the outcome of the election

[Occhidiangela]

First of all, you don't really know what a Leninist is.  Look it up...  Then proceed to kick your own ass. 

Is anything Left of Bush Leninist?  Or is the middle somewhere in between... If that's the case, then I suppose we should be hailing Bush as a fascist.  To tell the truth, he's probably closer to that than Kerry is to being a Leninist.  In the grand scheme of the 'radical to reactionary spectrum', he's quite a ways to the right what with his legislating morality, blind faith in laissez-faire and militarist tendencies.  The Democrats are much closer to the middle.  As I've said in another thread, the Democrats are right of center on the basis of their economic and social policies in most other "developed democracies" in the world.  With all of that being said, I'll refrain from labelling Bush as such, because, well, he isn't a fascist.  Maybe that kind of labelling works where you come from.  Most on the Lounge know enough just to shake their head at that kind of backwater rhetoric.   

That being said, if you think that you can explain to me how the Democrats or even their free enterprise liberal Hollywood backers are, in fact, Leninist, then by all means, give it a try. Something tells me that you won't do that. [right][snapback]59226[/snapback][/right]

Is anything Left of Bush Leninist? Or is the middle somewhere in between... If that's the case, then I suppose we should be hailing Bush as a fascist. To tell the truth, he's probably closer to that than Kerry is to being a Leninist.

I am left of President Bush, and I promise you, I am not a Leninist. You can take that on faith. "Anything left of Pres Bush is Leninist?" Not hardly.

Do you really understand what a fascist is (Pinochet or Mussollini, for example). Do you actually understand where Pres Bush is coming from? You can't be a fascist and believe in the American Constitution at the same time. Complete self contradiction. When you make that comparison, you try to fit a horseshoe onto a cow.

When you say "the Democrats are much closer to the middle" consider that the Democratic party has any number of cliques, some approaching Zel Miller, a very centrist Southern Democrat, others approaching Senator Clinton, a significantly left of center liberal. There are variations in between. The Democratic party allowed a non centrist message to be put out in their name, particularly from folks in Hollywood and the press, and for that matter such wits as moveon.org, not to mention Soros. Bad tactics, IMO. Lack of qualityh control hurts overall quality of message.

That goes back to the other disappointment I mentioned, I think, earlier: that the platform was designed as "I hate Pres Bush" and "He does not deserve to be Pres, he stole the last one" and other non-forward thinking themes, from the get go. Hey Al Gore, did you do your own party any favors with your rant? What I saw of WJ Clinton's remarks were at least more temperate, a bit more thoughtful.

Absent a lot of rather vague promises, common currency in many elections, where was the platform?

Last point: Left, Right, and Center in America should probably be referenced to an imagined American Center, a moving target. I think you'd catch on to the idea that a liberal Arab Emir is still quite conservative. (See the Emir of Qatar, considered by many Arabs to be a progressive.) As to the "developed world" and their liberal sensibilities, it has flourished under the umbrella of safety that was paid for by someone else. Left to their own devices . . . we shall see. That too will change over time.

Occhi