Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Erickson Dancing, Mis-Stepping

Erick Erickson, proprietor of RedStates, is dancing.  But he ain't gonna win "Dancing with the Stars".

President Obama is, unlike President Bush, a progressive, but he is not a fascist.

There's a lot to unpack in that sentence.

GWB carried a lot of Progressive water; like Obama, he was and is a "Big Gummint" guy, and the criticism of his 'unitary Presidency' was not just from the Left; it was from Conservatives, too.  Does that make Bush a "Progressive"?  Well, it makes him a Hooverite/FDR-ite, to a certain extent.

As to Obama's 'fascism,' Erickson quotes Wiki:

[ f]ascists advocate a state-directed, regulated economy that is dedicated to the nation; the use and primacy of regulated private property and private enterprise contingent upon service to the nation, the use of state enterprise where private enterprise is failing or is inefficient, and autarky.

...and then claims that Obama doesn't fit into that definition.

Really?  REALLY?

"State-directed, regulated economy"....certainly "regulated"--which happens to lead to "directed" easily (see, e.g., windmills, solar, the killing of coal and petroleum).

"Dedicated to the nation"...or perhaps 'against the "rich"'?

"Primacy of regulated private property ..contingent upon service to the nation"....

That one is a bit more murky, but we could argue that a number of Federal initiatives--principally the attacks on the Catholic Church's immigration and social-services arms are a manifestation of the inverse of 'service to the nation.'  That is to say, just as killing off coal has the result of 'directing' the economy toward wind, solar, (etc.), so killing off the Church's services in the name of "service to the nation" has the same ultimate effect.

"the use of State enterprise where private enterprise is failing...."  Ever hear of College Loans (now strictly a Federal enterprise), Erick?

Rumors abound that we haven't seen the end of Obama's "Unitary Presidency" schemes and plots.

How far does he have to go to get Erickson's attention?

1 comment:

jimspice said...

I don't take anyone seriously when they toss around the word "fascist." Ask ten scholars what it is and you'll get 10 answers. About the only thing they absolutely agree on is that Mussolini's Italy was fascist. Beyond that, the term is fairly unhelpful.