein's "Pull" remark in relation to the WTC7 collapse.
I want to submit this article to the http://www.journalof911studies.com/ and I could do with professional criticism when I have finished it.
I have made available a temporary e-mail address: Margaret.54926818@bloglines.com could you please contact me?
Alternatively you could leave a comment on my website.
Hope to hear from you
www.crazyrichguy.wordpress.com
Agreed, the WTC Demolition Was An Inside Job
It was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky as I exited the WTC North Tower at 8:30am on 9/11. To believe that the US Airforce couldn't intercept 4 hijacked airplanes over 2 hours under perfect weather conditions is downright criminal.
I have no doubt that your rendition of the Reichstag Fire is accurate. Hitler had the balls to murder a few prisoners, dress them up as Wehrmacht soldiers and claim that Poland attacked Germany as the pretext to the 9/1/1939 invasion and division of Poland between Hitler and Stalin.
BTW did you ever meet Judyth Vary Baker, Lee Harvey Oswald's New Orleans girlfriend who emigrated to Amsterdam, Holland to get away from the CIA and the Bush Crime Family?