Obama and his fascist friends: Zelaya, Chavez, Castro, Ortego, Morales

That article was meaningless. Does Ralph Peters not understand POLITICS?

nepoks wrote:

That article was meaningless. Does Ralph Peters not understand POLITICS?

Are you saying that the President of the United States should be embracing dictators? Wrong politics.

So wait, is he marxist or fascist? It would be pretty difficult to be both, except for on whatever planet Glen Beck is from.

Exactly, nepoks.

If you knew anything at all about Latin American politics, you'd realize that Marxism is the ideology in which politics gets played out. It's not just liberalism like we have en los estados unidos. So, if you want to address and solve problems--which is what politics is all about--in Latin America, you've got to be able to deal with the discourse in which those problems get elaborated.

So deal, brother. By the way, not all forms of Marxism are fascist--if you remember your history, the communists helped defeat the fascists in WWII. Though it is fair to say that at their extremes, fascism and Marxism CAN come together. And perhaps Chavez's Bolivarian Marxism does run this risk. If you think that Obama's on board with the gambit that Chavez has running down there, then you're sorely mistaken.

On the other hand, we wouldn't expect that social change in a culture in which the gap between the haves and the have-nots is so great would come without difficulty? Without a bit of strife? Without the strain of extensive social reorganization?

wot's wrong with fashion?

I was wondering myself. It seems that these people think that being sociable and fascionable is bad? I always liked high society and fascion, something that a capitalist country stands up for.

not interested in fact checking this article, but as for cuba, had we loosened up on cuba a long time ago, it would be much better off as a country today and probably castro-free. instead we kept them so poor, enabling castro to keep his social game going.

obama... done in 3.5 yrs until his republican mirror replaces him.

USA... a blue vs red paradigm

land of the DUPED

paraguayo wrote:If you think that Obama's on board with the gambit that Chavez has running down there, then you're sorely mistaken.

They're all tools of the zionists anyway. Do your research and stop fraudin'.

Just because a fella shakes hands with a dictator doesn't mean he won't bomb the hell out of him somewhere down the line:

http://masbury.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/rumsfeld-saddam.jpg

republicans are insane. squawking about fascism after the last 8 years we endured...

I wonder why this article doesn't mention the United States' involvement in killing Salvador Allende and installing dictator Augusto Pinochet, or the assassination of the democratically elected leader in Iran in the 1950s and the installation of the US-backed Shah.

Someone please tell the populist right that fascism and marxism are opposites. Fascists don't mess with private property and aren't terribly keen on any sort of socialism in the economic realm (the term "national socialism" was designed as a direct challenge to "economic socialism" the idea being that Nazism promised unity based on nationality, not economic levelling). Obama is a tepid incrementalist, hardly a Bolshevik. He won't even consider a single-payer health plan, which is mainstream everywhere but here. In our skewed politics, a person who would be center right in Europe is considered Leon Trotsky. Are the conservative populist really basing extreme scare tactics on the fear that we might end up a bit more like Canada or Norway, not exactly examples of gulag-plagued tyrannies. If they aren't careful, the populist right will go the way of SDS and other liberal look groups - an inability to gauge the obvious gulf of difference between Hitler and Nixon made the radical left look foolish and ripped every shred of legitimacy from any good argument they may have had. This is where the paranoid right is heading. Yeah, the left has some lonnies, but in the Democrat party, the are fringe. For the Republicans, this is their prmimary base.

If you can't tell the difference between single-payer health care and the forced collectivization of farms, you need to be committed.

You have to realize that the right-wing fringe is just stupid at this point. The tact is pretty much: throw whatever at him and see if something sticks.

We are, in turn, a bunch of easily duped lemmings. Just look at what corporate marketing can do to us. We'll run up credit card debt because we think we need a snuggie. Seems only natural that if someone who has only his or her (but usually his) interest in mind could convince a bunch of dumb people that he is right even though they would be better off with changes in the system.

Ultimately, I'm a moderate Libertarian. I don't particularly like many of Obama's economic moves so far, but he is hardly a socialist. Not a single health plan I've heard out of DC has been even remotely as government managed as even the more liberal - ie, capitalistic - programs in Europe. Although, I would argue there are probably better options than were discussed early on.

And yet, we're scared, dumb and gullible. Which is why, I think, some Conservatives were so mad at Obama's school speech. If we actually educate our society, encourage our kids to stay in school, who will they have to dupe? Just a theory though. Although, I suppose with some, rational theories are useless.

Chavez' crime, in the eyes of the powers that be, was that he nationalized Citgo and used the money for his people, money that used to go into the pockets of the global elite.

The people who own this nation oppose democracy and freedom, although they hide behind these words in their rhetoric. How can you have a democracy when the richest 1/10th of 1% have more net worth than the bottom 50%?

Brian wrote:

Someone please tell the populist right that fascism and marxism are opposites...

Sorry, but just because your leftist conscience says it should be so doesn't make it so. Fascism and Marxism (Socialism generally) are bedfellows. The one major distinction is that Fascism is nationalistic whereas Socialism is idyllically international ("Workers of the world unite!").

Benito Mussolini, the "founder of fascism" grew up and came to power as a staunch socialist. He never gave up those ideals throughout his life but often clashed with other socialists based mainly on personal power struggles.

Do some reading.

We shouldn't be messing around with the internal power structure in other countries. Whenever we do, it comes back to haunt us.

I can't believe how easily you are all persuaded with a little article. Just because Venezuela is democratic doesn't mean the people there aren't contempt with structure of THEIR government. Its not our right to tell people how to run THEIR country. Maybe you should actually go to Venezuela and find out the truth instead of reading some bias article. Or you can continue to dance under strings, your choice

PCGG wrote:

Brian wrote:

Someone please tell the populist right that fascism and marxism are opposites...

Sorry, but just because your leftist conscience says it should be so doesn't make it so. Fascism and Marxism (Socialism generally) are bedfellows. The one major distinction is that Fascism is nationalistic whereas Socialism is idyllically international ("Workers of the world unite!").

Benito Mussolini, the "founder of fascism" grew up and came to power as a staunch socialist. He never gave up those ideals throughout his life but often clashed with other socialists based mainly on personal power struggles.

Do some reading.

My left conscience?

This is a horrible misreading of history. The two orientations have drastically different orientations to the role of government. If Obama is a fascist, then so is every Western country. This is just more conservative rewriting of history - your historical ideological forebears were apologists for fascism, not mine.