Fear, Ideological Dogma and Elections

I’m writing this post to discourse on a phenomena that has been growing in the blogosphere as it becomes clear that Obama is going to win the White House.  Namely, the notion from a cadre of libertarian leaning activists that Obama intends to implement a fascist police state.

Based on a literary device the senator employed once in a speech on national service just prior to the July 4th holiday, a vocal chorus of skeptics has begun to spread the supposition that a President Obama intends to create a National Civilian Defense force the size of our current paid military, and create mandatory youth militias a la Hitler Youth thorough our public school system.   This is despite the fact that the campaign has since laid out its argument for a voluntary national service program in detail and it contains no such provisions. An excerpt of my comments:

I am not an Obama fanatic. I don’t expect miracles from Obama, nor do I expect to agree with every proposal the man might make as president. But the rampant fear mongering about a fascist President Obama is not rooted in fact.

In my opinion, the notion of a fascist Obama presidency is alluring to libertarian leaning thinkers precisely because the country has been so thoroughly frightened by the real movement toward oligarchy and corporate cronyism during the Bush administration. Conversely, that same fear drives a different group of liberal democratic voters to become radical Obama devotees.

Let’s face it, the Republicans did this to themselves. Bush and his cabal of neo-con strategists have ruined the reputation of their party with disastrous results for our country. Corporatism is the new fascism, and we as a nation have been living it for eight long years. The small ‘r’ republicans need to take back their party, and this election will be their wake-up call.

And then there is this nonsense from the normally staid Minyanville:

“It’s a law of nature: Cut tax rates, the economy booms and tax receipts grow. It worked for Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Dubyuh. Note to Obama: Spending balloons the deficit - not tax cuts.”

And my comments:

It worked for Dubyuh?! What’s the deficit projection for 2009 again? Talk about drinking the cool aid! The only thing that ‘worked’ for Dubya was fostering a huge asset bubble in real estate to generate an enormously disproportionate percentage of GDP and paper wealth. Examine the evidence, republican rule hasn’t been about free markets for a generation, it is about corporatism, and it has now devastated our markets and our nation as a whole. The author and his ilk would be much better served by taking a hard look in the mirror than simply renewing the standard republican rhetoric. Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for the outcome of this election, and that is the key to their salvation. Small ‘r’ republicans, take back your party!

I had another whole article in the works about the wrong-headed attack from the left on libertarian free market principals as the source of the current crisis, but I’m getting weary of pointing out ideological dogma, so here are the links to three more ‘forest for the trees’ rants:

The End of Libertarianism

Krugman on Is There Room for Fiscal Stimulus?

James K. Galbraith on Is There Room For Fiscal Stimulus?

At a time of real national crisis, we have an urgent need for public debate on how to reform government and regulate financial firms behavior, while preserving the market’s ability to determine prices. At present, our government is attempting to do the opposite, and in this endeavor they will surely fail. Let’s stop arguing the merits of what is almost assuridly a forgone conclusion of an Obama presidency and start proactively advocating for a return of our republican form of representative democracy, free from corporate despotism.