"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck." 

Once upon a time .....

Way back in the days of the Cold War, I could watch Army conveys on the street below my 3rd floor study hall in Sarasota High School move missiles and men to Miami because of the "Cuban Missile Crisis".  America feared the totalitarian governments of the world, so a graduation requirement was a class, "Americanism vs. Communism".

We were  told what it was like to live in the Soviet Union and all of those other evil countries.  Those of us who grew up in that era learned that there was nothing worse, it was a black hole of humanity, the sun never shined, no one smiled, fear was in every heart in the innocent populace.  The power, we were told, ran from the top downward.  People disappeared.  There were concentration camps.  Your neighbors and even family spied on you.  Stalin killed millions of his own people.

I learned my lesson well.  Well enough to see, almost 40 years later, that our nation is in grave danger, in danger of becoming what we railed against since WWII.  I also taught lessons, I hope well, as an American History teacher.  I love history, I know more than a fair amount about history.  I can see the parallels with what is happening in the United States with German, Italy, and Spain in the 1930's.  Our cookies are starting to come out of the same cutter.

circles, psychosis, and sayings

I am not a paranoid person, generally, nor a conspiricist.  Until now, I guess.  Jeez, that was a sobering thing to type.  "Hello, John Birch, meet Paul Verizzo."  Not really, but the threat that so motivated the Birchers for decades that they saw coming from The Left is taking place.  But while the Birchers were scanning the Leftist/Communist horizon, fascism was sneaking up behind from the Rightist/Fascist horizon.

The political spectrum is NOT a line from left to right, but a circle with Republican Democracy forward and central. It's interesting, isn't it, that as we move from a political center of Republican Democracy in action, the lines of the circle recede backward and then meet at Totalitarianism!    Leftward, we move through Socialism and wind up at Communistic Totalitarianism.  Rightward, we move through Corporate Cronyistic Capitalism and wind up at Fascist Totalitarianism.  Whatever the flavor, the popsicle IS Totalitarianism!

I forget if it was during the Vietnam war or Watergate, but there was a phrase circulating:

  "If you aren't outraged, you haven't been paying attention!"   

Well, I'm paying close attention to what is happening in "our" government and I AM outraged! This is far worse than an oval office blowjob, folks.  Our very liberties are seriously at stake.

As www.blackcommentator.com observed,  
"They have begun pulling mildly leftist white people off of airplanes.
It's time for the rest of us to get very worried."

That should set off alarm bells!  As Pastor Niemoller famously wrote,

"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."

Jew, Arab, Communist, Democrat, trade unionist, GUN OWNER.  Remove one, plug in another, whatever.  Only the names change.  What are you?  Take out Jew, put yourself in.

It amazes me how we fixated on some sex between consenting adults in the White House, yet when we have Americans being held without bail or a writ of habeas corpus, when all presidential papers (including Daddy's) are now sealed from prying eyes to find out what really goes on, when we have secret courts without judicial oversight, when we have a five time convicted felon (released due to "technicalities") given the job of spying on every American's transaction with a budget of $250 million per year, when the voters are sidetracked from the source of terrorism (OBL) to just a truly annoying despot, history is repeating itself. (Just of few of many examples I could have chosen.)

A Thinking person's guide to historical parallels:

Think Jews, when you hear that Saddam is the cause of our problems. Or intellectuals.  Or "non-patriots."  Or liberals.  Or......

Think KGB and Reichssicherheitshauptamt when you hear Homeland Security and/or "Total Information Awareness Program". Reichwho?  Hitler's anti-terrorism unit.

Think burning of the Reichstag when you hear of a pending war in Iraq.

Think "It can't happen here, we are too civilized, we are a free people?"  Think again.  Those were exactly the sentiments of the German people as the nation willing jumped into the iron grip of Nazism.

Think fascism when government and business are 69'ing away in bed, when we are losing $70 billion dollars a year in taxes to corporations who are running off shore but are allowed to pony up to the Homeland Security Contract Bar.

Think Chinese Communist Government, Tien Min Square when peaceful protesters in America are herded off out of the sight of the President.  Not once or twice, but always, as a matter of White House policy.  Think of your Constitution, "the right of peaceful assembly."  Going, going, ... (I personally know a Chinese woman who was at the Tien Min demonstrations.  Her story brought tears to my eyes. All her countrymen wanted to do was what was guaranteed by our Constitution but are now fast disappearing.)

Think Henry Kissinger when you hear of international criminals like Saddam.  Wanted for crimes against humanity in several countries, you know.  Oh, you didn't?

Think Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda when you hear of the loss of the FCC's Fainess Doctrine, 1985. No need to tell both sides of a story!

Think Auscwitz, Dachau, Gulag, Japanese Interment Camps when you learn of FEMA's plan in 1987 that "John Brinkerhoff modeled FEMA's martial law program after Louis Giuffrida's proposal to squelch black militant uprisings by placing "at least 21million American Negroes" into "assembly centers or relocation camps." Miami Herald

Believe what you will, but examine the facts and then:

Let's pretend we are political doctors and we must diagnose the current  climate.......

When a psychiatrist diagnoses a patient, he or she consults the Diagnostic Manual for the suspected ailment.  There will be a list of characteristics and an instruction, such as "Four or more of the following observations indicates (suspected diagnosis)."   Let's parallel that over to a political analysis here.   Or, 

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck." 

Let me re-phrase that for those slow on the draw: 

 "If it looks like fascism, behaves like fascism, and talks like fascism, it probably IS fascism."

Criteria for the characteristics of Fascism come mostly from Chip Berlet, internet forum contributor.  Many thanks.  It must be noted that the definition and characteristics of fascism are somewhat fluid and incomplete.  The world did not know fascism before the 1930's, and the nations that embraced it had their own variants, and overt fascism was history in a few decades.  We're still defining and learning. 

what can little old me do?

One of the house seats contested here in Colorado in the 2002 election was won by 121 votes..............out of almost 180,000 (.00068%)!  My point is, every one of us counts!  Not just in voting, but in life.  People have escaped from prisons by removing a few particles of steel at a time from the bars with dental floss and toothpaste.

1.  Stay informed.  Duh!  It's obvious many Americans take whatever is handed them and consider themselves knowledgeable.  "The Media" is increasingly owned by fewer and fewer corporations, however.  Clear Channel Communications owns dozens of radio outlets in some markets!  Use the internet to sidestep some of this Pravda like control.  (However, recent and pending FCC rulings might do the same thing to your internet provider and content; no choice.)

"The great masses of people. . .will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."
....................Adolph Hitler (remember him?)

2.  Don't be partisan, be American.  Although it's obvious that most of my concerns are due to Republican initiatives, there are plenty of Democrats selling their souls in hopes of reelection.  And there are brave Republicans who are saying, "NO!" but are losing in the halls of Congress.  As issues arise, ask yourself, "Does this run counter to the intent, if not the letter, of the Constitution?"  Or, "What would George Washington or Thomas Jefferson have thought of this?" Or even Nelson Rockefeller or Eisenhower.  How far we've come. 

3.  Keep in mind the first word of the Constitution: "We..."  Not "They!"  "We" hold the power to hold the power.  "We" also hold the power to relinquish the power to "they/them."  As one observer noted about the last election and how it will probably bring disastrous consequences to our nation, "The chickens just voted for Colonel Sanders."

4.  Know what fascism is and is not.  The charge is often incorrectly used.  It is NOT socialism!  Not all fascist states are the same. 

5. Awaken others ....