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Well, I held my nose and voted

By Andrew Pollack on 10/14/2004 at 02:10 AM EDT

I'll be at the Advisor Devcon in Baltimore on Election day (maybe we should rent a car and drive to a bar in DC -- maybe the Crystal City Marriott -- that night to watch the results come in) so i did my absentee ballot. Yech.

For President, I had the choice of encouraging the fascists or attempting to elect the uninspiring. For con-gress (the opposite of pro-gress) the incumbent Democrat -- why? Even though this particular Republican is fine, putting another R in that building only encourages the aforementioned fascists.

Next came the "citizen initiatives". Now, I'm all for the IDEA of a ballot item direct from the filthy masses, but clearly the bar has been set too low. It seems that in our state any moron (in this case one previously convicted of a felony) with a clipboard can get enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot. For the first time since moving here 12 years ago, I'm discouraged by Maine politics. We're voting ourselves right off a cliff this time around.

All around, voting this year left me more ill than the flu.


There are  - loading -  comments....

My own thoughts on this are...By Jon Johnston on 10/14/2004 at 10:26 AM EDT
using the word fascists so loosely is an insult to those people who's families
have been slaughtered by real fascist regimes. If you think we're even close,
you need to get a better perspective.

Glad to hear you voted. Since I'm a fascist in the liberal sense, I guess you
know which way I'm going.
I'm sorry you feel that way. Here's why I use the term.By Andrew Pollack on 10/14/2004 at 12:06 PM EDT
First, I know its a strong term, and I clearly understand your reference to
past atrocities and respect it greatly.

Fortunately, we have not allowed that to happen here (although its still
happening in Africa where there is not enough oil to make it worth our time to
do anything about it, apparently)

Bear in mind that until this election, I typically voted Republican for fiscal
reasons. I am not what you'd consider a died in the wool Liberal by any
stretch.

This current administration -- particularly many at the cabinet level --
definitely fall into my definition of fascists in the very true sense of the
word. The only thing separating some of them from those you reference, is that
they've been less successful. I credit the strength of our system for that.

I do not include W in this list -- But I also do not believe he has paid enough
attention to managing the ones around him that are.

Here's the dictionary definition, and why I see it fitting.

fas·cist

1. often Fascist An advocate or adherent of fascism.
2. A reactionary or dictatorial person.

fas·cism

marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic
controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and
typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

Breaking this down and applying it to the current administration:

-- we absolutely cannot call W a Dictator, however we do have many examples of
centralization of authority. By stringent socioeconomic controls, surely
unfunded federal requirements that tie specific decisions previously treated as
matters of local control (e.g. school boards) which are now federally
stipulated as conditions for distribution of federal education funds (a
returning to the state some portion of money taken from the citizens of that
state for that purupose).

Now, take a look at the so called "Patriot" act, passed in a moment of blind
panic following the 911 attack, which radically alters citizen rights. It
remains my opinion that the constant beating of the terrorism drum and the "war
on terror" (terrorism is a tactic commonly used by an underfunded side in a
conflict -- you cannot have a war against a tactic) as an excuse to ignore
virtually everything else, when in fact worldwide the terror situation is not
significantly changed from what it was before 911.

Attempts at censorship have failed, for the most part, but anti-voter
registration moves in Florida are blocking and have blocked likely opposition
voters, and now we find actual fraud in Nevada, where a company hired to do
registration was so powerfully encouraged to only register like minded
citizens, that they THREW AWAY opposition registration documents. Pressure to
prevent the release of Mike Moore's film on Disney nearly prevented that PROFIT
driven company from releasing the #1 film of the year in terms of
profitability. HBO pulled a controversial anti-administration film that it
produced after airing it only 1 time in the US on the East coast, and
cancelling it half way through the west coast show. The movie was pulled from
the schedule, the web site, the discussion boards, etc. It did continue to
show in Canada.

Need we go into what could be described as "belligerent nationalism" -- and
how different is homophobia from racism? This administration put forward the
first constitutional amendment EVER that would have removed rights specifically
not added to them.


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