Your friend Jim George thinks you'd be a great addition to Ricochet, so we'd like to offer you a special deal: You can become a member for no initial charge for one month!
Ricochet is a community of like-minded people who enjoy writing about and discussing politics (usually of the center-right nature), culture, sports, history, and just about every other topic under the sun in a fully moderated environment. We’re so sure you’ll like Ricochet, we’ll let you join and get your first month for free. Kick the tires: read the always eclectic member feed, write some posts, join discussions, participate in a live chat or two, and listen to a few of our over 50 (free) podcasts on every conceivable topic, hosted by some of the biggest names on the right, for 30 days on us. We’re confident you’re gonna love it.
”
“The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.”
― Tom Wolfe
Meanwhile some of your Lefty friends are all palsy with guys who would really put them in camps, or applaud an Israeli city going up in a fireball.
If you don’t want to hear the term “Beer Hall Putsch”, definitely don’t listen to the latest Ricochet Podcast.
“fasciphobia”
Welcome Mickey! Good piece. Have read and enjoyed your stuff over the years; even agreed with it occasionally. Like the way you stuck the Medicare and Social Security thing in there!
Google tells me that “Chrysophobia” is an irrational fear of the color orange.
Seems to be appropriate. :)
I seem to remember how W was going to usher in a bible thumping theocracy and ban abortions and fun.
I’ll second these comments. Welcome aboard!
A friend of mine posted something on Facebook about how John Boehner was going to impose a theocracy because he said nice things about the Bible and Christianity! John “whiskey-and-cigarettes” Boehner!
Welcome aboard Mickey.
Seawriter
I can’t believe the headlines I’m seeing everywhere I look–so much out and out lying and distortion going on. No wonder so many people are afraid of a guy who has said on numerous occasions he admires the single-payer health insurance available in other countries like Canada. I’m not saying I agree with him, but he is not going to hurt people, and for heaven’s sake, these are things the Democrats want.
The press has really reached a new level of irresponsibility and shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
Good idea, and I hope you’re right.
And I (too?) am irritated at the tendency to cast current struggles in a WWII film guise.
But consider: fascism does not have to, if fact probably will not, visit the West twice with the same face. Anti-semites and neo-Nazis in the US are a nostalgia focused fringe joke in bad taste.
If fascism comes to the US it will not be because of them (the very very few), but because of a meme, or idea, that appears fair and attractive (and unburdened by Nuremberg) to the many.
It probably won’t be antisemitic. It probably won’t use race as its defining marker. It will wear a different face.
Only a total jerk would think that the cast of Hamilton was polite.
hey! Mickey Kaus…didn’t I used to read your stuff in the New Republic, before it got weird?
I’m so glad you’re here!
Don’t worry, Zafar. If they put you in a camp I’ll convert to Islam and come with you. We’ll have fun! I’ll teach you to knit.
Seriously.
I remember comparing Communism to a beautiful women and Nazism as an ugly man. “Communism is much worse,” I said, “because she is beautiful and she appeals to many different people.” Fascism will come as something nice — something positive.
This is a condensed summary of Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism.
Doesn’t Zafar live in Australia? The camp will probably have a beach.
This.
Every Republican is slandered as a wannabe-Nazi, theocratic, evil genius who is somehow also an idiot. Compared to the milquetoasts that have ran on the GOP ticket since the first Bush, I suppose someone like Trump, who can’t be cowed by the usual name-calling, is rather unsettling. If Romney is a wannabe-Nazi, then Trump must be a wannabe-Satan (if they believed in such things).
It’s all very tiresome.
P.S., welcome to the site, Mr. Kaus. You’ve long been my favorite Democrat on the web.
It’d be a “progressive” face. No doubt about it. But thankfully, we have most of the guns.
Welcome, Mickey. Wonderful post. Thanks for showing us that there are still some rational liberals out there.
Mr. Kaus has been a member since the beginning, 2010! But I guess his presence has been on the podcasts, not in posts until now.
Have we all forgotten that Nazis were socialists. ( National Socialist German Workers Party) Its the left that mostly creates totalitarian government. They reject free markets and individual freedoms and force adherence to what they are touting much like BHO did with Obamacare.
Are they still pushing that nonsense? I’m glad I haven’t listened to that pap since October.
It was a pleasure to see your name on Ricochet. Welcome. Your “The End Of Equality” is one of my 20 or so “touchstone” books. Your call to pursue equality by limiting the social spheres in which money matters has particular resonance right now. Thank you again.
Nazilexia- a disorder that results in the confusion of people, events, and places for Nazis.
Weimarmania- an obsession manifesting in the compulsion of expressing the opinion that one is living in the last days of the Weimar Republic.
I’d take these poor paranoids more seriously, or at least more sympathetically, if they had seen the “seeds” in Lois Lerner, or in the failure of the DOJ to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter intimidation, or the failure of the press to do its job. I don’t know your friends, but if they are not ignorant, as you claim, then they are blinded by hyper-partisanship, which amounts to ignorance.
Don’t you remember how when Obama came into office, the Dixie Chicks were released from Gitmo and Fahrenheit 911 was finally allowed to be shown in theaters?
And yet, it was the Nazis that were both Democratic and Socialist. This really can’t be pointed out enough.
I agree with you. How many on the Left spoke out against the Obama administration’s use of the IRS to cripple conservative groups. Did they defend the exec who gave 1,000 to Prop 8 and then was fired. Did they say after gay marriage was legalized countrywide that tolerance should be given to Americans who disagreed with it? No, they were intolerant and bigoted against conservatives. Their scary scenarios will not occur, but it’s clear that they will abuse power without conjunction when they have it.
Welcome to Ricochet Mickey. I’m a fan and hope you post here frequently.
Hi Mickey, I met you at Rob Long’s house three years ago. I was so trashed but you were kind enough to occupy my scrambled mind. I found you to be a very nice and thoughtful person but of course that could have been the Grey Goose.
Nice article.