Tuesday, January 11, 2005

American fascism. Part 1

I am stunned by a discovery which occurred during last few days.

Certainly, I knew and could feel the breeding of a new kind of fascism under a new name in the United States of America. However, I was not very certain about its complete coincidence and harmony with the general notion of “fascism” the world has witnessed in various countries with different appearances in different times.

Nowadays the German fascism is considered as the peak of this harmful and destructive ideology. We have to wait and see if American fascism will surpass its German counterpart and how.

There is a wrong perception of American democracy spread around the world by means of latest information technology and people even within the States do not realize the real stance of their own country in this issue and they believe that America is a democracy.

A fierce defender of American neo-conservatives (read neo-fascists) insists that America has never been a democratic country and he adds: “The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution -- two most fundamental documents of our nation. Instead of a democracy, the Constitution's Article IV, Section 4, guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." Moreover, let's ask ourselves: Does our pledge of allegiance to the flag say to "the democracy for which it stands," or does it say to "the republic for which it stands"? Or do we sing "The Battle Hymn of the Democracy" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"?”

Of course I know how incoherent it sounds to the people who know what real democracy means and what is a republic. This political structure has been described by most of dictionaries as the political orientation of those who favour government by the people or by their elected representatives. The Internet Brainy Dictionary describes democracy even more clearly:

“Democracy: Government by popular representation; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people, but is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed; a constitutional representative government; a republic.”

According to the above description democracy is the same republic.

In my humble opinion, only politically-illiterate beings can compare democracy with a republic, since by “democracy” we mean ideological structure of a country, while “a republic” is the administrative structure of a government. Since a republic can be democratic at the same time and the history has seen many examples of this fusion. Because “democracy” and “republic” do not contradict each other. On the contrary, they improve and perfect each other by this cohesion.

But what has caused the American confusion between these two categorically different notions?

A good question for the second part of the posting.

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