The Invisible Library

David, a regular reader, sent me this link to an R.U. Sirius article asking, “Is it fascism yet?” I agree with some of the writers, not with others but they are all worth reading, simply because it’s one of those questions that is interesting and much needed, if a really loaded one.

As several of the commentators point out, there’s a strong habit of using the label of fascism a little too often and in the wrong context, which does nothing but sap it of it’s real threat value. And, as also pointed out, while the Bush admin and their Neocon vassals have seriously limited a variety of freedoms and instituted policies that are dictatorial in nature, we clearly are not in a Fascist state yet, for the simple reason that here we are, debating it on this here series of tubes. If this were a fascist country, the Republicans would have simply unplugged the servers and let the Internet die (at least the American hemisphere, anyway).

But as I’ve long contended, what the Republicans, especially under Cheney and Bush, seek to create is not a fascist dictatorship but an oligarchy of elites, who exercise absolute power and answer to no one but their own shriveled, an in Cheney’s case, cybernetic, hearts. What they want is a good old fashioned Divine Right of the Sun King style Monarchy. You can see it on W’s face whenever some reporter summons the impertinence to ask a question with bit of bit to it or won’t take some shuffling, predigested patter as a final answer. Here is a group of men accustomed to the perks and trappings of power. The may not prance around in fancy capes or demand that their underlings kiss their rings but just short of that is where we are. And they could care less about the prattling of surfs on the Internet or in the press. They have power and know how to keep it, even if it means doing something as undemocratic as vote fraud. As long as power is kept in the hands of those who can be trusted ( i.e., rich, white and male) than what’s a little treason among friends?

And to be sure, some of the habits of a Monarchy have the same unsavory smell of Fascism, complete with gulags and wars for glory and God. But that’s simply the result of a shared heritage. The cultured White Man’s Empire is what every despot aspires to, weather they are named August Pinochet, Idi Amin or Henry Tudor. Or George W. Bush. Though, in all honesty, I suspect Georgie Boy would be happier as Prince of Texas, where he could just lay about his countrified castle, huntin’ and clearin’ brush while his friends in the great Palace on the Potomac engage in petty court rivalries and the jealous intrigues that royals throughout history have been so fond of. He really doesn’t have the head for being King, but as eldest son, it was his duty to take over after his father abdicated the throne. What’s a reluctant King to do but abdicate real power and responsibility to his trusted coterie of barons, lords and dukes. And that is what really has George 41 giving Junior the silent treatment. His son isn’t half the Lord of the land he was raised to be.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.