The Repugs didn’t worry FDR in the slightest; he could have almost coined the phrase: “bring ‘em on”. What really worried him was the incipient fascism & rabble rousing of Huey Long and Father Conklin. Much of this worry explains the timing of his (partial) retreat from the New Deal in 1937/39. His attempt to balance the budget following his defeats to get around the Repug.-controlled Supreme Court were the ‘bi-partisanship’ of his time.

I have argued in this blog before, using Paxton’s classic treatise on Fascism, that a failure by Obama and the Democrats on core issues may well lead us down this dark road. Today’s insightful post on Truthout:

http://www.truthout.org/080909A

amplifies this concern and ties it neatly to the underlying events Blue Texan illustrates in his post. Obviously, I hope my warnings about Obama’s timidity at FDL for the past several months underestimate his political skills. But this is looking awfully like the Weimar Republic in 1929/30 or Italy in 1921/22 following the effective abandonment of card check & the retreats on the public option. DEFEAT IS NOT AN OPTION. {sorry for the yelling}.

I think once one were to explain how much they rely upon everyday in our society that is funded through taxes for the benefit of all of us (which could be loosly called “socialism”) they will mysteriously go quiet.

They’re just throwing a temper tantrum over “SOCIALISM!” — which in their wingnut brain stems applies to everything from TARP to the stimulus bill, and yes — to Social Security and Medicare.

There..fixed it for ya.