My daughter, Cristina, sent me an email today directing me to a website called Urban Dictionary. Wikepedia had this to say about Urban Dictionary:
“Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words, phrases, and names based on user submissions. As of January 27, 2009, the site claims “3,661,117 definitions written since 1999.” Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors.”
So I checked it out and was curious as to what the entry for my favorite person had to say. Of course I speak of George W. Bush. There’s a lot of silliness in the definitions submitted, both in favor, and not, of the 43rd president. There was one I did find interesting.
“…and so he led the country to fascism. A fascist country is one that runs mostly using military power, with a strong sense of nationalism…much like a dictatorship…he used propaganda to discriminate against a certain scapegoat – usually a country or religious group.”
-History textbook
“The Rise of Hitler”
Right off the bat, allow me say that comparisons between Bush and Hitler are ridiculous. Whatever criticism we might have of Bush’s policies, comparing him to the most evil individual of the 20th century is just plain wrong and it’s not my view nor is it a discussion I’d ever enter.
What I did find interesting was the comparision of Bush’s presidency to fascism. No, I don’t think America was a fascist state under Bush but did it have fascist tendencies? Absolutely. For an intelligent, balanced view of the US and fascism, see Matthen N. Lyons article, ‘Is the Bush Administration Fascist?‘
Wikipedia, in part, defines fascism as such:
“Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist ideology focused on solving economic, political, and social problems that its supporters see as causing national decline or decadence. Fascist governments typically seek to prepare a nation for armed conflict with other nations, to defend itself or to expand its state to allow for the growth of a nation.”
For anyone who has an understanding of the Bush administration’s neoconservative wing’s concerted policy of lies and deceit in taking the US to war in Iraq, the above definition is not lost on them.
Also, if there exists any group in the US which has an ideology which claims that America is in a decadent decline which can only be solved through authoritarian political means, it’s the Republican party’s Christian right base.
Food for thought.
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