Tag: Mussolini

  Along with “socialism”, “fascism” has become one of the right-wing’s favorite scare word to describe President Obama.

  They use the word fascism with an assortment of other scary adjectives. For instance, we have “liberal fascist”, “fascist socialist”, “socialist fascist”, “socialist/fascist/communist”, and my personal favorite, “national socialist fascist communist”.

  According to one unscientific, online poll, 91% of conservatives were lumping Obama in with “Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin”.

 The problem for the right-wing is their complete and total ignorance of not only the meaning of the word “fascism”, but also of the history surrounding this political and economic movement.

It’s something out of a twisted wingnut fantasy: 25,000 identically-dressed, tough-looking men and a charismatic leader with a simple, strong motto (in this case, “Believe!  Obey!  Fight!”) barge into the capital city and bully their way into a leadership role in the government.  No complicated voting, no messy democracy, no stupid consensus; just a bunch of ballsy, take-charge kinda guys who know what’s best for the nation and its historically-destined people – and woe unto he who disagrees with their image of what “the nation” ought to be…

And yet, like so many bizarre, terrifying, and ultimately uncivilized events, this one actually happened.  Join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight we’ll take a peek at Italy in 1922 – and if we’re lucky, we’ll even be able to discern how the shadowy rightists behind Santelli and the Teabaggers have moved beyond simply genuflecting before Zombie Reagan, and may now actually be trying to resurrect Benito Mussolini himself.