Conservatism's Crawl Toward Fascism

[Sporadicus]

The occasion of Reagan's death has put me in a reflective mood regarding all things political, and a thought occurred to me concerning the right. Over the past fifty years, conservatism has anointed leaders who tend to be more fascistic with each passing generation.

Starting with Joe McCarthy, who I consider to be an American proto-fascist: he was finished politically and went off to die in alcoholic obscurity before the next conservative pretender arrived on the scene.

Barry Goldwater, for those who are too young to remember, asserted that 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.' He also convinced half the world that he was insane to the point of starting a preemptive nuclear war with the Soviet Union. He caused the left to yearn for a more vulernable opponent, like McCarthy.

By the time Nixon was elected, the left believed that Goldwater was just a crazy, harmless old coot.

Reagan. Nuff said. Some on the left were nostalgic, wishing they still had Nixon to kick around.

Once the left realized what an evil cabal had been put in place with * and the neocons, Reagan seemed relatively benign.

It leads me to wonder what dark beast waits in the wings that will make the neocons look like amateurs in comparison.

[Sliverofhope]

1. Who are the next potential GOP candidates?

Frist, Forbes, Keyes, Jeb, Bauer. Jeb would be the one to worry about. He probably would be worse, but the GOP doesn't have a rising star like Bush or Reagan that I know of. Any ideas?

[shraby]

2. You can be sure they have one

lined up waiting in the wings.

[LearnedHand]

4. It's Frist

He's moderately "handsome" (provided you're a toady), "the only scientist in the Senate" (his own words -- do YOU consider MDs scientists?), and so far hasn't John-Ashcroft'ed himself (no calico cats, or anything).

Karen Hughes masturbates furiously to his photo every night! (Eeewwww!)

[NCLib23]

5. Just a point

MD's have loads of training in biology, chemistry, anatomy, kinesiology, pharmacology as well as many psuedo fields like biochemistry and neurochem.

While patient seeing doctors don't necessarily work in a lab, a great number of non PhD MD's do legitimate research in many fields and are your prototypical 'scientists.'

Aside from that, medicine is by definition an applied science, much like engineering.

[InformedSource]

3. They don't need a rising star; they'll manufacture one

I didn't even know there was a George Bush, Jr. until his face showed up on the cover of Time Magazine with the caption "President Bush?"

Their propaganda machine is so good that all they need is someone with an acceptable appearance and something that can be spun into a track record.