Challenge: Create a Series of Events...

[Man of the Century]

Alright,

Please try your hardest to refrain from making the obvious cracks that the U.S. is "already there." This is a very specific request for very specific answers.

As written by me earler, the only way for the U.S. to become TRUELY facsict would require that George W. Bush remain as president AFTER January 20, 2009.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT "THE U.S. IS FASCIST NO MATTER WHAT IT DOES BECAUSE OF THE COLLECTION OF CAPITAL, ETC... yeah, WE KNOW!!!

This is about President Bush.

Many implied, as I argued against them, not to sell Pres. Bush short in his plan to wrest democracy from America and supplant it with some type of facsism.

OK. Take this issue on.

Demonstrate the series of events and announcements by Bush that could make this a reality. Remember to deal with the reaction and actions of Congress and the Supreme Court.

ALSO, remember that Pres. Lincoln had to deal with a reelection campaign during a civil war, and didn't become a dictator. (Though for about 8 weeks didn't let Congress meet and suspended habias corpus...the combination being the closest we ever came to a dictatorship.)

Sincerely, a Good Luck to all. I'd be interested in your view on this.

MOTC

[MKS]

President Bush cannot be elected to a third term, it is illegal. If he tried he would find opposition not just from the Courts, but from most of Congress, the armed forces, the state govenors, the Party leadership (both Democrat and Republican) as well as from the American people.

What we shold fear is another "puppet" like Bush being elected for the Christian neo-cons that look to spread American hegenomy.

As much as you dont believe it Bush is a believer in Republican Democracy, a staunch supporter of a system established by many presidents before him. He uses the representive nature of the government to push the agenda of Anglo- American influence and imperialism.

Also President Bush being a member of the Republican Party dosent automaticaly make him a "power hungry" president. In fact the only president to serve more than 2 terms as President was FDR, a Democrat, whose presidency can be compared to that of Bush in terms of human rights violations, suspension of free speech, all in the name of national security. Also a man who championed the cause of American hegeonmy and whose administration agressively pursued the fulfillment of the Monroe Doctrine.


What many Americans fail to understand that both parties Deomcrat and Republican, have always supported limited democracy, have always supported terror wars against nations deemed as "rougue", have always held power away from the people and not with the people. The American leadership is the biggest threat to the world. The Neo-Cons and Republicans are just the bodies who fill the offices.

When the next election comes about, the faces will change, but the system will remain intact.

Bush is an oligarch just like all the people in Congress, and all the Presidents before him.

The only ones we can blame for our system are the people!

Someone once said, a nation has the government it deserves. There is some truth to that.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Well said, MKS...

There is considerable confusion about fascism. In this instance, individuals like MOTC may have some difficulty distinguishing fascism from political systems that share many characteristics. Using the Political Compass (http://www.politicalcompass.org) model, fascism can be identified as extremely authoritarian and typically right of center on economics. This definition is a bit inadequate, but we can see where the American system of political economy belongs in the same quadrant.

But an elaboration of fascism is in order. Most importantly, what are the prime characteristics of fascism? Intense nationalism, militarism, glorification of past or present leaders, secret police who intrude on privacy in the name of security, a clearly defined social hierarchy of masters and slaves ("races", nationalities, economic classes, cultural or religious "deviants"... any or all of these work).

Again, American politics contain every one of these features. By comparison, these characteristics are typically a bit weaker here than in historical examples of fascist rule and doctrine. Overall, American society is far freer and much less dangerous to dissidents. I would stop short of calling American treatment of dissidents "fair", but 99% of us who question the government never get shot at for it.

[Commie Rat]

i did a history assigmnet on the diffences between Athenian culture/ society and Spartian culture/ Society reading into ti sparta was in terms an early Facism

completely irrelivant but what the hey. . .