Fascism creeps in on little cat feet

Bush’s approval rating has climbed about 10 points in the past month--just who are these deluded people anyway? What part of Bush’s performance, precisely, is worthy of approval? It has always been a wonder to me that there is anyone at all left who supports the Bush Cabal, let alone the 46-48% approval reported this week in various polls.

But today I received a hint, while reading the January issue of Harpers Magazine. The Harper’s Index reports that of Russians today, a resounding 37% currently “approve of the direction their country took under Stalin,” equal to Bush’s November 2005 approval. Obviously, Americans hold no monopoly on delusion, but just as obviously, Russians aren’t the sole worshippers of fascism, either.

There is apparently great comfort to be found in fascism, something so compelling about turning over one’s destiny to a dictator that even Americans can be taken in by its welcoming arms. Bush, citing the supposed principle of “unitary executive” power, has said that he believes that his own adherance to the rule of law is optional, and that he has the right to ignore laws and treaties at will. In this he differs from a dictator only in his official job title.

Bread and circuses, iPods and reality-TV, celebrity gossip and Prozac, Blackberries and pornography: no need for Soma for these masses. And, Bush knows as Stalin did, that while one death is a tragedy, a million deaths are only a statistic. It only gets easier.