The Accidental Fascist

You know? All he really wanted was a tax break. It was 1979, and just as our little guy was beginning his adventure as an adult American he could already see inflation and 'malaise' stifling the opportunities that were his birthright: consumption, consumption and more consumption. Real wages were already in decline. Gone was the pretense that control of oil prices were within the grasp of the American economy. And, that good-for-nothing Jimmy Carter had allowed the good-ol'-US of A to become a mockery on the world stage. Hell, if it wasn't for Uncle Sam those ragheads would still be under the thumb of the pantywaist Brits.

Recouping his pious indignation in the form of a taxbreak seemed just the tonic to lift his spirits.

So it began. The heroic b-movie star strode onto the world political stage tonic jug in hand. Threatening to beat every malingering bureaucrat or Cadillac-driving welfare queen into submission with its crockery heft, Ronald Reagan would deliver to our little guy the miracle of economic grace through the mechanism of income tax reduction.

Our little guy was easily distracted by the never ending variety of diversions that were his other birthright - the new-fangled cable TV with its endless variety, the new mall with its endless variety, the hour-long commute with its endless variety. Who has time to think about what that income tax pays for with all the varieties of distraction demanding his attention? Plus, he just really needed that tax break to pay for all these, and all the still-unimagined, diversions just waiting to be unleashed upon his wallet.

So, he took his taxbreaks and he bought a few more distractions. Then the tax cuts and the defense build up caused the economy to crumble. His real wages began to decline even faster and even with his tax cut he fell further into debt at the behest of all those shiney new credit cards that appeared, as if by magic, every time he needed new batteries for his walkman.

Now Reagan was no fool, and, as a conservative, he knew which scapegoat needed to be slaughtered to assuage the economic gods. It must be those damned, lazy, entrapped, worthless, and mostly 'colored' welfare cheats! Yes, that's it! Let's blame our irresponsible economic policies and the near-depression they created on the poor.

Well, hand it to Reagan, this one really worked. Before you knew it market psychology had been unburdened of racial consciousness and everyone was free to feel good about being white again. Who knew that feeling good about being white could cover for a decade of declining economic growth, and busting-at-the-seams budget deficits. Our little guy was just giddy about being able to watch the 'miracle economy' launch him into economic heaven on 24 of his 112 cable stations. Just when he was thoroughly distracted from the fact that he still couldn't pay his bills, the powers that put granpappy Reagan in the White House told the old fool that it was time to up the ante.

Really, how long could this miracle not be seen for the bubble it really was. Our little guy would eventually catch on that the government he had been mildly supportive of just a few years earlier was emerging as a hell seen through the jaundiced eye of a proto-racist. Sure, they had to play the race card as a distraction so he wouldn't see them lining their corporate pockets with unnecessary military spending. But our little guy would eventually see them for the evil they are, and the destroyers of the American dream they were becoming. So let's up the ante one more time.

And it was that Reagan was reelected in a great landslide victory. Looking younger than ever, and preparing for that trip to Bitburg, his illusory brilliance had never shown brighter. There were WWII commemorations to attend, a couple of Central Amercan nations to toss around, and the privatization of the American Commonweal to complete.

Finally our little guy would have his ultimate distraction. Now that the problem government was finally, fully off his back he could laze about as the recipient of the great largesse that is American capital. How could he not love the efficiency of the market and its rationalizing of all economic, not to mention spritirual, processes. Our little guy was just orgasmic over the simple pleasure his life would become once he paid off his bills which were still, somehow, piling up.

Things thumped right along for the next few year. The market continued to be freed of government's burdensome regulations, and that had to be good. Right?

Well, it was good, right? I mean how could it be anything other than good, right?

Something happened on the way to the unregulated market, a little thing known as the big recession of 1991. Out little guy was caught offguard, but, unlike so many of his friends, he held fast to his belief in the invisible hand while they voted Bill Clinton into office.

Bill was a genius at talkin left and workin right. He could make you swoon on his bridge to the 21st century while continuing to put the screws to working class. He tried a couple of things that really pissed our little guy, and all of maniacal right, right off. First he raised taxes, then that uppity first lady, Hillary, proposed a plan to socialize healthcare! Well, that the end of bipartisanship. Gore cast the tie-breaker for the tax increase which paved the way for the longest economic expansion in US history and the helthcare plan was defeated soundly in both houses of congress.

Over the next eight years our little guy would suffer under expanding economic horizons. Suddenly he could afford to send his kids to good colleges and paint the house. He bought a couple of new cars and payed down his bills. But every evening he would watch the screaming Clinton-haters on Fox and before he knew it he had joined the screeching mobs in their pathological hatred of all things Democrat, not to mention democratic. He learned to demand the privitization of the electoral process, and to support the supression of the minority vote. By the time 2000 rolled around he would do everything he could to make sure that liar Al Gore would be defeated.

On election night he watched nervously as Gore seemed to be moving into the White House, but suddenly there was a bright shining light rising in the southeast. Despite all the voting problems and an unprecedented intercession by the Supreme Court, our little guy was convinced that finally his messiah had come in the form of George W. Bush. Anyone who complained about the process by which he arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was a communist or worse. How could you not love the new cowboyPresident and all the true Christian American values he stood for?

Now the gloves were truly, and finally off. The Fox punditry, with help from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, regularly supported the less-than-truthful Republican publicity machine and encouraged all of their viewers and readers to become adjunct offices. The message was coordinated on a daily basis through the voices of millions. Our little guy was again drowning in debt, but he knew who to blame - everyone who disagreed with him.

Then there was September 11, 2001. A day when thousands of innocent Americans would lose their lives, was soon transformed into the greatest opportunity to loot the public treasury and make a final stab at starving the beast of government. But Bush and Co. knew that the little guy was truly saddened by the events and was beginning to wonder if they weren't, just possibly, an indication that The USofA had lost its way in the world. Something big had to be done, and fast. With a cabinet staffed by corporate fatcats and vice president steeped in the oil and services business it wouldn't take long to figure out ways to aggregate the remaing tax revenue into the hands of the corporate plutocracy and curb the rights of the people to complain. Within days of 9/11 our fearless leader would propose and find support for The Neverending War on Terror and the USA Patriot Act.

Our little guy finally had specific things he could cheer for. It had been a long time since he had anything other to do than bad mouth democrats. Now he was part of a positive force for change. The War on Terror and its adjunct War on Iraq made him feel swell. The government was his to love again! But he still had to hate everyone who disagreed with him, right? Yes, of course. There were still a few pesky liberals out there struggling for truth to out. Fox turned up Ann Coulter's mic another notch, and now our little guy was sad about being happy.

In the blink of an eye protesters were taking to the streets demanding no death to innocent Iraqis. It was the 60s all over again. Before you knew it our little guy's wife and herAfrican American co-worker friend would be burning their bras and embarrassing him. He didn't want to hate everyone, but it seemed the only possible thing he could do to maintain his sanity. So he did it. He felt worse, so he hated some more. Then he was clinically depressed and he hated more and more. He thought about hating himself, but Fox hadn't told him to...yet.

Late 2003: the Democrats had this crazy-quilt array of presidential hopefuls, all multi-culti and a woman thrown in for good measure. "God! What do they want this nation to become?" our little guy asked as he considered the possibility of unburdening his hatred. But, his hate was comfortable. He'd felt it for so long he couldn't actually remember any other feeling. So, even though the economy was in the crapper and the War on Iraq was reaching quagmire status he puffed up his hatred to unknown proportions and voted for Bush.

Now he's part of the new American Final Solution. Completely blinded by hate, and without a compassionate God to turn to (the churches have all caught the hate bug, too), he is alone with his dwindling 401(k) and a permanently dismissed empathy. He won't be getting any empathy in return, either. After all the years of bile spewing, even his kids, who voted for Kerry, want nothing to do with him.

He got his tax cut, and several more over the years. Now the government he learned to hate hates him right back. They never really cared for the little guy. They just used him and his anger to make sure they got what they really wanted - him in poverty with not rights left to demand the return of his dignity as a citizen of the greatest nation the world has ever known.

The accidental fascist, living next door to you.