Empire Notes

Here’s something from one of the less-noted Republicans, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Speaking to Republican delegates from Maine and Michigan, he said,

"It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said. "I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children."

John Kerry's campaign called this “condescending.” Actually, it’s far worse. This notion of the people as children to be protected, sacrificed for, etc. by their fatherly Maximum Leader, is a common conceit, almost universally associated with authoritarian regimes.

Card's rhetoric goes a bit far, but it's very in keeping with the tone of Republicans these days. At the Republican Convention, Arnold Schwarzenegger said,

Ladies and gentlemen, America is back! Back from the attack on our homeland, back from the attack on our economy, back from the attack on our way of life. We're back because of the perseverance, character and leadership of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Apparently, America's recovery is entirely dependent on one man, George W. Bush. The rest of us are just 294 million ciphers. This is the Fuhrerprinzip translated into English.

It's just one step further to "We sacrifice our souls, our blood for you, Saddam."

Where the Republicans differ from the centrist Democrats most vividly is right here: the Republican right aspires to fascism.

I don't exactly mean fascism, but rather the appropriate historical parallel in a country that is nothing like Germany in the 1930's or Italy in the 1920’s, and in particular one with no mass organized worker’s movement to crush.

Because of these differences, the new phenomenon we see emerging looks in detail vastly different from fascism – for example, civil liberties are in practice only slightly restricted, we will vote in November, etc. To compare them with the situation under the Nazis is just silly. The basic principle, however, is strikingly similar, from the creation of “Republican science” to the savage and vicious attacks on anyone who steps out of line – and even on those who don’t. Anyway, I’ll call it fascism rather than this term that doesn’t exist.

More fascist propaganda from the same speech of Card’s -- e's talking about accompanying Bush to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where injured soldiers are treated:

"He has walked into a room, where a soldier tries to stand, to pay respect to the president but he doesn't have any legs, to give an officer's salute, but he doesn't have any arms. … everyone stands at attention, and as the president presents a Purple Heart, tears flow.

"And I can honestly say that never once have I seen a situation where a soldier or a Marine or a sailor or an airman didn't say, 'Thank you for the privilege of serving, Mr. President, and I'm anxious to get back to help my comrades.'"

That's right. Never once. Every single multiply-amputated soldier speaks like a bad caricature of a bad character in a bad 1940's movie. Not one of them fails to thank the man who got them into this mess for his amputation. This is propaganda reminiscent of Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, Saddam’s Iraq – take your pick. It is no more sophisticated or believable. Yes, of course, one, two, maybe even a handful of soldiers might actually say something like this, such is the power of brainwashing in the military. But to say that every single soldier said it is just a transparent lie, one Card, a schemer rather than an ideologue, apparently believed would be accepted without question.

This is a place someone like John Kerry would not go by himself. The mainstream of the Democrats has no such aspiration. But, just as we saw in Germany, not being a fascist doesn't necessarily make you a good opponent of fascism. The German Social Democrats said, “Vote for Hindenburg as a defense against Hitler.” Then Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Kerry not only tries to match Bush as a macho father-figure, he says “support U.S. militarism and imperialism even more virulently than Bush as a defense against Bush.”

Whether Kerry wins or loses, do not expect this growing threat to even the little democracy we have won over the years to go away. And don’t expect the Democrats to mobilize against it.