The Tea Party is Fascist, and it's taken over a major political party.

Goos post, thanks for posting.

I have been saying that the Tea Party is fascist since they came on the scene, but the fascism they practice and promote is hand fed to them by the corporatists who overlord over them. The united corporations of America...people are just viruses that need to be exterminated if they aren't going to be good slave laborers and consumers.

It's all right that we remind ourselves from time to time that we are opposing (or "are at WAR with", take that, NSA!) Fascism, but I think most leftist types are already aware of that. The people who don't seem to realize it are the Tea Partiers, themselves who think they are patriots in the tradition of American REVOLUTIONARIES (again, take that, NSA!). Odds are, most of them don't know what a Fascist is, but if you defined it for them, in small words, they would oppose it, too. The term NAZI isn't a perfect synonym, but at least most of the Tea Party louts have some clue that they don't want to be called one. There are those who don't know what they think until they hear what they've said, but in the TP's case, they probably don't know even then. They are parrots, squawking what they hear from whoever yells the loudest. Maybe we need to yell louder, again, in small words.

Has anyone noticed that TNT is playing V for Vendetta lately?..........Something is brewing, I can feel it in my bones. (....nope just the arthritis.)

C'mon guys, don't buy into the media misdirection. The "Tea Party" is a mainstream media fabrication.

They do not have a central structure; they merely have a few loosely scattered groups around the nation and a few politicians who only began calling themselves Tea Party candidates less than two years ago.

They are in no position to "take over" a city council in Omaha Nebraska, let alone an entire political party.

I'm much more concerned about our bought and paid for members of Congress, and a private central bank cartel that controls the US economy with no oversight than I am concerned with some ragtag studio audience that doesn't like the idea of gays in the military.

Very scary indeed. You would have to be an idiot to not draw the analogy. The Tea Party's basic core tenets are identical to core fascism. Here are the basic 14 that fit right into the Tea Party ideology:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Any questions?

This is a stretch.

saying this for ages, and yes its time to stop being pc about it. Literally the mentality of the tea party, extreme right is at the very least proto fascist. I'll take it further and go down a little short history and again another long diatribe..

Fascism has been supported in the US openly in various forms of course during the second world war. Many well known leaders of industry were literally funding guys like Franco, Hitler and Mussolini through "business" arrangements. Take Texaco for examples who's ceo was an open fascist sold Franco oil after breaking their contract with the republic in Spain to stifle the communist/anarchist movements spreading among the working class. Frankly mentioning the various US based companies who supported Hitler is ad naseum at this point so lets just pick on coca cola for inventing "Fanta" for nazi soldiers as a way to keep the brand association with a morally unpopular enemy. I'm sure there's more examples of laundered support for fascist by rich businessmen but I cannot put the time into researching these things anymore that would amount to something less than a dissertation, alas my history credentials remain dormant..

In contemporary times the word fascism evokes the image of nazis (maybe in the US where the point is missed) but ask an Italian citizen if you want a concise history on modern fascism. However my claim is the existence of proto fascism which has always existed the classical example is Plato who though possessing the fortune of being a student of Socrates turned out to be a totalitarian who assumed he knew how the world should function under the dictatorial wisdom of philosophers, of whom he was a member of course. btw The joke among leftist is from "Plato to Nato" and you see where I'm going with this claim. Teddy roosevelt was a fascist in this sense, unless you think the various tribes agreed on the westward expansion and its principal ideas. The key is to keep in mind that fascism is both a concrete idea and a belief depending the persons of course but usually they agree on fundamentals.

Enter the tea party, whom I claim act as proto fascist the difference for now is they lack any intellectual guise or doctrine just a primal nationalist view, a moral certainty and the most important factor is a willingness to go to the most extreme end which is to literally kill their opposition, this bs of them defending their "freedoms" is merely an abstract euphemism for "I'll kill anyone who I determine to be the enemy'. The worst case is that some business backed leader attempts to assume a vanguard role and mobilize these people, for now there aren't many of these leaders but they always emerge after the troops assemble. The victims are of course the people who symbolize the enemy of the day ie: communist, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, women but its not really important whats important is that the enemy exist otherwise a fascist has no reason to exist or cause to rally, and this is the most important detail because this where we should attack these right wing types, this is their weak spot.

The next time a tea partier, etc tells you about freedom first ask them to define freedom. The reason for this is that most of us can't define freedom without admitting we'd have to be a fascist in order to first define our interpretation of freedom as an absolute and second to enforce.

*I should note I see fascist tendencies in liberals too even communist (Stalin) which is not ironic considering that the same fate happened to the Italian socialist when they decided socialism for Italians but screw the internationalist. This usually happens when a failure of leftist idealism to produce its "eden" is overcome by some mass rage, the other joke is behind every fascism is a failed revolution.

Maybe something such as justice, morality may exist but until everyone agrees on what those things are the only way to implement them would be by some level of innate fascist brutality. ciao for now

We need to stand up and fight the Tea Party, being gay is not wrong.

I'm very very upset that bad things could happen in America after seeing that debate and the numbers that watched it. It's urgent this be stopped. What I mean bythat is no more politics as usual we have to fight back as much as possible to educate and stop hate... before that message can spread further and we get more than just boos...

We need to make sure everyone in the services know what happened. If you know any one in the service Please pass it on!

They booed a Gay soldier OPENLY on stage. None of the candiates denounced it and many supported it. We need to rise up now, we need to stand up and say no before this takes hold in America.

Discuss please I'm very worried because I am openly transgender and I worry if such fascist beliefs take over the government.