To Quote Inigo Montoya....

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Rumsfeld Says Critics Appeasing Fascism

His comparison to those who mollified the Nazis draws a rebuke from opponents of war policy.

By Julian E. Barnes
Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday compared critics of the Bush administration to those who sought to appease the Nazis before World War II, warning that the nation is confronting "a new type of fascism."

Speaking at the American Legion convention here, Rumsfeld delivered his most explicit and extended attacks yet on administration opponents — leading Democrats to accuse him of "campaigning on fear."

Pot, kettle. Why do you insist on talking into the mirror, Mr. Rumsfeld?

Let's define fascism, shall we? A recent definition is that by Robert O. Paxton:

"Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

Obsessive preoccupation with community decline: White House considers constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage Check.

Compensatory cults of unity: Religious right finds its center in oval office: Bush emerges as movement's leader after Robertson leaves Christian Coalition Check. Also note that this covers "a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites".

Abandons democratic liberties: Bush's Assault on Freedom: What's to Stop Him? Check. Also note that Paul Craig Roberts was a Reaganaut, and is not some rabid leftwing loon.

Pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion: It's Bush's Way or the Highway on Guantanamo Bay & Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire And check.

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky

Bush
fascism
Donald Rumsfeld