Jeopardy

So, in 7-plus years of Republican rule, we have:

(1) Embraced torture
(2) Instituted unaccountable, illegal domestic spying
(3) Built a massive chain of for-profit prison camps unaccountable to anybody
(4) Created a hidden overseas network of detention centers and torture pits
(5) Installed legions of totally unaccountable immigration and airport "security" personnel who can and do detain any US citizen and any foreigner at will, without due process, indefinitely, and in secret
(6) Authorized worksite, home, and neighborhood raids to seize and detain brown-skinned human beings who may, repeat may have been lured by US businesses and desperation to commit a misdemeanor offense
(7) Instructed the un-elected Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any law he disagrees with in pursuit of any goal he deems related to "homeland security"
(8) With deliberation--deliberately-- blocked Federal, state, and international resources from aiding rescue and recovery operations in the post-Katrina South in order to privatize its real estate and publc services
(9) Equated principled dissent with "treason"
(10) Permitted widespread, direct partisan denial of the right to vote
(11) Taken steps to consolidate media ownership and control
(12) Franchised an official propaganda network to operate in taxpayer-owned commonwealth airwaves

Fascism--we might as well call it what it is--doesn't thrive among secure, productive, and principled people.

Fascism only grows where people choose to kneel to fear.

Fascism counts on us to shut down our reasoning powers voluntarily. It can't see where it's going unless we choose to be blind to what it's doing. It can't breathe unless we let ourselves be told whom to hate and fear, and why. Lies are its blood supply, but we have to agree to drink them. It simply can't exist when we insist on facts.

Fascism cannot thrive unless we waive our own core values, and unless we nurture it systematically, methodically, one step at a time.

Where fascism does thrive, most of the people agree to be lazy, unprincipled cowards.