Adam Kinzinger is wrong

[liberty]

Adam Kinzinger said on Firing Line yesterday that Republicans should put aside conflicts of 50 years ago and concentrate on today’s problems. I say bull shit. The closet communist in the United States showed their hands during Vietnam, after 1968. They showed us that they were communists, and we should never forget it and never trust them. Communists always do the same things; they gain and consolidate power, and then they always imprison and kill their enemies. They call it political purification. If they ever gain enough power, they will kill us, the freedom-loving people. We at very least need to remember who they are, murdering communists.

[BoSoxGal]

[liberty]

Tell that to the people of Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba, and North Korea.

[BoSoxGal]

Let’s keep the conversation focused on your insane assertions that America is teeming with communists - when in fact the real threat to American democracy is from fascists like yourself.

[Scooter]

Here is both a recording and a transcript of Kinzinger's appearance on Firing Line, which, btw, was on Friday, not yesterday. The relevant quotation:

It’s interesting when you talk about Republicans. I think there’s no Republicans out here that – maybe one or two, because I’ll put a little space in there for possibilities – no Republican actually believes the election was stolen. And the crazy thing is, 80 percent of the base does. It shows you that you have leaders that are afraid of their base. But I do think some recognize the risk, but maybe they don’t understand, maybe there’s a lot that don’t understand, as I think I do, projecting a year or two out, if there is not something that comes in between our current tribalistic passions and the future, if there’s not a change in trajectory– just take how far we’ve gone off the rails in the last five or 10 years. Now do that again in another 10 years and another 10 years. And you tell me how a kid that is under the age of 20 today that’s never seen politics as some of us that are slightly older remember when you would call somebody a gentleman or you’d get along. Nobody has seen that example. How do we ever expect them to bring us back from the brink when we have generations that are more consumed with fighting fights of 50 years ago and culture wars than they are of actually raising up a better generation? I think that’s the threat. I don’t know how many people truly believe that, but it should be all of them.

How the village idiot has managed to interpret that as being pro-communist and/or soft on communism is a question for him and whatever stumphole whiskey he has been drinking.

[Econoline]

lib - if you want to have this discussion, you'll have to define what you mean by "communist". Does it mean anything to you other than "someone I don't like, politically"?

The closet communist in the United States showed their hands during Vietnam, after 1968. They showed us that they were communists, and we should never forget it and never trust them.

Since someone who was 18 in 1968 would be 72 this year, does that mean that the slogan DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30 HAS CHANGED TO DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 70?








P.S.

[liberty]

Let’s keep the conversation focused on your insane assertions that America is teeming with communists - when in fact the real threat to American democracy is from fascists like yourself.

So your definition of a fascist is someone who loves freedom and hates bullies, thugs, and tyrants, because that is me. And you are wrong the threat to freedom is not the right, but the one who wants to consolidate power, and those people are in the democrat party. The founders were wise; they knew it doesnot matter so much if a man has dictatorial tenancies if he does not have the power to implement desires. That is the trouble most democrats they would accept a dictator if he were a left-wing dictator.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I didn't know it was possible to have stuff so exactly backwards.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I didn't know it was possible to have stuff so exactly backwards.

That's our bil

[Joe Guy]

That's our bil

That reminds me. At CSB or an earlier BBS didn't we once have a poster who called himself Ytrebil?

I wonder if he was a fascist.

[Econoline]

According to Wikipedia, "Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy that rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, liberalism, and Marxism, fascism is placed on the far right-wing within the traditional left–right spectrum."

In his book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, Professor Jason Stanley observed: "The leader proposes that only he can solve it and all of his political opponents are enemies or traitors." Stanley says recent global events as of 2020, including the pandemic and the protests, have substantiated his concern about how fascist rhetoric is showing up in politics and policies around the world. [...] Roger Griffin describes fascism as "a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultranationalism." Griffin describes the ideology as having three core components: "(i) the rebirth myth, (ii) populist ultra-nationalism, and (iii) the myth of decadence." In Griffin's view, fascism is "a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism" built on a complex range of theoretical and cultural influences. He distinguishes an inter-war period in which it manifested itself in elite-led but populist "armed party" politics opposing socialism and liberalism, and promising radical politics to rescue the nation from decadence.

Mussolini's The Doctrine of Fascism (1932), partly ghostwritten by philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who Mussolini described as "the philosopher of Fascism", states: "The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people." In The Legal Basis of the Total State, Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt described the Nazi intention to form a "strong state which guarantees a totality of political unity transcending all diversity" in order to avoid a "disastrous pluralism tearing the German people apart."

Fascist states pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda in education and the media, and regulation of the production of educational and media materials. Education was designed to glorify the fascist movement and inform students of its historical and political importance to the nation. It attempted to purge ideas that were not consistent with the beliefs of the fascist movement and to teach students to be obedient to the state.

[liberty]

I didn't know it was possible to have stuff so exactly backwards.

Now that I have a couple of minutes of free time to string together, I’d like to ask the question precisely what is backward. You could use highlighting of the text of the section to indicate with what you disagree. I feel you can’t be referring to the Republicans as wanting centralization. Or is it that you consider centralization and concentrated power in fewer people as increasing freedom. If that is what you believe, let me remind you that the reason Hitler was able to do the things he did was that he held all of the power. Why is that liberal/ leftist want to create the same situation in this country?

[BoSoxGal]

[liberty]

BSG, that is not very illuminating; it's no better than Andy's comments, perhaps worse. Is it that you are Privy to the mysteries of the universe and just don't wanna share or is it you have nothing else to say in response.

[BoSoxGal]

The evidence is as clear as being hit in the head with a hammer; it is the right wing in this country that is trying to suppress the vote and concentrate power in the hands of their revered dictator-wannabe.

The Democrats can’t agree on much and never have, which is why Will Rogers famously said ‘I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.’ Nothing much has changed since then.

The GOP on the other hand since the time of Reagan and even before with the inception of the John Birch Society has become narrower and narrower in perspective until now they are so lockstep follow the leader blindly that they don’t even have a party platform - they’re not even pretending anymore to consider a variety of viewpoints under the umbrella of the party. It is GQP or nothing.

One of these kinds of parties is the fast path to fascism. Hint: not the disorganized rainbow coalition of infighting bickering moderates v. progressives.

But you’re already in your brown shirt with your jackboots so my political science degree and historical knowledge are fully wasted on you. Hence the Mickey meme.

[Burning Petard]

Wow ! I thank Econoline for posting the transcript. Right in the beginning the speaker says there are "Republicans" who all know the election was not rigged and there is 'the base' who believe it is.

What could be more elitest? To hold that most of the voters who support you in primary elections are not actually members of your political party?

Define what you mean by 'Communist'--so totally unfair. Next you will expect a definition of 'Critical Race Theory'.

When every body knows that stuff is all bad, bad, bad. The slippery slope to Socialized Medicine. But don't touch my Medicare.

snailgate

[Econoline]

This is relevant in this thread. (Attention: liberty)

(P.S. SG — that was Scooter, not me, who posted the transcript.)

[liberty]

lib - if you want to have this discussion, you'll have to define what you mean by "communist". Does it mean anything to you other than "someone I don't like, politically"?

The closet communist in the United States showed their hands during Vietnam, after 1968. They showed us that they were communists, and we should never forget it and never trust them.

Since someone who was 18 in 1968 would be 72 this year, does that mean that the slogan DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30 HAS CHANGED TO DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER 70?

They don’t have to be card-carrying members of the Communist Party to be a communist. If one acts and thinks like a communist, one is a communist; Like Jane Fonda, Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, and Shelia Jackson Lee. If one admires Fedel Castro or Stalin and sees Mao as anything other than a mass-murdering tyrant, that is a communist. A communist is no better than a NAZI; considering the more significant number of people murdered by the communists makes them five times worse than NAZIs.

[BoSoxGal]

[Joe Guy]