I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

Will this affect his chances of reelection? Why?

Okay, let’s see how far we can get in illuminating the differences between Fascist, Socialist, Communistic, and Capitalistic types of governments and as types of economies.

Communistic Governments

This is the most important thing you’re going to read in this essay. Communism is not a form of government. You may want to stop and go back and read that sentence again. However, communistic countries have always devolved into oligarchies or dictatorships where the rich and powerful become oppressive and eventually ruthless dictators. But, a dictatorship is no more a form of communism as is a toaster.

Communistic Economy

Communism, as defined by the father of communism, is a society in which there is no private property. That is the one defining characteristic of Communism. In a small commune, communism works just fine, everyone knows everyone else, everyone is glad to do their fair share to make the community work, everyone shares in the profits and everyone works together to overcome hardships.

Communism is sometimes viewed as a natural evolution from Socialism and from Capitalism.

Communism in large scale has always failed because the power vacuum at the top attracts ruthless and brutal dictators.

Socialistic Governments

Just like with Communism, Socialism is not a form of government, it is a type of society in which people take care of one another and people share in the management of their capitalism.

Socialism as Economy

As stated, Socialism is a type of society where the purpose of society and capitalism is to benefit society.The workers play a vital role in the management of the companies and share more equitably in the profits.

There is plenty of confusion regarding Socialism. Part of the confusion is in the Soviet Union’s reference to Socialism in their name, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. But, the USSR was an oligarchy, much like America is becoming and this oligarchy was not interested in letting the people share in the management or proceeds of their businesses. The USSR was also nothing like a Republic. The USSR was more Communism than Socialist.

Unlike Communism, Socialism works hand in hand with a strong economy as well as a capitalistic economy. There is no conflict between these two. Look at today’s China for a good example of how Capitalism can coexist with other economic systems.

In Socialism, the workers can be actively involved in advancing a Capitalistic agenda, for the benefit of the workers and for society.

When you hear the word, Socialism, think of the word it is derived from, Society. It’s purpose is to allow society to be involved in commerce, and not just as slave labor.

Fascism as a Government

Unlike any of the other types of economies, Fascism is a type of government. It is a government in which the corporations control the government. The government is merged with the big businesses (and their wealthy owners) and the purpose of government becomes a tool to benefit the rich and the businesses and everything is taken from the people to make it happen.

Fascism as an Economy

As an economy, Fascism is a system in which the people have no control over the management of the businesses and have no share in the profits. Under this system, the government quickly starves the people, expecting then to work for lower and lower wages for the benefit of the rich. This always leads to revolution, often bloody and expensive.

And, this brings us to Capitalism.

Capitalism as a Form of Government

Capitalism, is not a form of government any more than the other three. However, Capitalism is a hungry beast that will devour a society if it goes unchecked. This is obvious in the USA, today. Capitalism is devouring the people and the economy and the government.

Unlike the risk of dictators in the other types of economies, there is no power vacuum that attracts dictators, there instead is a small group of rich and ambitious oligarchs who will try to take over control of the government. When they succeed, they change the laws to allow for fewer regulations on business, more tax breaks and welfare (subsidies) for the businesses, and less and less services for the people. They make it harder and harder and eventually impossible for the people to have any say in their own government.

Capitalism as a type of Economy

Capitalism is best described as a system where money makes more money. It’s where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The system works great when there are good strong regulations in place to stop the rich and powerful from influencing the government.

Capitalism works well with both Fascism (Capitalism out of control) and Socialism (well regulated Capitalism) but conflicts with the true tenants of Communism.

Conclusion

America has been deregulating our businesses like it’s going out style, ever since the 80s, and look where it’s gotten us. Businesses and their wealthy owners own most of our wealth now, they own most of our government, they want more control of our political process and want to take voting rights away from more people.

Matthew K.

No matter how much you hear on Fox news about how we need to give more tax breaks to the rich and how providing services to the poor is just Fascism, or is it Communism, or is it Socialism, Americans are waking up to the reality that we’re rushing headlong into being a country we don’t want to be and certainly one our forefathers never imagined we’d be embracing.

But with Socialism and Fascism and Communism being used as scare words to influence the weak minded, the words are losing their meanings. That’s a bad thing. If we don’t know what they mean, how can we know what aspects we need to avoid? Just avoiding them because it’s a word the media is using, isn’t a smart way to be.

The previous article about the differences between socialism, fascism, and communism is a great read. I only wish there was more room to do a full blown comparison. Maybe I’ll find some time to add my two cents. In fact, everyone reading these pages should be talking about this. How can we avoid Fascism if we don’t really know what it is? Why should we avoid Communism if we don’t really know what it means? Were our forefathers really Socialists?

We can only vote to make this country better when we understand these things. Read the previous posts and get a handle on the definitions and on the pros and cons of each. And more than anything, turn off the corporate news that is only trying to blur the difference between them and make them all sound like bad words, rather than failed or successful governments.

And, lastly, I can’t express enough how important it is to realize that there is a difference between a financial model of each of these and the model of government. In other words, what is socialism as a government? It is nothing. Socialism is a set of policies, not a form of governing the people. Dictatorships and Oligarchies (today’s America), and democracies are governments.

David’s post about Fascism et al was great and very much needed. The Republicans and their conservative billionaire think tanks have been poisoning our information for over 30 years, now and it shows.

What kind of a monster would want to feed us lies in order to gain power and money? Monsters, indeed. Monsters intent on destroying democracy.

Following the links from David’s Fascist post lead me to the text from America’s vice president from the early part of last century and here’s what Henry Wallace had to say about Fascism:

The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis [Hitler]. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

There is no doubt that the Fascist party of America is doing all they can to poison our information.

With all the confusion out there today on the part of the Chronically Confused Conservatives of our times, I though I would try to put together  a simple comparison of the three terms they confuse the most for Democracy.

Fascism

Let’s start with the most easily confused. Fascism.

Fascism is best described as a merging of corporate and government interests. In simpler terms, it’s when corporations have taken over the government. This is also called a Oligarchy because the wealthy control the entire country. Mussolini states that the corporations were the most important part of a country and that the government should work with them to make a better country. He created this merger and called it Fascism to differentiate it from Socialism.

One of the signature characteristics of Fascism is “belligerent nationalism.” This is the practice of saying our country is exceptional and don’t you dare tell me otherwise.

Another, more modern term for Fascism is Corporatism.

Well, if Fascism isn’t Socialism, then what is Socialism?

Socialism

Socialism is where people are directly involved in the production of goods and services, things like cooperatives where the workers are the owners of the businesses. This doesn’t mean the government owns and manages the businesses. The business exists for the sake of providing for society, or the social good.

We’ve posted here many times about the socialistic bent of America’s forefathers. Socialism was such a fundamental inclination that our government is defined as “We The People.”

The corporatists in America try to hide this fact and purposely confuse socialism with fascism and communism.

Communism

The easiest way to think of Communism is the requirement that private property is not allowed. No one owns anything. Everything is owned by the government. The general idea is that the people, in turn, own the government. But in practice, this obviously doesn’t work, at last not in large scale.

However, it’s important to realize that Communism works quite well in some small communities.

So, now, tell me, which of these three best describes America, today? Do we outlaw private property (Communism)? No, so I guess that one is out. Do we encourage public ownership of businesses and services (Socialism)? Heck, we don’t even want to allow unions, let alone shared profits and management, so I guess this one is out as well. So what is left? Are we becoming Fascist? Do you see the corporate media spouting belligerent nationalism? Are we constantly threatening and invading other countries because we’re somehow special? Does the corporate media sell us on invading one country after another?

Have corporations taken over our government? Are we told to oppose any welfare or services for the people while we’re told that corporations should have unlimited influence over our government and have unlimited corporate welfare?

Even if you’re a rabid tea bagger only firing on half your cylinders, you can’t deny the fact that the Republican party is the party that is Fascist and they’re succeeding at bringing this country down the road of Fascism.

Does “We The People” sound like anything the Republican party wants to give more power to? In fact, isn’t that the party that is working overtime to disenfranchise millions of potential voters? Oh, my gosh, I guess they are.

I saw a bumper sticker today, with a big W and the words, “Miss Me Yet?”

No, George. We don’t miss the worst president America has seen in our lifetimes. We don’t miss the absolute destruction and disgrace you brought to America. We are ashamed of you.

But, sadly, there are lots of gullible Republicans out there who are being told that they miss the good old days of W.

Well, here is a quick reminder of what those wonderful days were that you think you are missing. Here is a stark example of the difference between Republican representation and Democratic. Unemployment figures:

Unfortunately, our corporate media is refusing to investigate this so we expose it where we can. Be sure to tell your friends and family who is benefiting from these vigilante laws that make all of us less safe from “Justifiable Homicide.”

Did you ever wonder why all the sudden 25 states have passed almost identical laws giving kooks the right to shoot you and me and get away with it? How could it possibly be that all 25 states thought up the idiocy all at the same time.

No, it’s not the individual states. It’s not a coincidence. There is a profit motive.

The laws in the states have been drafted and sponsored by billion dollar corporations for the purpose of making money.

Have you ever heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? ALEC is an organization funded and created by the Koch brothers to gather up legislators willing to prostitute themselves for big businesses. They meet with our legislators regularly and provide them with pre-written bills that they can take back and just plug in.

ALEC has many domestic and international businesses who pay big money to send lobbyists to the meetings and provide laws that will benefit them.

Who would make money by putting more guns in the hands of Americans? You guessed it. These laws have been sent to all the states for ratification on behalf of corporations, the likes of the NRA (the gun sales lobby) and Wal-Mart.

It’s important to not turn this into a political issue, because it’s not. It is an issue with corporations making our country worse for their profit.

Of course, it doesn’t help that ALEC is frequented almost entirely by Republican law makers. But the problem isn’t the party, it’s the fact that our representatives are prostituting their law making powers for big business and against the best interests of you and me.

Again, let me suggest that you tell everyone you can about this because it’s not getting out in the evening news. So much for “Liberal Media”.

I signed a petition standing against these Kill at Will laws. Can you join
me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/killatwill/?r_by=38643-8522180-qsNcVNx&rc=pac_killatwill_letter.email.g0

Thanks!

Everyone recognizes the Republican strategy these days. It’s all about winning the next election. It has nothing to do with actually solving our current problems. It is about winning the next election and nothing more.

Nothing!

Tell me, what is the Republican alternative to Obamacare? If they weren’t just trying to screw the country for the sake of making Obama look bad, they would actually be out there trying to fix our broken health care system.

But, are they?

Of course not. They have no credible plan to fix this broken system. They want to destroy what little Obama has done to fix this system and then leave it broken.

We are losing this country to the billionaires and the corporations and the Republican party wants to help us along the way. Cut more benefits and health care reforms to the average Americans and give more benefits and money and tax breaks to the rich. Cut out regulations that create jobs and save lives so the corporations can make more money.

But, America is waking up. We are all beginning to get out and talk to our neighbors. We’re waking up our Republican inlaws. We starting to take our country back. But we will only succeed when we can turn off the propaganda from the 1%. Turn off Fox. Turn off hate radio. If your church talks about voting for the anti-christian party, get up and walk out.

America is waking up!

No, I’m not talking about corporate kings, though that is a serious problem with American politics, today, but I”m talking about the Supreme Court, or more commonly known as the Roberts Court.

Nowhere does our constitution say that the Supreme Court has the authority to overrule the other two branches of government. Nowhere!

So, what are they doing telling the voters who have voted for health care reform that we can’t have it because their insurance industry overlords don’t want it? I don’t care what the insurance companies want. What matters is what the voters want.

It’s criminal , the condition of our Supreme court and it’s time we started electing some democrats who can appoint some judges and start impeaching the criminals that are now there.

The Supreme Court has no right to be telling us ,the voters, what is constitutional.That’s why we elect representatives and we don’t elect the court.

What is this so hard for them to understand? The Supreme Court was supposed to be the weakest of the three branches of government and now it’s like America is ruled by nine kings and queens and what the voting public wants doesn’t matter.

How did America get this screwed up?

America is Ruled by Kings