Erlich's Little Freeptrash

I was telling a friend today how my frequent use of the word "fascist" draws considerable criticism from my tighty-righty acquaintances and my lefty allies. When the talk turns to fascism, people are quick to refute my assertion by saying something to the effect of "Oh, well, you know, they're reprehensible but we're not there yet."

No, a throng of Rethuglican staffers pounding on the doors of the Miami-Dade vote recounters in 2000 shouting "SHUT IT DOWN, SHUT IT DOWN" -- what dirtbag Paul Gigot termed The Bourgeois Riot -- gosh, that couldn't be considered fascism.

When Freeptrash Dittoheads were screaming "The Democrats are trying to steal the election," and invoking the term "lock & load" while amping each other up and taking to the streets... only to have Bush Machine Cog James Baker go on television to loudly proclaim, in response to a Florida Supreme Court decision, "THIS WILL NOT STAND" -- no, that couldn't possibly be fascism.

They often go on to tell me - in a pointy-headed academic manner that irritates me to no goddamn end - that fascism was X, Y or Z; not A, B or C. As if the prospect of fascism was simply too ugly to consciously acknowledge; for them, I guess it was. For many, it still is. Because once we start admitting we're living in a Fascist Republic, suddenly there's an imperative to do something about it, and we'll do just about anything to avoid that kind of grave realization. After all, water cannons, tear gas and German shepherds with gnashing teeth aren't exactly what Mr. and Mrs. Joe Citizen want to be confronting on their day off. Just ask someone who was in Birmingham, Alabama circa 1963.

So go to Free Republic, where the neocon foot soldiers bark amongst themselves, and spend some time there - real time like a week or two. Then tell me how "free" that little piece of the republic really is. Tell me they aren't fascists. Just try coming back here saying, "Well, they're actually Pseudo-Fascists" or some such nonsense.

Let's not dance around what they are, these activist thugs the Republican Party is utterly dependent on. They're fascists, and if you can't or won't admit it, then you don't have a fucking clue just how far America has fallen over the last decade. Wait for them to rename the GOP "The Fascist Party" before you jump to any wild conclusions. Go ahead and wait for them to get uniforms - brownshirts, if you will - that say FASCIST in big, bold letters across the back before you decide to wake up and realize who they are, what they've done and what they are doing daily to our country.

Just don't come crying to me when one of 'em burns your house down, spreads nasty rumors about you in your community, poisons your dog or gets you fired because they don't like something you said online or at work or in the grocery store. Oh, you'll have my sympathy, as most suffering people do, but only so much. Because I'm the guy to whom you said "Pfffffft" when told they were rising to prominence and, by God, we had better do something because America was becoming brainwashed in a major way. Riiiiight, Arvin. Whatever you say, man.

Bearing this in mind, I bring you this sordid tale.

A longtime campaign operative of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. resigned his state job yesterday after admitting he had been spreading rumors on the Internet about the personal life of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

Joseph Steffen, 45, said he gave the governor his resignation after questions about his postings on www.FreeRepublic.com, a well-known conservative Web site. The postings discussed O'Malley's marriage.

"The governor had no idea," Steffen said. "I don't even think he knows where the Web site is. If anyone is guilty, it is me. There was no outside influence. It was all me."

The postings about O'Malley from a longtime Ehrlich aide carry particular significance because the mayor is expected to seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year and likely would challenge the incumbent.

The race is expected to be close, and the opposing camps are already jockeying for advantage.

Steffen is a longtime ally of the governor who had worked on several of Ehrlich's congressional campaigns. Democrats say he has earned a reputation in several state agencies as a sharply partisan appointee who was feared as he sought personal information about state workers and demanded that they be fired.

See, this is the kind of thing Democrats are up against on a massive scale, yet they refuse to acknowledge it -- kind of like when John Kerry let the Swift Boat Liars run roughshod over him and every person he sought to represent. (And Kerry thinks he's gonna give it another shot? Fuck you, too, John, you gutless weasel.) These fascist scumbags are so convinced of their own righteousness that they have no problem with the ends justifying the means. Destroying people's livelihoods, reputations, families. They RELISH it. These aren't "a few bad apples" -- they're a population of "bad apples." They worship at the altar not of a Christian god, but of Malice. They are Lee Atwater and Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly through and through. With The Cold War over and no enemy to demonize (remember, the foundation for today's fascist political landscape was laid long before September 11th), they set their sights on you and me. And they won't let up until this country comes crashing down around their ears, which it will.

Remember that the next time you hear "We're not there yet."