As Long As It Is Not Us

Trey Smith

Polite Fascism has come to America. If this concept sounds preposterous to Americans it may sound otherwise to foreigners who are getting the worst of it. The public judges the White House largely by its conduct of domestic affairs, about what it has done for them, and not by its foreign wars, which is where America’s fascist brutality is largely exercised and of which the U.S. public knows little. Obama has quieted many Leftist critics by taking actions to appease their needs, such as securing passage of Obamacare. He has satisfied gays, by pledging to treat them as human beings. He has indicated he will not let the Republicans eviscerate Social Security, reassuring the elderly. And he is calling for enactment of gun control legislation, long sought by the Left.

What’s more, neither the Pentagon nor the FBI is rounding up large numbers of domestic dissidents and putting them in “detention camps,” as Nixon’s Attorney General Richard Kleindienst once threatened would be the fate of anti-war demonstrators who tied up traffic in Washington, D.C. Obama’s Department of Homeland Security may be a sword hung over the heads of the citizenry but its officers are not smashing store windows and beating Jews on the Hitler model. Suffice it to say the FBI now and then entraps Muslims in dangerous bomb plot “conspiracies,” which are alleged plots, not actions. But it has made no wholesale arrests. The object of Polite Fascism apparently is to keep people in line by making examples of the few rather than mincemeat of the many.
~ from Polite Fascism at Home, the Real Stuff Abroad by Sherwood Ross ~

As I think you all should know by now, I am NOT a fan of the current President of these United States. While I was pleased that voters were able to move beyond their usual bigotry to elect a person of color, I would have been far happier if it had been somebody else!

From time to time, when I voice my displeasure with Obama, someone will point to this or that issue and say I should give the man his due. I will admit that Obama has done a few half-ass progressive things -- though he tends to water them down -- but I still think his legacy to this point is rather puny.

However, for the sake of argument, let's say that Obama spends his second term fighting for all the various domestic policies and initiatives I favor. Let's say he finally addresses climate change, gun violence, employment, poverty and health care (to name a few) in a serious and substantive manner. Would that be enough not only to shut me up but cause me to jump on the bandwagon?

NO! Not even close.

As long as he maintains a secret government apparatus that thumbs its nose at Congress, the American people and the US Constitution, I will not shut up. As long as he continues to brutalize a good chunk of the globe economically AND militarily, he will be no friend of mine. Yes, I would very much appreciate it if he would work domestically for the vast majority here in the US, but I want the very same thing for my sisters and brothers overseas.

I'm not like the mafia boss's wife. I don't say, "As long as he treats me well, I don't care how many people he kills."

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, "A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

A government that kills "others" with impunity will eventually kill its own citizens in the same way. I don't expect this to occur routinely in my lifetime, but it's coming.