There Are Republicans And Then There Are Fascists-- Not Always The Same Thing; Take Wyoming For Example...

Lately I've been reading a lot-- much of it following clues in Glen Yeadon's book The Nazi Hydra In America-- about the early financing of Hitler's populist movement and how big industrialists and aristocratic families in Germany put up the cash for the ruinous fascist takeover of their country. Hitler would never have gotten his failed, fledgling Nazi Party off the ground without massive contributions from the likes of Fritz Thyssen, Albert Voegler, Emil Kirdof, Kurt von Schroeder, Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, Erich Ludendorff, Gustav Krupp, Georg von Schnitzler, August Rosterg, Wilhelm Cuno, Otto Wolf, Grand Duke Cyril (pretender to the tsarist throne of Russia), Carl Bechstein, our own pro-fascist and anti-Semitic plutocrats Henry Ford, Irénée du Pont and Averell Harriman. Major companies financing Hitler's rise to power included Deutsche Bank, Hamberg-Amerika Line, IG Farben, Krupp, Deutsche Kredit, Allianz, Ford Motors, Union Bank... to name a few familiar examples. Some of these people and companies donated openly; other secretly. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision now allows American fascist plutocrats to contribute massive amounts of money to finance fake populist groups like the tea parties, while others-- like the Koch Brothers-- do it arrogantly in the open. Fascism as represented by the Nazis was a top-down movement by the elite to preserve their status; American teabaggery is the exact same thing in this regard.

Maine, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin all voted for Obama in 2008 and then, two years later, swung all the way to the right, giving control, in each state, of both houses of their legislatures and their governors' mansions to radical right extremists, in several cases dangerous sociopaths and criminals... with agendas as far from the American mainstream as Hitler's. And first and foremost is to do as much systemic damage as they can to preempt a swing back to sanity with schemes to defund Democrats and prevent likely Democratic voters from being able to vote. The level of virulent right-wing extremism in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Arizona particularly is threatening and breathtaking.

A report I saw in the new Advocate yesterday about the most Republican state legislature in America, Wyoming's, gave me cause to stop and think about these other states. Wyoming has a different kind of Republicanism, less fascist/corportaist and more libertarian. Obama did far worse in Wyoming than he did in any southern state or even Utah or Arizona, and the only state which gave McCain a bigger victory than he got in Wyoming (65%) was a one-point lead from poor, deranged Oklahoma (still suffering from severe Stockholm Syndrome after the OK City bombing). Only 3 of Wyoming's counties-- Laramie, Albany and Teton-- went for Obama. And the two U.S. Senate races were even more devastating, with the two Democrats averaging a quarter of the vote and losing every single county. And the state legislature? 50 Republicans in the House and 10 Democrats; 26 Republicans in the Senate and 4 lonely Democrats. They could do whatever the hell them want. But they're clearly not on the same fascist trajectory as the more tightly contested swing states, "proving more and more that it’s deserving of its official nickname-- the Equality State."

Two antigay proposals recently failed there-- a bill to constitutionally ban gay marriage died in the house in February, and legislation prohibiting Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside the state perished in the senate in March. That came after a similar effort to ban recognition of outside gay marriages failed in 2007, and another attempt at constitutionally banning marriage equality fell apart in 2009.

Jason Marsden, the executive director of the Denver-based Matthew Shepard Foundation and a former lobbyist in the capital of Cheyenne, says homophobic legislation is often no match for the state’s libertarianism.

“Philosophically, Wyoming politics is the ‘mind your own business, small government’ type of conservatism,” Marsden says. During the debate over the marriage recognition bill, “there were provisions in the state constitution that some of the senior Republican senators noted-- one says absolute power over free men is nowhere in a republic. That sort of guarantee doesn’t match up with legislation taking away rights.”

Contrast that to what Rick Snyder is trying to accomplish in Michigan, what Scott Walker is doing to Wisconsin, and what Rick Scott is putting Florida through... or even what the House Republicans are trying to do nationally. Yesterday, questioned by Christiane Amanpour on ABC News, Ryan said he knows his budget/"cause" is going to hurt Republicans at the polls but he doesn't care. "Sure.  And I hear this all the time from the political people, from the pundits and the pollsters that this could be-- this could hurt us politically. I don't care about that... I sleep well at night.” Please consider helping Blue America make sure he doesn't sleep so well and night and that when November, 2012 rolls around he will very much care.