The F-word

I increasingly have found myself thinking naughty thoughts about the present US administration. I might read another piece on Salon.com, or stumble across the online edition of The Guardian. And while musing on their latest lefty criticism of George W and his cohorts the new F-word flits unbidden into my head. Only to be swiftly dismissed. I mean come on: the US government might be bad (pause for dramatic understatement) but surely-to-god it’s not Fascist? Hitler. Now he was the archetypal fascist. wasn’t he? A genocidal mad-man intent on world domination. George W, by contrast, is a bumbling fool with odd ideas.

But that F-word does seem to persistently recur in my thoughts.

So may I ask you to read this piece, written in 2003 no less, which gives pause for thought? It’s reminds me of stuff by PJ O’Rourke: very funny and unnervingly insightful. The other “F” word.

For a long time I couldn’t quite slap the ‘F’ word, as fascism is coyly known among lefties, on Bush and his minions. No matter how naughty the Man Who Would be President might be, for my tastes he never hit that perfect Kafka note– until recently. Him and his people weren’t really fascists. Just execrable excrudescent assholes. But 2003 has changed all that.

These people are fascists, and they make Mussolini look like a mezzafinook. There is no component of American liberty of which they are unwilling to relieve us, and no aspect of American life upon which they are unwilling to relieve themselves.