You have to love Non Sequitur today...

[liberal N proud]

[Buzz Clik]

1. Our permit expired. Hopefully, DUers now will back away from calling the GOP "Nazis"

[Richardo]

2. That would be great.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for that, though. Hysterical hyperbole is SOP for many DUers.

[MNDemNY]

3. But , the fact is, many in the GOP ARE Nazis.

What about that?

[Aragorn]

4. only a few

there are more fascists than nazis it seems

[tavalon]

5. Ah, but you see, there's the rub

Many people, even educated DUers conflate Nazi with fascist. So, while Nazi's practiced a form of fascism that many GOPers also long for doesn't mean that many GOPers are Nazi. Totally lost on too many people.

[Buzz Clik]

6. Uh... okay.

[SidneyCarton]

9. Tavalon actually has a point...

(Though it may be difficult to understand from their post)

Nazism is one strain in Fascism, there were actually several varieties:

Italian Fascism: The original model propagated by Mussolini, highly nationalistic and authoritarian, less focused on racism, or racial purification.

Portuguese Fascism: Under Dr. Salazar, Portugal remained fascist/authoritarian until the early 1970's

Spanish Falangism: Under Generalissimo Franco strong alliance with the traditional pillars of Spanish authoritarianism, particularly the Catholic Church, staunchly anti-leftist. Ended with the restoration of the monarchy in 1970.

Hungarian Fascism: The Arrow-Cross Party. Fanatical racists, they were suppressed somewhat under Admiral Horthy's government, and came into power briefly only after the Germans overran the country in 1944.

Romanian Fascism: The Iron Legion??? (I forget their actual name) Under Ion Antonescu another fanatically racist party (began outright anti-Semitic massacres before the Germans) brought Romania into the Axis in 1941.

Latin American Fascism: An interesting hybrid of traditional Latin American military Dictatorship with totalitarian undertones, often aided and abetted by ex-Nazis who fled to the region after 1945. (Argentina and Chile of particular note here)

Oh wait! I responded to the wrong post, I'm sorry. But the information might be useful anyway. :blush:

[Buzz Clik]

17. One is never too old to learn. Thanks for the info.

[Nye Bevan]

7. Comparing the GOP to Nazis, or any mainstream US poltician to Hitler

is stupid hyperbole and is an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims.

[MNDemNY]

8. Not when they ARE Nazis.

[Richardo]

11. Name a Republican who is literally a Nazi

[MNDemNY]

12. David Duke.

You may now apologize.
On edit: (he's dead, now, but here is another. Prescott Bush.)

[Richardo]

13. Any living ones?

I don't see many David Duke threads, but I see the word "Nazi" a lot.

[MNDemNY]

15. Is Duke dead?

No, in fact he may "rear his head" again, soon.

[HughBeaumont]

18. David Duke isn't dead. He lives in Austria.

He takes pictures of birds.

Aryan ones, I'm to assume. :)

[MNDemNY]

19. I know.

[SidneyCarton]

10. Agreed.

We trivialize the monstrosity of the Third Reich by making it common political discourse.

[Javaman]

14. Nice post, hitler.

:) LOL

[liberal N proud]

16. And I thought posting this as reference to the lady standing on the steps

[The Animator]

20. It's odd that the right would call us both Socialists and Fascists..

Socialism is on the extreme Left, Progressives are the Left, Conservatives are the Right, and Fascism is on the Extreme Right.

Go too far to the left, or the right, and we run into serious problems.. so the solution (theoretically) is to rely on our opposition, to help us maintain balance, so we don't go too far either way.

Problem is the Republicans have been gradually moving further to the right.. closer to their extreme. As a result, in order to meet in the middle, the Democrats have had to move "the middle" further to the right.

The point here is this, Republicans are moving closer to their extreme, which is Fascism. While not all in their party fit that description, the ones who are pulling their party in that direction certainly do.

I don't have the link for it, but I remember a video listing the top ten elements of fascism. It made the rounds here on DU when Bush was still in power. It made a convincing case that Bush's policies had in fact turned America into a fascist state.


Another observation. Dictatorships and Monarchies are efficient lawmaking systems. A select group of people make the laws, and the citizens have little choice but to obey, whether it's in their best interest or not.

American Democracy is not supposed to be an efficient system. It is the constant pull and push of opposing parties that make it inefficient, but that inefficiency is to ensure that our laws best serve the nation as a whole, by providing equal benefit to both sides. Every important bill is fought over, and the only way to get it passed into Law is to make compromises that make the Bill agreeable to both sides.

That is the way it's supposed to be. The "middle" where the compromises are made, is an inefficient jumble of give and take. However, since the "middle" has been moved to the right, laws made now are more likely to benefit those on the right. While the True Middle, is smack in the center of the Democratic Party, which has become an inefficient jumble where things hardly ever get done...

Here the real rub... this whole thing is our fault. The Republicans didn't have the power to "Move the Middle" They just moved further to the right. And we let them...

We were the ones who shifted right to meet them... we should have stayed strong where we were... and forced them to return to center. We failed in our obligation to keep our opposition in balance. The only solution, is for us to move further to the left, back to where we were. Thus pulling the "middle" and the right back into their proper places. We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated. We can no longer pass up the congressional candidates that best represent us to pick ones that are more "electable".

[DCKit]

21. Hardly. They don't know what either word means.

It's not as if they're required to hand out dictionaries with those Bibles or for Oxyrush, Beck, etc... to explain what they spew.

For 30% of our fellow citizens, it's a Dog-Whistle Nation.

[quiet.american]

22. Love it! nt

[Reader Rabbit]

23. I love Non Sequitur *every* day!

But for some reason, The Oregonian runs it on weekends, but not on Sundays. What's up with that?!?