Hey, it’s not me saying it. It’s a student social worker at Southern Connecticut State University. He “found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president.” Not just any president, our president.

I remember an NPR story maybe 5-8 years ago that suggested most scientific studies fall into two categories: NOT! and DUH. This one is clearly marked. duh.

None of this is actually new information. That liberal voters tend to be much better informed as a group and tend to reject authoritarianism is well documented, from both the chicken came first angle and the egg came first angle.

Completely hilarious, especially coming from a Reagan Republican. All he set out to do was to register mentally ill voters.

read comments (0)

There was a time, even a couple of years ago, when people were still whispering about fascism. I read the transcripts of a sermons by the Austin, Texas, UU Minister and former Vietnam combat photographer, Dr. Davidson Loehr on “Living under Fascism.” (Now part of his book, America, Fascism, and God.) It was electric to see someone put it into words, to go through Lawrence Britt’s 14 points of fascism and check them off one by one. I realized I wasn’t alone in recognizing the creeping authoritarianism in the U.S. (and beyond).

As soon as it was reprinted in early 2005, I read Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here (1935). I took it overseas with me and wondered. Just wondered. (Come on. I know people who wonder whether their harmless and 1st-amendment protected novels will cause trouble during a search.)

As I’ve seen several times in the past few days George Allen’s people assault the (blogger) man asking Allen about his first wife, I’ve considered what made the tough guys believe it was OK to tackle this guy for asking a question (even if it was personal). “Did you spit on your first wife?” BAM! Down he goes. “Now you’re getting personal,” said one of the thugs. Isn’t that man’s speech protected by the 1st Amendment? That hasn’t been repealed yet, has it? Yes, of course it’s not fascism when we do it.

I already wrote about the Bush administration’s fun with the term “Islamofascism.” Tossing the word around makes it more familiar and, perhaps, less scary. It still scares me, though.

Then I read an article and listen to a story this past month that bring it into the present. First was the Truthdig podcast by Robert Scheer including American Fascism, then an article by Stan Goff, a Special Forces veteran, on “Sowing the Seeds of Fascism in America.”

I have spent enough time studying the fascist movements of the mid-twentieth century that I realize we are frogs boiling slowly. It’s happening so slowly that we don’t jump. JUMP!

What good does vigilance do us. Yes, I’m paying attention. Yes, I see it. What do I do about it? The answer I’m coming up with right now is so simple: VOTE.

And encourage those around you to vote. Talk to the people around you about the dangers of authoritarianism. Face to face is the place we have the most power. Tell the other frogs to jump.

• American: From Freedom to Fascism (feature film by Aaron Russo)
  Review: “The scariest damn film you’ll see this year. . . . Makes ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ look like ‘Bambi.’”
  Watch it at Google Video.

• Positive Universe - Fascism Watch Headlines

• Third World Traveler - linked up resources

• It Isn’t Fascism When We Do It - Buy the shirt, support Project for the Old American Century

read comments (0)

Beginning of the End of America. That is the title of Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment this week. “We have lived as if in a trance. . .” he began.

Do you find that phrase as alarming as I do–or did? “Beginning of the end of America.” Gradually, the more I let climate change sink in and I resist the growing fascism, I find the idea of the fall of American civilization less alarming. It seems closer to inevitable. I stop wondering whether my own children and their children will survive. The question I have been asking are will civilizations survive? Will humanity survive?

Like so many people, I listen to Keith Olbermann’s weekly Special Comment. When I can stand the clownish context, I watch on television. When I miss it, I watch online–usually. Also like so many people, I wonder how long he will be able to do this. Even if this is the most popular spot on NBC or MSN (the only one I bother watching, for sure), can this go on? When voicing one’s opinion of Dick Cheney to his face is an act of terror, how can Keith Olbermann speak so directly week after week? Does the fact that nearly 70,000 people have watched the commentary on You Tube alone in the past couple of days give Olbermann any measure of protection?

The man is not going to be quiet as habeus corpus begins to die in Bush’s signing of the Military Commissions Act. I don’t know why they let him keep talking in this growing climate of fascism, but I listen and I talk about it. Keep talking. Face-to-face communications will always be free. Exercise your rights.

Full transcript on Common Dreams.

Full transcript and video on MSNBC.

Video on You Tube - 86,206 views, 1755 comments and counting. The number of views went up by 18,000+ in the several hours it took me to finish this post. That’s 0.0006% of the now 300,000,000 population of the U.S. (as if all views came from the U.S.).

read comments (1)