"If you tell a lie big enough and often enough, people will come to believe it." -- Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister
Since President Obama assumed office in January, the terms "Fascist" and "Nazi" have increasingly been applied to him by political opponents. Some demonstrators have even carried signs of Obama's face with a Hitler mustache. Evidently, the president's accusers are oblivious to the meaning of these repugnant acts.Fascism is the totalitarian organization of government and society by a single-party dictatorship, intensely nationalist, racist, militarist and imperialist. Other characteristics include denial of basic human equality, a code of behavior based on lies and violence, opposition to international law and order, a distrust of reason, antifeminism and intolerance of labor unions.Unlike communism, which takes root in poor, undeveloped nations such as Russia and China, fascism typically grows in technologically advanced countries like Italy, Germany and Japan.Presumably, President Obama has been called a "Nazi," the German brand of fascism, because the name is derived from "national socialism," and many people who dislike him think he is a socialist.In fact, fascism and socialism are mutually exclusive. Hitler deplored socialism and, shortly after coming to power, outlawed the German socialist party, along with all other political parties.Moreover, at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, Hitler refused to shake hands with the African-American gold medalist track star, Jesse Owens, solely because of his race. To call the president a Nazi is the height of ignorance and demagoguery.So, how were a bunch of psychopaths and criminals like the Nazis able to assume power? They took over the government with support from wealthy industrialists like the Krupp and Thyssen families, who would benefit from a war economy; and from the lower middle classes who felt betrayed by Germany's defeat in World War I, and the devastating inflation and depression that followed.The German people had lost faith in themselves. As Eric Hoffer wrote in his 1951 classic, "The True Believer": "Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves." In this case, the "holy cause" was fascism.A holy cause can never succeed without a devil. To Hitler, the primary devil was the Jews, but they were only the first of many to be liquidated. Ernest Hemingway, while living in Mussolini's Italy in 1922, noted, "The fascists never distinguish between communists, socialists, liberals and labor union members. They are all 'Reds' and cannot be trusted." Anyone who deviated from the party line was an enemy.Hemingway's observation brings to mind Rush Limbaugh, that cantankerous commentator of the far right. When he condemns Democrats as enemies rather than opponents, it sounds like a call to arms. When, in 2008, he publicly hoped for riots in Denver during the Democratic Convention, he was stoking violence. When he asserts that liberalism and socialism are the same, he is appealing to ignorance and fear.When he questions the patriotism, and speaks contemptuously of all with whom he disagrees, he crosses the line of propriety vital to a healthy two-party political system. Rush Limbaugh is not a fascist, but his histrionics sometimes contain fascist overtones that his listeners should beware.In England, the party out of power is referred to as "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition." It's imperative that Republicans reclaim their historic tradition of loyal, responsible opposition within the framework of our constitutional republic. Otherwise, either they will disappear, or our democracy will be at risk.The stakes are high; the choice is clear.