When fascism comes to America, it will wear a broad smile and call itself “progressive.”

Mona Charen:

Liberals used to love to quote the (apparently apocryphal) line from a Sinclair Lewis character “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and waving a cross.”

Wonder if they’re reflecting on that this week?

We knew that early in the first term, the White House attempted to exclude a news agency from pool reports. Now come revelations that the Justice Department engaged in sweeping eavesdropping on AP journalists; that the IRS targeted conservative private citizens while favoring liberal ones; that the EPA charged fees to conservatives groups while waiving them for “green” activists; that the Justice Department retaliated against a whistleblower in the Fast and Furious investigation; that the Department of State demoted and attempted to silence a senior diplomat who told the truth about Benghazi, and today, that the Department of Justice went to an administrative judge to label Fox News reporter James Rosen a “co-conspirator” for attempting to report on what was happening in North Korea. They tracked his movements and read his private emails.

It’s time, ladies and gentlemen of the press, for a rethink.

The affidavit the FBI prepared said that Rosen “asked, solicited and encouraged Mr. Kim (the State Department employee) to disclose sensitive internal United States documents and intelligence information. The reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim’s vanity and ego.” Imagine. That is a flagrant assault on the First Amendment.

If this is not sufficient to give liberal members of the press second thoughts about their pin-up in the White House, there is truly no hope at all for them. They will have proved themselves utterly corrupt. And we will have learned that when fascism comes to America, it will wear a broad smile and call itself “progressive.”

Via Vanderleun

In those iconic newsreels where Hitler rants in black and white, it's easy to forget that those rants had content.

He was railing against a group of people, labeling them as enemies of the state (and enemies of the people who mattered), mocking them, de-legitimizing them, blaming them for the country's problems, tacitly endorsing any actions taken against them.

Oh yes; it can happen here.