Obamascam
by Charles A. Burris
by Charles A. Burris
DIGG THIS
Here is an
interesting article by Norman Solomon on Barack Obama's supposed
betrayal of his "progressive" electoral agenda. I love the last
sentence.
But the author
has it all wrong. Obama's adoption of the pragmatic "ideology of
no ideology" is the oldest flim-flam scam in the book.
Barack Obama,
by his tentative appointments and statements since the election,
has demonstrated his true colors: he is an old-school corporate
liberal, an Ur-Progressive in the mold of Herbert Croly or Walter
Lippmann. Such Progressives, influenced by British Fabian "Social
Imperialism" and Bismarckian state socialism in Germany, believed
in government by paternalistic "experts" or "wise men" who were
above ideology. In England, these were the members of Viscount Alfred
Milner's "Kindergarten," who fashioned the welfare-warfare state
and plunged the empire into the abyss of two World Wars. Likewise
in Germany this Hegelian "ideology of no ideology" was a precursor
of what later emerged as National Socialism. FDR was hailed in the
media as a great pragmatic leader, willing to try anything to get
the country back on its feet and moving again. The same rhetorical
clichés are being trotted out again, now applying to Obama. Its
as though he and his handlers are using John T. Flynn's As
We Go Marching as their Machiavellian playbook. Flynn analyzed
the "good fascism" of Roosevelt's New Deal, comparing and contrasting
it with the "bad fascism" of Hitler and Mussolini:
 "The
test of fascism is not one's rage against the Italian and German
war lords. The test is – how many of the essential principles
of fascism do you accept and to what extent are you prepared to
apply those fascist ideas to American social and economic life?
When you can put your finger on the men or the groups that urge
for America the debt-supported state, the autarkical corporative
state, the state bent on the socialization of investment and the
bureaucratic government of industry and society, the establishment
of the institution of militarism as the great glamorous public-works
project of the nation and the institution of imperialism under
which it proposes to regulate and rule the world and, along with
this, proposes to alter the forms of our government to approach
as closely as possible the unrestrained, absolute government –
then you will know you have located the authentic fascist.
"But let
us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are dealing by
this means with the problem of fascism. Fascism will come at the
hands of perfectly authentic Americans, as violently against Hitler
and Mussolini as the next one, but who are convinced that the
present economic system is washed up and that the present political
system in America has outlived its usefulness and who wish to
commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering
in the affairs of the states and cities; taking part in the management
of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of
great national banker and investor, borrowing millions every year
and spending them on all sorts of projects through which such
a government can paralyze opposition and command public support;
marshaling great armies and navies at crushing costs to support
the industry of war and preparation for war which will become
our greatest industry; and adding to all this the most romantic
adventures in global planning, regeneration, and domination all
to be done under the authority of a powerfully centralized government
in which the executive will hold in effect all the powers with
Congress reduced to the role of a debating society. There is your
fascist. And the sooner America realizes this dreadful fact the
sooner it will arm itself to make an end of American fascism masquerading
under the guise of the champion of democracy."
Will no one
in the mainstream media call Obama and his emerging regime by its
rightful name?
November
28, 2008
Charles
A. Burris [send him mail]
is a history instructor in an American high school.
Copyright
© 2008 LewRockwell.com
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