Who Are You Calling a Fascist?

I thought ABC cancelled Politically Incorrect, but it was still on last night... and there were the anti-Bushes: Alec Baldwin, and the axed Bill Maher... still doing the Bush dish that got him booted off the network. This is how it went:

Baldwin: I believe that anybody who had this job... Democrat, Republican, man, woman, black, white, old, young, any of them would have risen to the occasion under these given circumstances.

Maher: ... Thank God Bush won, as if, if Gore won, we'd be reading the Koran now.

Baldwin: Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Mahar: We'd be in a madrasa, you know?

Baldwin: ... But if you watched FOX and all those other fascists over there, that's exactly what they would have had you believe.

So what if Al Gore had been president? I can think of a few things that wouldn't have been to my taste. Would he have been a proper all- American president reacting as he should to the outrageous Sept. 11 attacks? I suppose.

About the "fascists" at FOX... that would be me and others, who not only disagree with the eldest of the many Baldwins, but can present a much more convincing argument than he can muster, unless he's got Aaron Sorkin or some other scriptist providing the text.

What is the definition of a fascist? A person who does not allow a countervailing opinion or position, someone who not only insists he or she is right, but makes damn sure the other side never gets heard. That cannot be said of FOX. The other side gets heard here all the time. In fact, you could say it's impossible to shut the other side up, even if we were to try.

What I think is going on here is this: We are called fascists because Baldwin has lost the argument so consistently of late, and he's not accustomed to losing the argument.

When his president was in charge, the Baldwin view of things was on top. He and his people decided they were not only correct, but there simply wasn't a chance any other view could be correct.

For them, the argument always ends with... "Why can't you see the obvious, you simpleton?" If you continue to say you don't buy whatever it is they are selling, then you graduate from simpleton to fascist.

That, in a nutshell, is the definition of fascism.

In fact, Mr. Baldwin... next time you gaze longingly into a mirror, you'll be looking at the very face of fascism.

That's My Word.

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