I never so completely understood the title of Liberal Fascism until after I read this John Harwood NY Times piece:
“Rhetorically, Republicans are having a very hard time finding something that raises the consciousness of the average voter,” said Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who recently lost a bid to became national party chairman.
Workaday labels like “big spender” and “liberal” have lost their punch, and last fall, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska gained little traction during the presidential campaign by linking Mr. Obama’s agenda to socialism.
So Mr. Anuzis has turned to provocation with a purpose. He calls the president’s domestic agenda “economic fascism.”
“We’ve so overused the word ‘socialism’ that it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago,” Mr. Anuzis said. “Fascism — everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing.”
I suppose after fascism loses its luster, you could move on to botulism. Or cubism.
*** Update ***
A mind meld with teh Sadlies.
DougJ
Maybe they should encourage voters to try transcendental meditation.
Mike S
Next up is Satinism.
Davis X. Machina
All of this tying-oneself-up-in-knots would be unnecessary if we just let them up and say the n-word, especially now with one in the White House.
demimondian
@Mike S: And, after that, velourism.
And after that, they’ll fall back on the old-time favorite: “muslin”.
The Grand Panjandrum
Fabulism.
MH
I for one simply cannot wait until, a few decades down the line, Jonah Goldberg, Jr. writes “Liberal Bushism”.
aimai
Man, I miss the days when they just went with “John Kerry is a very, very, very baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad man!” Now they’ve blown through all the big words and they are just going to break fascism like they did liberalism and socialism. Why don’t they just cut to the chase and try “evilism”.
aimai
JasonF
Personally, I’m partial to Whiggery. Given the point Davis X. Machina raises, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the right try to take that one out of mothballs.
AnotherBruce
How about economic National Socialism?
Dennis-SGMM
“Hey guys! If we buckle down we can come up with some substantive policy positions to counter Obama.”
“Fuck you, youngster. We’re way too busy figuring out new names to call him to bother with that crap.”
Mike S
@demimondian:
heh
David
If Obama could weather the comparison to Paris Hilton then a comparison to Benito Mussolini should be smooth sailing.
jayackroyd
“botulism”
You’ve already identified the boundary–tire rims and anthrax.
Napoleon
For some reason this reminds me of one of my all time favorite politcial stories of all time. Claude Pepper, whom was in Congress forever, was a New Deal senator from Fla and he lost an election to a guy who gave this speach to the voters”
“Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper before his marriage habitually practiced celibacy.”
At least he managed to go on to win a House seat after that.
xochi
Of course, it’s not really a conservative critique, but how about antidisestablishmentarianism?
Warren Terra
See also the term “soft on terrorism”, used against everyone from the Quakers to the Unions to those wanting to protect Social Security.
MattF
There’s authoritarianism, but it hab too many sybabbles.
Just Some Fuckhead
I remember when calling someone a liberal was an automatic presidential win over Dukakis. The times, they are a-changing.
R-Jud
It all seems like dadaism to me.
David
Tea Party sign:
REMEMbER DESCENT THE HIGHEST FORM of PATRIOTiC
http://thismodernworld.com/4749
N M
He’s a radical cubist!
Napoleon
How long before they start calling the Dems “Neo-Cons”?
TenguPhule
Except the Republican, who prefer to be the facists.
Warren Terra
Because I tend not to use the word “so-ci-a-l-i-sm” all that much, I’ve never before gotten trapped in moderation for using the aforementioned word, which happens to contain within it the brand name for a pharmaceutical famous for the overenthusiasm of certain people marketing it, who in turn are often described using a word made from verbing one of Hormel’s trademarks. May I just state for the record that that particular aspect of the comment filter, in a thread started with the word in question, is irritating.
Evinfuilt
So the Republicans don’t care what the words mean, they just want it to sound scary.
[email protected] has it right, just say big words and hope people are stupid enough to not understand.
TenguPhule
Also John, congratulations on using ‘soc-ialis-m ‘ in a post, thus ensuring your moderation filter will be clogged up the wing wang by us poor commenters.
Violet
Until they own up to their role in blinding supporting and encouraging the horrible things that the Bush administration did, I suspect they aren’t going to ‘raise the consciousness’ of anyone who didn’t participate in teabaggery last week. Their inability to admit mistakes is one of their biggest problems. They just keep on pointing the finger at everyone else. But at this point the American people don’t seem to be buying it.
So now they’re trying to rebrand their finger-pointing. S0-cial-ism isn’t scary enough. Let’s call it fascism! How utterly ridiculous.
schrodinger's cat
Does that mean that GOP is like the Borg? In my opinion they seem closer to the Firengis.
Bill Teefy
Maybe try Economic Priapism.
After the flaccid approach to the economy during the Bush years a hyperbolic statement seems in order.
Obama’s policies will lead to a long lasting and painful experience. This also seems to be a key warning for aging males and their most important medication and it should make a real connection with their core audience.
Republicans – Ideas = PR. Ah. Problem solved.
I don’t think cubism will work because that concept is based on more than one perspective and multiple views. Conservatives are very hesitant to admit that such a concept, however theoretical, might exist.
RandyH
Fascism (a right-wing authoritarian political system) is a movement conservative’s wet dream. With somebody like Bush at the helm and all dissent silenced and the poor sent off to work in Happy Happy Fun Camps, those who deserve it could finally live the American Dream without all the riff-raff around diluting the loot that rightfully belongs to the Worthy. And just think of the cool uniforms everyone would wear!
They really should stick to the Socialism or Communism labels they’ve historically tried to stick to liberals, as they are at least more apt for someone on the left. It just goes to show that these guys really aren’t all that bright.
Violet
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, no kidding. I forgot to spell it with a zero and now I’m stuck in moderation. Bleh.
Dennis-SGMM
@Evinfuilt:
Stupid, scared and angry is no way to go through life – if you’re not a Republican.
demimondian
Personally, I think that the slurs will go from “Liberal Fascism” to “Arianism”. They have no clue what fascism is, after all, so I doubt that they’ll be really strong on a fourth century heresy, either — they’ll just realize that it sounds like “Aryan”.
Just Some Fuckhead
No doubt Republicans will now make fascism popular by their opposition to it.
gopher2b
My nomination: economic herpes
demimondian
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’m half scared you’re right, JSF.
Laura W
Conservative somnabolism.
Dennis-SGMM
@Just Some Fuckhead:
“Springtime for Hitler and Germany…”
Comrade Dread
Apply this idea to both parties, Saul, and you’d have more of a legitimate point. Because few have done more to intermingle government and Wall St. more than Republicans. Yes, they were, sadly, aided and abetted by Democrats, but to sit and point the finger at your enablers is just bad form.
And, at least, the Democrats are playing at being populist again. Your team’s still not even trying.
You have a problem, GOPers. Admitting it is the first step to recovery.
Dennis-SGMM
The Republicans are trying Couéism: “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”
Just Some Fuckhead
Zombies are pretty fucking scary. How about Economic Zombieism? Nevermind, that’s what we’re doing right now.
Dennis-SGMM
Isn’t the word “economic” redundant in this context? I thought fascism involved government control of labor and business.
flavortext
Are you sure Mr. Anuzis isn’t just a performance actor putting on a hilarious parody of electoral politics?
Mike
Once ‘fascism’ loses it’s zing, they’ll accuse 0bama, Nasty Pelosi, and Fat Lying Liar Al Gore of being “Republicans”.
Face
“Obama rapes babies” is unlikely to ever lose its negative connotation.
Will Danz
I love this guy Anuzis out-and-out ADMITTING that he’s a shameless, lying weasel.
“
So truth, accuracy, or actual principles don’t matter in the least — scoring cheap political is ALL.
Yep, that’s the Republican party. Throw lots of disgusting shit out there, however self-contradictory, all the time, and hope some of it sticks. Thanks to the horrible media in this country, some of it does, and amoral creeps like Anuzis, Rove, et al, know it.
mgordon
Doughy Pantloadism?
Common Sense
The GOP) didn’t just overuse the S word, they rode every dead horse they could fine until people just tuned it out. There’s only so many times you can call someone the next Jimmy Carter, especially when nearly half the country is too young to have ever voted for the guy. To anyone under 35, Jimmy Carter is a nice guy who builds houses on his days off.
But such baseless criticism speaks to a certain segment of the populace. Course, that segment isn’t going to vote for a Dem anyway, so I’m not sure I understand the point.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the GOP created a monster through their mindless defense of Bush. He is this generation’s Carter. For the next 20 years, all a Democrat has to do when running for office is call their opponent’s policies Bush Lite. And any Republican running will spend half their campaign running against Bush (a la Clinton wrt Carter) rather than deliniating a difference between them and their opponent.
Tonal Crow
The (true) fascists really lost their rhetorical edge after Rove retired. Still, they excelled at it for years, and everyday their memeshop concocts new ideatoxins, which their media lackeys then rush to spray upon us.
Luckily, BJ’s rapid-mockaction teams stand ready to neutralize their attacks. Onward laughing soldiers!
demimondian
@Face: 0bama skull-fucks kittens, I think.
Tony J
And this guy lost his bid to become national GOP chairman? Seems like he’s loading up the wingnutmatitron for a concerted bid to replace the enigma wrapped in a cliche that turns into a suit that is Chaiman Steele.
Adam
The logical link they’re trying to make is not so much to Hitler and Mussolini but to Stalin and Lenin, so I would expect that something like “dictatorship” will be the eventual consensus term.
The frame is actually quite easy:
(1) charismatic leader (Stalin, Lenin)
(2) economic planning (“5 year plans,” Gulags)
(3) punish the rich (Bolsheviks!).
That narrative is actually vaguely compelling, and far more coherent than anything else coming from the right at the moment. Their problem is not that they lack a psychological or political frame for any of this — it’s just Goldwater redux — but that the terms “socialism” and “Communism” have become outmoded.
demimondian
@Tony J: And Tony J wins teh intertronz today…
SLKRR
@Mike:
FTW!
JenJen
What about “poop”? Nobody likes poop.
omen
everybody knows obama is hitler because he’s unwilling to annihilate iran.
LD50
I’ve seen wingnuts refer to Obama as a ‘Leninist’. I’m quite certain they couldn’t begin to tell you what the difference is between Leninists, Stalinists, Marxists, and Communists, but I assume they’re using ‘Leninist’ because all the other terms have become stale through repeated use. I guess they think it sounds more punchy and sophistimacated.
Besides, ‘Leninist’, ‘Stalinist’, ‘Marxist’, ‘Communist’, ‘Socia|ist’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Democrat’, ‘Fascist’ and ‘Acorn’ are all just synonyms to wingnuts anyway. They don’t give a fuck.
Awesom0
And Republicans shall forever been known as the party of neo-dildoism…
Jay McDonough
Or pointilism. Or, better yet, lack of pointilism.
JK
Fox News reporters are pitching in to spread the word. Last week douchebag Fox News reporter Cody Willard called Obama’s stimulus plan a fascist stimulus plan.
Speaking of derangement syndrome, what’s with Daily Howler’s Bob Somerby? He has turned his blog into a 24/7 screed against Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madow. At the same time, he’s downplaying and excusing away the insanity and derangement of Republicans. I’m not an Olbermann or Madow groupie. Every cable news personality deserves scrutiny. It just seems that Somerby has lost his mind.
LD50
I remember about five years ago, some politician or other (Schwarzenegger?) called teachers unions ‘terrorists’. The GOP has reached the point where their words simultaneously mean nothing and everything.
El Cid
Actually, I think it’s awfully cute how sad they are now that “[email protected]” is no longer having the boogety-boogety effect it has had for several generations.
LD50
omen FTW.
tofubo
with the right-wing’s propensity to be (circle) jerks, the next would be onanism
or, they’re just tired of us calling them that, and they’re doing the “i know what you are but what am i ??” schoolyard prattle
DonkeyKong
How bout conservatism?
It would be like not paying for a tab at a bar by turning to the guy next to you and saying “Did you just call me an asshole?”
Scott Supak
Any right wing always has a vested interest in devaluing any emotional word that explains them well, but especially the word fascist (considering the racists and ultra-religious nationalists on the right). They are trying to Lenny Bruce the word that best describes them.
Comrade Darkness
Or cubism
–I LOLed
If the dems become the party of cubism, I’m going over to the Greens, even if they suffer greatly from the unrealistic rhetoric of a party with no fear of actually gaining power.
JenJen
Hey, I think I just spotted the debut of a brand new Wingnut TalkingPoint™,, which was just revealed on CNN by some blonde GOP pundit I’ve never seen before. It was delivered in the context of President Obama just now making his first address to employees of the CIA, where he was met with raucous applause and cheering:
“Let’s just say if there had to be a time when Obama would be President, I think we can all agree that it’s a good thing he’s President now, rather than on 9/11.”
WTF WTF WTF? Did President Bush stop the airplanes with his magic wrist bracelets, or something? This one was so full of nonsensical piss, bromide and vinegar, I expect to hear it repeated a lot in the coming days. Sounds to me like it came straight from Ari Fleischer’s mouth and came spewing out of hers.
demimondian
After they’ve complained about fascism and moranism, perhaps they could moveon to something worse… How about patriotism?
gocart mozart
rampant nigratude
Breathing all the white man’s air
Cris
For everybody complaining about your comments going into moderation, just be thankful you’re not the person who has to scour through the moderation queue.
darkblack
Pointillism…Connect the dots and you’ll see a nefarious liberal pattern, eventually.
;>)
Will Danz
@JenJen:
[Raises hand, slowly]
Xecky Gilchrist
“Rhetorically, Republicans are having a very hard time finding something that raises the consciousness of the average voter,”
What he means, of course, is that they’ve exhausted even hyperbole, and now they have to find some even more extreme form of exaggeration.
It’s not like they’ll have varnished themselves completely into a corner even when they make “fascist” meaningless. Maybe the “Antichrist” stuff will make a comeback.
zirconium
Economic botulism!
Why not? After all, my finances look like they’ve taken a toxic hit of something.
mcc
I’ve got it– Liberal Bushism. That one will be unpopular for a good while.
D-Chance.
“socialism” gets y0u m0derated?
D’0h!
Dr. Loveless
So playing, “I know you are, but what am I?” is going to do the job?
I swear, today’s GOP has turned ignorance and immaturity into art forms. If they didn’t hate the NEA so much, I’d suggest awarding them a grant.
dbrown
How about something really far out like just saying the truth from time to time just to really confuse everybody.
LD50
I see John’s point about the title of Liberal Fascism. Doughy does not intend it to be interpreted as ‘fascism which is liberal’ or even ‘liberalism which is fascist’. He’s just stacking synonyms because it sounds more forceful. It would have meant the exact same thing to him if it had been ‘Nazi Acorn’ or ‘Ayers Leninism’ or ‘Democrat Teleprompter’.
Arachnae
So is arugula still evil?
Pakleds
R-Jud
@JenJen:
I am sure we could find at least a few GOP congressmen who do.
demimondian
“Cubism — you don’t understand it, we don’t understand it, it’s foreign. It *must* be bad!”
D-Chance.
Way OT, but deserving of total mockery…
Cleveland Cavaliers coach named NBA Coach of the Year
Yes, because it takes a freaking genius to say, “Guys, give the ball to LeBron”…
El Cid
@JenJen: It’s clear that had not Bush Jr. been Preznit on 9/11, any Democrat would have immediately fled from where ever he was in panic and spent several days on Air Force One hopping around the nation in pants-pissing fear and shame until the Vice President told him what to do.
Wait…
Elie
The Republicans are in a fix because:
1. The source of their opposition is not related to specific policy content or factual content about reality
2. Since arguing the merits of various content options is not the critical focus for their opposition, they have a fairly difficult time energizing their opposition without:
a. fear
b. anger
c. any other negative emotion that can be used as push button with their population
3. All three of these emotions do not require specific content knowledge to oppose policies — just enough symbolic links to these emotions through using loaded language, labels and terms like : socialist, muslim, not one of us, not born here, wants to kill our babies, etc
4. Problem for them is that we are in an unusual period when facts are pretty clear — we have big debt for example and you can’t fix that by decreasing revenues (e.g – tax cuts) — this is a no brainer that cannot be avoided
5. They NEED emotion — everytime Obama stays cool and deals with their stupidshit in a calm manner, they lose juice.
Jim Pharo
It’s all dada-ism to me…
JenJen
@El Cid: Yeah. The liberal pundit who was on opposite her (balance, you know) kept trying to tell her but but but 9/11 actually happened and was neither deflected nor prevented, but then she
screamed like a howling bansheeargued that it’s just like a liberal to claim that 9/11 was Bush’s fault.So you know, she had a good point and she’ll probably be invited back next week to talk about President Obama’s obvious and clear appeasement of murderous threatening dictator Hugo Chavez. And liberal facism, and poop. And botulism.
wasabi gasp
Schismism never gets old.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I dunno, I think George Will is on to something with his anti-jeans jihad. Down with denimism!
Grumpy Code Monkey
@David:
No fucking way. That guy had to be spoofing the event. I refuse to believe that kind of cluelessness is loose in the wild, because the alternative is just too depressing to contemplate.
GregB Formerly GSD
Hezbollahist? Ahmadinejadist? Al Qaedaism?
-G
JK
After fascism loses its luster, you could move on to Collectivism, Suprematism, Communitarianism, Fauvism, Fabianism, and Bagism
Zifnab
@LD50: He does, or he wouldn’t go into paragraph after painful paragraph of dissection of the inner workings of the Hitler Youth and the invasion of the Rhineland in an attempt to convince us that Whole Foods today means Jews in the oven tomorrow.
Politics is about making the rules and that all boils down to “who is in control”. In that regard, it’s easy to paint any political party as any other simply because they’re all striving after the same thing – control.
If you go into enough painstaking detail and make enough observations (both Obama and Hitler wore SHOES! and they both had big rallies!) you can try and sell one as the other.
But it’s a little more than just bad 1 = bad 2 logic. He’s really trying to sell the whole, “If you follow Obama, you’re D-E-D dead!” premise. That means you’ve got to use something people correlate with massive death. In the 1950s, you could hear about massive starvation in China under Mao or murderous loyalty crusades under Stalin. Socialism doesn’t work anymore because people aren’t being lined up in front of firing squads and executed in Sweden or France. Socialism didn’t lose its appeal because conservatives used it too much. It lost its appeal because socialist governments either collapsed and reverted to capitalism (in Asia and the Americas) or thrived as peaceful democracies (in Europe). So now McConnell or Boehner start screaming, “You don’t want to be like Germany, do you?!!” and people ask, “Why not?”
binzinerator
@Davis X. Machina:
All that twisting and bending to avoid revealing themselves as what they are shows in the incoherence of the Teabaggers’ rants. Here in my home state of Badgerland, here’s what they’re against: “Besides taxes — the main object of criticism — the often homemade signs and their bearers protested trains, carbon cap-and-trade policies aimed at combating climate change, Marxism, the income tax, the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, the media, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and his proposed state budget, and the Federal Reserve.”
I thought, trains too? Wow. I wonder if it was electric trains or diesel trains or diesel-electric trains or just any locomotive device used by railroads in general they were against?
No doubt mention of fascism, CRA, Barney Frank, New Coke and a general admonition to ‘Get off my lawn’ got cut from the report due to space constraints. Or perhaps the reporter figured any intelligent reader would assume that would be a part of the Conservative Cant of Hate as well.
It woulda been so much easier for all concerned if they had just made signs that said simply,
N*gger Out of Our White House.
Which is all they really wanted anyways.
Which reminds me of this last graph in one of the comments replying to a gooper over at the Puffington Host
That, exactly.
Paul L.
Obama lies about 90 percent of guns recovered in Mexico are from America.
Media Matters retorts.
Fox News is lying about the percent of guns recovered in Mexico are from America.
The Populist
Why is the right SO FUCKING CONTENT to being dumbasses? Fascism by it’s very nature is a RIGHT WING political movement. Despotism tends to be right leaning as well.
Socialists and communists tend to be on the left.
GOD I hate asswipes who pass off bullshit as fact. They call me a moran? The MORONS I see are all on the right. They rewrite history, they lie about people’s original motivations and they try to own an issue that they hated months before (like FDR was actually a conservative in a lot of his thinking).
omen
@tripletee (formerly tBone):
that anti-jean screed must have stemmed from frustration of being dressed like a dork:
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2009/02/just-lie-back-and-think-of-english.html
The Populist
Why not Despotism? The right always need a firm leader to line up behind to think for them.
demkat620
@Dennis-SGMM: Yeah, I thought of another one of his movies.
The Republicans have gone to plaid.
chrome agnomen
Nihilism: approval of nothing in the established social order.
Acornism
Kenyaism
Husseinism
The Populist
Amen, they are trying SO hard to turn this country into a land of idiocy.
There once was a time where even high school dropouts could read, write and do math. Today, the right have so FUCKED over public education that it’s just plain sad how far we’ve fallen as a nation.
We don’t teach our kids anything of value outside of telling them that homosexuals are bad people and the liberals are evil. Sounds to me like the Talibanism of the US youth.
YET, I get encouraged that even college aged Republicans are accepting of homosexuals to some extent and they believe global warming is bad and that high-speed rail is good.
Maybe there is some hope that we can find some compromise with the next generation BUT it might be too late by then. These kids need to tell their parents to STFU and move aside.
omen
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
i thought the same. what are the odds of hitting accidental yet subtle and fitting irony?
The Populist
Hey rightie jerkwads,
Note to you: Keep selling the Socialism brand. You do realize most kids have no IDEA what it is and if they read a book they see Europe has some elements of it. They then can comprehend that if Europe ain’t so bad a place, maybe this SOCIALISM that these old farts talk about is not so bad.
Shit, I know many people out of work who are barely squeaking by with their 401Ks DECIMATED rolling their eyes at this nonsense.
zoe kentucky in pittsburgh
While I agree that Obama needs to push back on some stuff– like how silly it is to claim that shaking hands with foreign leaders at a big conference is a sign of weakness– but at some point we need to just ignore them like they don’t really matter anymore. When does that happen?
I suppose we’ll know the GOP has offically jumped the shark when their incessant complaining just makes everyone laugh and roll their eyes.
TenguPhule
As Herpes is more popular then current GOP leaders, that could be considered an improvement.
dj spoellchecka
“Rhetorically, Republicans are having a very hard time finding something that raises the consciousness of the average voter.”
i disagree. republican rhetoric DID raise the consciousness of the average voter. that’s why they voted for obama.
The Populist
Hey at least Fox News is being exposed. I see that rightie Smoconish (I forget his first name) has written some book where he shows us an email to ask Snocomish to come onto Neil Cavuto’s show. The producer tells Snocomish that they are looking for a counterpoint to say Obama is wrong, blah blah blah. Snocomish tells the producer he isn’t their guy.
Scumbags. Is this what you really want rightie apologists? You want to be the obstructionists because you have issues with the liberal president? Why not step outside your selfish, winner take all point of view for a moment and realize the world does not revolve around you. YOU guys tried to deregulate everything and it failed…BADLY. So you want to tell a middle class guy to f-off because he needs unemployment to feed his family? Oh yes, he’s a loser to you because he didn’t save enough money because he pursued the American dream of buying a home and owning a good car and got paid union wages. Yep, what a f-ing schlub this guy is.
See, you people never, ever questioned Bush and his out of control spending. You LOVE the war and while it drained our treasuries, you cheered on Bush for more. You idiots cheered on unnecessary tax cuts for rich people. Yep, good move idiots while the rest of us paid more than our fair share via the AMT to cover them.
See, you are selfish a-holes. If you had stood up to Bush, I’d respect you more but you didn’t. You don’t comprehend that in a time of such economic upheaval, the government is needed more than ever to fill the gaps and keep the economy from heading into a deep drop into an abyss that may take a generation to overcome.
You claim to care so much for kids yet you’re irresponsibility is going to cause them more harm than any tax increase on the rich or deficit spending Obama attempts.
Your hatred of unions means GM will close more plants in the USA and move them all to China. Yep, good move idiots. In the meantime, China laughs all the way to the bank while you idiots watch your own children’s future die with the American dream.
Yep, all this to defend a minority of guns, god and gays.
Idiotic.
bayville
…
Liberal,soc ialist,appeaser,elitist,islamofascist,fag,communist,weakfascist…….. ……………..vegetarian……………..Buckwheat……geek……………….Spongebob…… ……. goofball……………………Saddam-Buckwheat-Osama-Clinton…………………….Xecky Gilchrist
@zoe kentucky in pittsburgh: at some point we need to just ignore them like they don’t really matter anymore. When does that happen?
When they no longer own all the news media.
Roscoe
@Mike S: @Mike S: But satin is so comfortable…”itchy woolism” might work better.
binzinerator
Or incunabulism. There’s bound to be lots of mindless terror to be harnessed from the threat of a ruthless international conspiracy dedicated to collecting old books and stuff.
Besides, it sounds scary and mysterious, like it could be involved in sorcery or satanism, like evil incantations. Or maybe cannibalism. Or maybe a cult of ruthless satanic flesh-eating literate and art-loving lesbians. Yeah, that’s it.
All of which is perfect for the base. They hate books and art. Plus homosexuality. What could be better than to conflate such things with unspeakable satanic rites or other loathsome practices?
No doubt a few choice details of the movement could be hinted at, such as practices involving the ritual and forced deflowering of sacrificial white virgins spread-eagled on a black altar of books banned by Focus on the Family — perfect for satisfying those prurient yet sexually repressive and authoritarian tendencies of the intended audience.
Tonal Crow
@The Populist:
Wingers believe that dumbing-down the population will increase their support, since it increases the proportion of voters who are susceptible to their lying rhetoric. This is probably another reason (second only to raging Randism) that wingers oppose limits on toxics.
TenguPhule
When children consider being called a Republican the vilest form of insult.
Tonal Crow
@TenguPhule:
Exactly. Until then, set the mockume control to 11.
JK
@The Populist: I think you’re referring to Michael Smerconish who is now on Hardball along with the great Joe Conason.
Joey Maloney
@flavortext:
Given that his name is an anagram for “iz anus”, you might be on to something.
The Populist
That’s the guy.
PaulB
Which is why some of them have been desperately trying to talk about the Bush-Obama (and occasionally -Pelosi-Reid) TARP bailout package.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
How about Economic Ebola ? It covers the Black/Africa aspects that the racists love to hate plus it clearly screams DEATH ! ! !
CalD
First one to mention Nazis loses.
(You always know you’ve won an argument when the person you’re arguing with just flat out starts calling you names.)
conumbdrum
Words fail me.
jrg
Since the GOP is down with the Twitter these days, might I suggest “lbral fscsm”? If you’re going to godwin a political debate, you should probably sound hip when you do it, otherwise it won’t resonate well with the suburban youth.
eyeball
It’s economic pedophilia, clearly.
joe from Lowell
“Fascism — everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing.”
gocart mozart
Isn’t it obvious why they are against public transportation? Mussolini made the trains run on time. Duh! And Henry Ford had Nazi sympathies, hence opposition to any auto bailout. Wasn’t Hitler a vegetarian? It all makes sense to me now.
west coast
don’t you love when marketing departments ruin perfectly good terms?
“conservative,” “liberal,” “socialist,” now they’re going to ruin “fascist,” and for what? Just to sell some more “new-and-improved” same old s**t.
these guys think that you can fix anything with a good marketing campaign.