Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site kontron.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!petsd!pesnta!pertec!kontron!cramer From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Slippery slope nightmares of history Message-ID: <403@kontron.UUCP> Date: Wed, 24-Jul-85 15:16:56 EDT Article-I.D.: kontron.403 Posted: Wed Jul 24 15:16:56 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 27-Jul-85 02:42:44 EDT References: <991@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> <245@ubvax.UUCP> <376@kontron.UUCP> <416@spar.UUCP> Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA Lines: 35 > > Hitler and Mussolini came to power by election, not by coup. While > > Hitler had no good intentions, I suspect Mussolini may have, but evil > > tends to build on its self. > > > > Clayton Cramer > > We seem to have uncovered a vein of libertarian mythology here. No > sooner have I had to correct than Clayton chimes in to add Mussolini to their pantheon (or pandemonium) > of democratically elected dictators. Just in case any of you might take > Clayton seriously out there, I'd like to briefly lay out some historical > facts of the matter. The Fascists managed to win only 35 out of 535 > seats in the Chamber of Deputies in the election of 1921. Mussolini > seized power the following year by mobilizing his Fascist militias in > his "March on Rome", openly challenging the authority of the weak > coalition government and threatening to lay siege to the capital in the > name of restoring social order. The King caved in and asked Mussolini > to form a government, rather than risk civil war. > Wrong again, Baba. The Fascists, it is true, held only 35 seats --- but they had more seats than any other party! The "March on Rome" was a celebration of the Fascist victory. The Fascists formed a government in coalition with other parties. The election "reforms" of the Fascists did make the next elections very unfree --- but the process by which those "reforms" took place were legal. > All tyrants want constitutional legitimacy. Both Hitler and Mussolini > managed to secure something like it; in Hitler's case by duping larger > parties into thinking they could co-opt his movement, and in Mussolini's > case by a (seemingly) viable blackmail threat of insurrection. Neither > of them were elected to power. > > Baba Baba, it's time to go to your local library and read some history.