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THE "F" WORD

Chris Bowers of MyDD has a compelling list of evidence showing that the Bush Republican Party is turning fascist. And it's not just lefties who are throwing the word around, either; Chris's post quotes an article from The American Conservative that raises the exact same spectre.

I post this in answer to Terry Teachout’s weekly request that his readers subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. Terry writes a weekly theater column for the Journal. His arts blogging is zippy and highly readable; his sensibility is admirably wide-ranging. Other than this, I've never seen him get political on his blog, except to say how delighted he is to have been commissioned by President Bush to serve on the National Council for the Arts. Terry's commission is evidence that the Bush people politicize *everything*; not that Terry won't be a good Councilor, just that he writes for the extremely Bush-friendly Journal and that most of his blog's political links are to the Republican end of the political spectrum.

One week Terry phrased his request to subscribe to the Journal this way: "Get with the program." Since there is virtually nothing in the Journal's political program that I could get with, I will honor his request in my own way. The Journal's editorial policy is to imagine the worst possible motive in its political opponents and then hammer away at it relentlessly. I don't plan to write daily editorials like this, but if we had a partisan Democratic press as fierce as the Journal, hypotheses like this one would be part of mainstream speculation:

Bush wants the terrorists to attack America again. He knows that when the terrorists attacked the first time, his approval sky-rocketed. In the run-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, one of the few times anybody in his administration spoke honestly was when Rumsfeld said that an American invasion would probably increase the likelihood of Saddam Hussein unleashing weapons of mass destruction against America. (The Journal's editorial page doesn't provide links, and I'm not going to either right now, but I didn't make this quote up.)

For years the Israeli - Palestinian conflict has been dictated by people on both sides who don't want peace. The permanent war footing keeps the warmongers in power. Likewise, Bush and his handlers designed the "War on Terror" never to end. A good counterattack by the enemy would keep Bush's War Party popular. This explains Bush's near-universal bellicosity and his reluctance to do much to improve the security of our country's vulnerable nuclear and chemical facilities. He actively desires the murder of thousands of Americans, and his policies facilitate the coming-to-fruition of his desires. I hope with all my heart that he doesn't get what I see to be his way.

Terry has been coy about which parts of Bush's agenda appeal to him -- if any -- and I may be jumping to false conclusions about his political leanings from his shilling for the Journal and from the preponderance of his political blog links. My apologies if I have jumped to a false conclusion. And I hope that my effort to "get with the program" does a little bit to improve conditions in this great big beautiful deeply flawed and bullying country of ours that I love with such anguish and grief.