Glenn Beck needs a civics lesson

Let me state outright that I am a Calvin Coolidge Republican - small government, generally favorable toward the free market, supporter of civil liberties.  I will vote for John McCain in our next senate election.  I didn't like the health care bill.  I don't like state-sponsored abortion.  I don't believe the government is always the best institution to solve the problems in society (though I think people who whine about "it's the church's job" should get up and do something about it)

But I'm not a tea-throwing, fist-shaking, piss-on-the-left Republican. I actually switched my offical party affiliation after W. proved that the party of fiscal conservatives could run up a massive deficit and then turn around and pay for a huge bailout.

Indeed, I find some irony in the fact that so many of the people who are anti-government zealots are part of a political party that began with the goal of keeping one government intact and striking a balance between federal and state's rights.

What scares me right now is the parallels I see between the current rhetoric of the right and the early propaganda or Nazi Germany.  While Glenn Beck is quick to point out that the Communists and the Fascists once used the term "social justice" in their slogans, it is Beck who beckons listeners to place political ideology above one's faith.  Scary stuff.  After all, the Confessing Church was first blasted as "too liberal" before it was ever considered a true enemy to Nazi Germany.

I'm not calling Republicans fascists.  However, I would like a quick civics lesson for the likes of Beck.  Fascism is not a political or economic system, but an ideology (much like communism) that general adheres to the following principals:

1. Nationalism: Hypernationalism toward the "nation" while being openly against the government - thereby setting up a potential coup
2. Militarism: The use of grassroots violence and militarism in the name of social conservatism - brown shirt tactics
3. A National Myth: A revisionist view of history toward recover a "volk" myth of "the good old days" (Texas, anyone?) and even calls to place one's nation above one's church affiliation 
4. Loss of Civil Liberties: The support of government surveillance in the name of rooting out internal terrorist threats (oddly enough, the same people who don't want me to fill out a census form feel perfectly fine with the government reading my e-mails to make sure I'm not a terrorist)
5. State-sponsored Capitalism: by placing social welfare programs as being Communist, they open the door to the privatization of all public programs (the Volkswagon is a great concept here - paying a company to create a car that supports capitalism with populist rhetoric)
6. A victim mentality
7. Hero worship - placing too much power in the hands of the top leader 
8. Racism 
9. Media - by labelling any "liberal" media as unpatriotic, the Nazis were able to seize various media outlets.  
10. Xenophobia / Anti-immigration - before they attacked the Jews, they attacked immigrants in Germany - I've seen immigrants being attacked and trust me, it felt like a fascist country
11. Imperialism: this is done especially in the name of "liberating" other countries
12. Anti-intellectualism (especially toward college education) as being elitist

I'm not suggesting that the right is fascist.  After all, the left became dangerously close to extreme socialism a few times.  Nor am I suggesting that the far right wing, the tea baggers (does that not have at least a little bit of innuendo?) will win the heart of the American people.  If there is any virtue in America it is that we allow enough extremism to be able to laugh at it.  Hopefully Sarah Palin will go the way of Borat.

So, it has me wondering if maybe all the anti-public education people are right.  Perhaps we have screwed up education if people didn't learn enough in history and civics to determine that Glenn Beck doesn't understand the meaning of fascism.