Reply #13: That capitalism is derived from the core principles of Christianity...

[newswolf56]

was demonstrated a century ago by Max Weber. Fascism is merely capitalism -- that is, the elevation of infinite greed into a virtue -- carried to logical extreme. Nazism is the next step beyond that. Theocracy -- which brings capitalism home to its Christian origins -- merely completes the circle.

With all due respect, when you write that "the Republican tilt toward authoritarianism has far more in common with both fascism and communism," you demonstrate your unfamiliarity with fascism (the logical extension of the Fundamentalist Christian {and thus capitalistic} concept of ubermenschen/untermenschen) and Marxism -- acknowledgment of the historical truth of class-struggle and radical measures (thus far all savagely defeated by capitalist subversion, whether in the former Soviet Union or the former New Deal) to alleviate the suffering of the oppressed masses. Stalinism departed far from Marxism -- the Russians were in fact ensnared by their own history -- but fascism (and thus ultimately modern theocracy) are unquestionably the outgrowths of capitalism, and as both the German and U.S. examples show, may be imposed even on nations with lengthy democratic traditions. (Some of the cities of the Hanseatic League had representative democracy even before Magna Carta.)

That hoary old shibboleth "capitalism is just an economic system" is merely another part of the deliberate obfuscation that hides not only the truth of class struggle but the truth that to survive -- especially in an economy of increasing scarcity -- capitalism must impose a slave state, and theocracy is obviously the most efficient means for so doing. The public's abysmal ignorance of Marx and Marxist analysis -- not only now more relevant than ever but in fact the only effective antidote to what is being done to us -- is the final nail in the coffin of American liberty.