Republican hate and fear is like Nazi rhetoric and leads the same terrible place

I'm all for real libertarianism, less government everywhere. I'm not for the Republican idea of less government control for corporations and more for individuals. That's not progressive, that's regressive and dangerous.

And no, the Democrats are not doing that. Yes, they want more of a social democrat nanny state (which is what's been successful in European countries, like Scandinavia, where a friend of mine was aghast that I pay $720 a month for health insurance and get only two doc visits a year and am lucky to be able to get that!)

And I can understand when some people are against that kind of nanny state, because Americans have a long history of taking care of themselves. But in civil societies we must take care of each other, too. And since some people--and corporations--would harm us for their own profit, there must be some form of policing, just as we want a police force to keep us safe from people who would do us harm.

The real danger today is springing dangerously forth from the rabid right's rhetoric of hate and fear. It's the same tactic the Nazi's used, and left unchecked, it will lead to the same place. 


Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.


We like to think that can't happen now. Like we liked to think that a depression couldn't happen now. But it can, and if the hate and fear mongers have its way, it will. They will control your life, just as they invent outright lies to try to make you afraid that it's the other side that will.


I'm reading a book about WWII, about how the Nazi's gained power through their rhetoric of hate and fear. Sounded a lot like Beck and Rush and those so called "entertainers." And not just fear--fear of groups of people--gays, immigrants, Muslims, "foreigners."

And it made me wonder--are gays the new Jews to the rabid right? Can it possibly be OK to deny people basic human rights such as marriage? Can it possibly be constitutional when "all men are created equal"?

And is it just the start of a calculated attack on everyone who is not "like them"? Like Nazis.

• First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
• Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
• Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
• Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

By Pastor Niemoller

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When hatred is used to create power, which is what the Republicans are doing, it erodes society, bit by bit, until unchecked power and persecution are the results.

So beware--because their language is coded, and what they say is the opposite of what they mean. They don't want freedom from government (except for corporations), they want to control your personal life with it. What they call "freedom" is like what was called freedom in the book 1984. It's total control of individual lives, and it's the worst kind of nanny state, because it's only in their best interest--not in ours.