Thinking on Fascist America
Over at Orcinus, Sara Robinson has written another piece on Fascist America.
...we're crazy to think that the goon squads formed and trained to instigate this summer's health care wars will pack it in just because the silly season is over. Those folks have tasted power...
...that seems to be the GOP's whole political identity now.
Robinson states, "Right-wing populism is riding so high among the middle and working classes right now that there's nothing progressives can say right now that they're likely to believe."
Yet she also states, "At this point, the disgust runs so deep that anybody who's got other ideas -- theocracy, corporatocracy, anarchy, whaddaya got? -- has a fair shot at getting their attention."
I would probably agree with both and I think this is crucial to how anarchy/libertarian socialism fits. Why are these working class rightwingers disgusted with government and how does libertarian socialism get their attention? Is it even possible? Is it a disgust of wealth, power, and government or is it a desperate grasping at privilege?
Robinson continues, "There's no reason for the middle and working classes to trust anything about a system that's so clearly rigged to suck money straight out of their pockets into the tax-free offshore bank accounts of the wealthy -- who, of course, turn right around and use that money to buy off our government, so they can suck up even more of our economy for themselves." Of course, she believes it is possible to have a capitalist government that doesn't suck our money into the pockets of the wealthy. We do not.
She closes her piece acknowledging that "Bloggers have formed the core of a new progressive media that's calling the corporate media to account, and slowly forcing it to change its one-sided ways." Yet she still doesn't think bloggers or secular Liberals or progressives know how to speak the language of "emotion, populism, purity, redemption, and enduring values" as the fascists do. Instead she proposes that the left needs to go back to church to gain that ability. Fuck that.
There is a lot we can take from Robinson's pieces but we cannot be foolish enough to opt for the masters of church and taxes over the masters of state and capital.
...we're crazy to think that the goon squads formed and trained to instigate this summer's health care wars will pack it in just because the silly season is over. Those folks have tasted power...
...that seems to be the GOP's whole political identity now.
Robinson states, "Right-wing populism is riding so high among the middle and working classes right now that there's nothing progressives can say right now that they're likely to believe."
Yet she also states, "At this point, the disgust runs so deep that anybody who's got other ideas -- theocracy, corporatocracy, anarchy, whaddaya got? -- has a fair shot at getting their attention."
I would probably agree with both and I think this is crucial to how anarchy/libertarian socialism fits. Why are these working class rightwingers disgusted with government and how does libertarian socialism get their attention? Is it even possible? Is it a disgust of wealth, power, and government or is it a desperate grasping at privilege?
Robinson continues, "There's no reason for the middle and working classes to trust anything about a system that's so clearly rigged to suck money straight out of their pockets into the tax-free offshore bank accounts of the wealthy -- who, of course, turn right around and use that money to buy off our government, so they can suck up even more of our economy for themselves." Of course, she believes it is possible to have a capitalist government that doesn't suck our money into the pockets of the wealthy. We do not.
She closes her piece acknowledging that "Bloggers have formed the core of a new progressive media that's calling the corporate media to account, and slowly forcing it to change its one-sided ways." Yet she still doesn't think bloggers or secular Liberals or progressives know how to speak the language of "emotion, populism, purity, redemption, and enduring values" as the fascists do. Instead she proposes that the left needs to go back to church to gain that ability. Fuck that.
There is a lot we can take from Robinson's pieces but we cannot be foolish enough to opt for the masters of church and taxes over the masters of state and capital.
posted by shane at 4:26 PM
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