Deadly confusion

Democratic and Republican viewpoints traditionally are slightly different philosophical approaches to a society based upon the ideal of freedom and liberty for all. At the other extreme are political philosophies like Fascism.

My Random House College Dictionary defines fascism as “a totalitarian government system led by a dictator and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.”

The traditional Republican viewpoint champions a strict “reward for merit” approach to economic society. The idea is that, in a system where opportunities are uniformly available, the diligent and responsible will get their due as will the unmotivated. Democrats advocate administrative mechanisms to ensure equity.

Republicans identify with the current administration. This administration, while radical in its approach, does not represent values deeply distinct from the last administration, with which the Democrats identified. In fact, the current administration is engaging in a standing tradition of using the rhetoric of either party to gain popular support, while not necessarily representing the ideals of either. For example, Republicans are tough on welfare handouts.

The Bush administration has capitalized on that sentiment by slashing social programs, but stands by an ongoing corporate welfare program that doles out more than twice the amount in handouts to corporate welfare cases than is given to social welfare cases annually. This administration claims to champion the Republican ideal of free trade, yet seeks to maintain the authority to rig the global marketplace with subsidized agriculture and tariffs and endorses media consolidation. The administration speaks of spreading democracy while it misuses the U.S. military to impose its will globally at gunpoint, and dismantles democracy at home by creating laws like the PATRIOT Act. The acronym is pure newspeak. While the act does little to improve our capacity to fight terrorism, it vastly improves the governments’ ability to suppress political dissent.

Secrecy and decisions made by executive order, instead of through the democratic process, are the trademarks of this administration.

The 9-11 tragedy was used to whip up the stench of nationalism, which continues to hang in the air all across this country.

Racism has become institutionalized through a system of campaign finance that assures that the poor, who tend to be minorities, have no voice.

It would be heartwarming to see the Democrats and Republicans stop bickering over nuance long enough to step out of the haze of confusion and agree to put the brakes on creeping fascism.