Posted on 06/02/2008 2:05:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I do not claim to be a political analyst. I do not wish to sway opinions or raise aggressions. I don't live in Washington, D.C. or interact with the elected decision-makers of our nation.
I'm completely disgusted with and terrified by the political state of our country.
I was born and raised in a conservative household in Pueblo, which is a rarity in a community where Democrats are the majority. My father is a tried and true Republican who instilled in me a certain fire for politics - not enough to be a political science major or to run for student government, but enough of a passion to pay attention.
Truth be told, I don't much like the nature of politics. It's a dirty business. I don't like any "black or white" situations, having to pick this or that. It's unfair to have to join the Republicans or the Democrats and have all of your thoughts and ideas smashed into a cookie-cutter party,
I am asking Pueblo to re-evaluate our political foundations before we, and the rest of our country, make a mistake. This all came to me this spring semester in my World History class. What I discovered has been haunting me ever since. We were learning about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany and about Hitler's methods for gaining popularity and strength.
My instructor highlighted three main factors that swayed people to follow Hitler: 1) The state of the German people after World War I, feeling hopeless and divided, looking for a leader; 2) Hitler's promise of change and prominent nationalism and 3) Hitler's rhetoric and charisma.
This sounded familiar. I turned to my very vocal, very liberal friend in the class and said, "Did he not just describe the tactics of Barack Obama?" Even she, an Obama fanatic, couldn't ignore the striking similarities. She said, "Yeah, but Obama's not gonna do that. That can't happen."
A majority of college campuses are extremely liberal, and Colorado State University in Fort Collins is no different. During the primary elections, the enormous following for Obama wrote in sidewalk chalk all over buildings and streets, "I Love Obama" and "Vote for Change."
Democratic leaders say the new surge in voters, particularly our nation's youth, is exciting and unprecedented.
It's no lie there was a great distaste for the Bush White House for a variety of reasons. When such dissatisfaction occurs it's human nature to run to the opposite extreme. Our country is experiencing a political rebound, much like Germany after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles.
After Bush's poor popularity ratings, a disapproval of the war on terrorism, a lacking economy and a seemingly dying planet, we are looking for answers, for an alternative. This is how mass conformity works and how erratic leaders can be elected to office.
I am not claiming Obama is a fascist. I am saying Obama does not have as much to offer the United States or Pueblo County as his avid supporters believe.
The message of "change" is attractive. I listened to the speeches Obama gave when he came on the scene and was intrigued by his passion, even his youth (which is probably why he is sometimes compared to President John F. Kennedy). I wanted to hear his ideas. His ideas never came.
Obama doesn't give us any substance. Where's the beef?
The left is seen as liberal. Most Democrats are liberals whose ideas are closer to communism or socialism than Republicans. Democrats want universal health care, for everyone to be taken care of no matter what. The state owns everything and everyone gets an equal share. Great, but what sort of quality would this universal health care offer? That's something to question your political idols on.
The extreme right is no better. Hitler was a fascist. Extreme right-wing politics often leads to fascism, separates classes and is a very Darwinist, survival-of-the-fittest idea where those who are unfit are often left in the dark.
Republicans are conservatives because they believe in capitalism and free-market trade. The American dream is based on these traditional beliefs. No matter who you are, if you work hard, you'll succeed.
I went on an Obama Web site, but I had to "join" his campaign - before I could even see or just browse and investigate what I was joining. I didn't join. At the top of the Obama Web site was his quote: "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington. I'm asking you to believe in yours."
What does that mean? Believe in what?
Speaking in generalizations and abstractions is a great way to sway people. We don't know what Obama's ideas are. It's creepy and disturbing that people are hypnotized to the point of listening to someone who says nothing.
It scares me. It should scare us all.
Please be passionate enough to investigate, to think, to question. Don't blindly be led by sensationalism and roundabout promises. Let's re-think the fate of our country before we give it away and it's no longer ours.
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Chelsie West is a 2006 graduate of Pueblo South High School and a junior majoring in English at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Amen! This kid gives me hope..after watching clips of swooning college kids when this empty suit speaks I couldn’t believe not one questions his beliefs. Even as I walk and look at how many people have Obama and Change signs in their yards I am struck by how many follow blindly without questioning. Very disturbing-I am glad to know this kid is not a follower.
Oh, please.
I am not claiming Obama is a fascist.
OK, then I will. Of course he's a fascist. He's a liberal.
“He speaks from the heart.” - Joseph Geobbels on Adolph Hitler’s speaking style
Chance the Gardener Obama, a no nothing empty suit.
This passage illustrates the "Big Lie" still being perpetrated about Hitler being right-wing. Wrong! Nazi = National SOCIALIST. Yes, SOCIALIST. As in LEFT-WING.
Hello, is this thing on? *tap tap*
When I stated that both Hillary and Obama were socialists, a lib that I know stated that Hill & O don’t espouse socialism, “socialism is what they had in the Soviet Union”.
IE, the “it can’t happen here” head in the sand.
Another "conservative" who still drank the public-school cafeteria water. She's almost, but not quite, there.
Oops, know nothing.
She said, "Yeah, but Obama's not gonna do that. That can't happen."
Hooray for a thoughtful observant young college student. Thank you, for you for clear statements of the Obama campaign being mostly staging, and noticing he is implying that he would actually bring change; when in fact, he would have little actual power.
It is the Senate and the Legislature that make and pass new legislation.
A definition of how to control ... "Keep hope alive and Never GRATIFY IT."
Jonah Goldberg covers it well in “Liberal Fascism”.
Fascism is a product of the left, and most leftists supported both Mussolini and Hitler before the genocides started.
The reason that fascism got associated with the right was that the communists (definitely left) and fascists were competing for control of the SAME IDEOLOGY.
Fascism, Communism, and AMERICAN LIBERALISM all have this in common - they are anti-individualist, and pro-collectivist.
“It takes a village” WTF would that mean besides “I prefer collectivism (SOCIALISM)”.
I Like it!!!
I BELIEVE you, Hussein, are a muslim, lying like most militant muslims lie to hide your identity until you get what you want.
I BELIEVE your skin color might get you elected this Fall and might get you killed not long after you reveal your true identity to those who risk their lives to expose you.
I BELIEVE your campaign is one much like a fart in the wind, making a large impression without substance or lasting and concrete action for the good of the people.
I BELIEVE your true agenda to be one of revenge against white America. Your 20-year membership and attendance at a racist church... your association with known racists... and your failure to clarify exactly what your intentions are... all these rob voters of the ability to see stable characteristics in you that would be sustainable as a world leader.
I BELIEVE you neither possess experience nor character to lead a nation... this according to your past and the people in your own state.
I BELIEVE you might win this Fall. Part of me wants it to happen, to swing the pendulum to the extreme left so it can then return extreme right from where it has been... somewhere in the middle. But the other part of me realizes what four years of your banter would do to this nation.
Which is preferable... postponing the pendulum swing or encouraging it?
Barrack Hussein Obama, OTOH, represents the apex of the, marxist, hate-America, domestic enemy within this country. His election would be the greatest coup any enemy ever scored against this Republic, and could well lead to the most horrific disaster this nation has ever faced.
The extreme right is no better. Hitler was a fascist. Extreme right-wing politics often leads to fascism....
Fascism is a form of socialism. Hitler was a left-wing "National Socialist" as a opposed to a left-wing "International Communist".
As far as fascism goes, it is not a right wing phenomenon. At it’s very least, it argues for state control or oversight of most of the private sectors (with exemptions for businesses that support the causes of whatever fascist party). Mussolini was a socialist before he invented fascism and most of his ideas were taken from socialism. The key difference being that he didn’t see things in terms of class or workers, but in terms of nation. Hitler’s brand of fascism was national, but also (as we all know) racial.
That said, I think this article is right on. It is disturbing whenever “leaders” use vague terminology to excite passions in people without real thoughts (Republicans are guilty too). Passion over reason is a key value of fascistic leadership and Hitler himself used the phrase “revolt against reason”. I’m not arguing that Obama is a fascist, but certainly if Bush is compared to fascism, as many on the left claim, it is completely within reason that Obama can have this same comparison as well.
Um ... okay. It could be worse -- what if Obama's a space alien?
So it's the leftists that want to build the world's greatest military power and invade half the world? Or do they want to appease themselves?
This place has gone round the bend.
In that regard, the outter space part is moot.
The fact is, Hitler was a national socialist. That was the name of his party and the essence of his ideology...mixed liberally with all that Ueber Alles race supremacy stuff and the jack boots.
He was, at least until the Night of the Long Knives. Once he siezed total control, he became a fascist. He was nothing like what the word means today.
Have you read Mein Kampf? I have. Have you read the diaries of Joseph Geobels? I have. Have you read the prison diaries of Albert Speer? I have.
Obviously you haven't. Otherwise you'd know that what I said was ironclad fact, straight from the mouths of those men themselves.
Hitler was a rabid anti-communist. But not because he did not believe in Socialism. He was anti-communist because the communists wanted to do away with borders, race and class. Hitler felt that Socialism in Germany had to be built on those very foundations (as did Il Duce).
The fact that he was anti-communist is used, without further thought, to equate him with "right-wing" anti-communists in the US. They also assume that because he helped the anti-communists in the Spanish Civil-War he was of the same mind as their nationalist government.
Lefties also, invariably, equate nationalism, with anti-communism, anti-socialism, which is a mistake. They are not synonymous, though the left would have everyone think so.
Hitler was a Socialist. Doubt me? Read Mein Kampf and educate yourself.
bump
Fascism is a form of socialism. Government control of everything. Obama is nothing like Hitler, but they’re both socialists.
“Democratic leaders say the new surge in voters, particularly our nation’s youth, is exciting and unprecedented.”
For many people, history begins when they wake in the morning, or after each blink of the eyes.
A trip in the Way-Back machine would have uncovered excited, giggling yuts for RFK and Eugene McCarthy. That’s okay. Go back to sleep and don’t forget that democrats vote Wednesday.
Fascism is merely a variety of socialism, in which the monopoly of force controlled by the state is used to force the putative owners of the means of production to conform themselves to the demands of the state. That way, the owners can be punished for any failure to meet state demands, and the state is not responsible for meeting the quotas it imposes on industry.
Most of the fascist theorists in Italy arose from socialist schools of thought, and, as they were forced into exile by Mussolini’s spiral into totalitarianism, returned to their socialist roots.
I’ve read Goebels and Speer and some of Mein Kampf so I’m not just making this up. It’s pointless to attribute any clear ideology to a madman. Early on, he considered himself a socialist but that’s not how he ended up. He was simply a madman and whatever Obama’s socialist bent, you can’t really compare.
Socialists, when given the chance to enact their programmes, inevitably evolve into either DLC-type elitists or neurotic deniers of reality, depending on how total their monopoly of force is when the consequences of their policies become manifest.
He "hopes" no one notices when he quotes anti-white lines from movies while speaking to mostly black audiences.
He "hopes" no one notices when he uses gangsta rap gestures which reference misogynistic lyrics..
He "hopes" no one notices when he says he took no DC lobbyist money he didn't include Nadhmi Auchi or George Soros..
He "hopes" no one notices that he attended Rev Wright's Church for 20 years and didn't hear a word.
He "hopes" no one ask him any questions about Most Rev Wright or Black Liberation Theology.
He "hopes" no one ask him any questions about who he will through under the bus next.
He "hopes" no one notices that he is completely comfortable hanging out with America hating bigots..
He "hopes" no one notices that his political career shows very little if any accomplishments that he can call his own..
He "hopes" that he can continue to run a gutter/negative attack campaign against Hillary and no one will notice. Audacity, baby!
Comrade Obama is a Marxist or Communist — Not a Fascist. The differences are slight. Since Comrade Obama professes to be a collectivist, I lean towards calling Comrade Obama a Communist. Collectivist is Harvard for Communist.
I opine that today's socialism, if taken to the extremes like what Obama and most of the DNC dream of, would end up being exactly like the socialism part of Hitler's Nazi Germany.
The entire abortion industry, for example, when you pull away all the facades, all the politically correct terminology, and just look at it for what it is...violently ripping an unborn child from its mother's womb limb from limb, and then, in many cases, traficcing in that infants organs and parts...is much more akin to something right out of the Nazi labs and "solutions".
That's just one example...there are many more.
The EmptySuit is giving empty words to empty heads.
This guy is just awful. How can the democrats consider a one term senator with no experience other than part-time Assemblyman and once upon a time teacher for president is beyond me....but the conspiracy minded part of me looks at his backers and says: Coup d’etat.
Obama is an internationalist socialist, a member therefore of the school of thought encompassing Marxism, Bernsteinism, Leninism and Maoism. It is only the transnationalists’ classification of culture as an artifact of determinative underlying economic factors, rather than a preexisting social reality, which separates the fascists and Nazis from the rest of the socialist schools of thought.
I have too strong a faith in our Constitution and its checks and balances to believe anything of that order could ever happen here. We might swing far to the left for a while with Obama but we'll survive.
I don't think Fascism works for the Comrade. International Socialist is going to be too hard to explain to others.
It's scary how many people today don't even know what Communism is.
“It’s scary how many people today don’t even know what Communism is.”
What’s scary is the person who says, “Well, it wasn’t that bad.”
I give them “A People’s Tragedy,” by Orlando Figes.
This boy is a dolt. Hitler was as far left as Joe Stalin and as far as a difference between Fascism and Communism is the Fascists make the trains run on time. Classes seem to separate themselves based upon their success and motivation. Darwinism is scarcely a conservative ideology.
But do not kid yourself about potentials. Sophocles said it best well over 23 centuries ago :
Far-stretching, endless Time
Brings forth all hidden things,
And buries that which once did shine.
The firm resolve falters, the sacred oath is shattered;
And let none say, "It cannot happen here".
More than the checks and balances themselves (many of which have been severely eroded), it is the vigilance of the people themselves, and their commitment to the values and foundational principles upon which our liberty rests, that vouchsafe those checks and balances, and that, along with the Hand of Providence, is what will preserve our Republic.
Hence the search for an appropriate label for Comrade Obama, and then a definition to fit the label.
I vote we go with Comrade Obama, the communist. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate, just definable and something that will stick. Since Comrade Obama says he is a collectivist in his book, communist works best for me. A follower of the teaching of Karl Marx.
Collectivism, just Harvard speak for Communism.
You are correct.
People should know their facts but facts get distorted, like with ‘The Unnecessary War’.
Have you read Pat Buchanan’s book concerning WWII? OMG, he spent too much time at MSNBC and is seriously disturbed!
Hitler’s National Socialism was in conflict with communism only because they were similar ideologies competing for the same prize. They were rivals from basically the same camp. Their feud was more akin to an internecine fight than a conflict of opposites.
“Obama is nothing like Hitler, but they’re both socialists.”
But Obambi’s church is the evil twin of Nazism when it comes to racism. The hateful racism spouted from the pulpit and aisles and pews of Trinity United is a frightening echo of the rantings heard at the Nazi rallies.
Well, if you had read Geobels and Speer, you'd know why he ended as he did. It was called WWII. His plans for a greater socialist germania were predicated on swift victories in the east. Yet, as Speer points out, the more desparate the situation became in terms of mere survival, the more desperately he clung to that socialist dream/fantasy. In the end, when it was clear even to his syphalytic brain that it was not to be, he decided to pull the whole thing down around him.
His insanity at the end notwithstanding, he was a socialist. The Nazi regime and the National Socialist agenda ran strong for nearly a decade before it fell apart in the face of a war it started but could not win.
Secondly, I was not comparing Hitler to Obama. I was simply commenting on the girls statement that Nazi Facism was, in any way, comparable to "right-wing" or "conservative" political positions in this country--a typical liberal democrat canard.
Think Universal Health Care doesn’t carry with it eugenics?
In Germany, if diagnosed with a terminal illness, you are given a ‘super’ barbituate to take on your own volition. (Though it is understood that once you become a ‘burden’ you should help society by your own hand)
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