One way to stop the rise of fascism in this country is, of course, to vote for sane people, not nutcases, regardless of party. However, a lot of people did that in the last election and we are still stuck with the Ravin' Radio and the Tea Parties.

One non-violent way of doing something might be to find out the sponsors of demagogues like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and that dippy woman whose name my mind refuses to hold on to, Marilee Morgan ??? I think. The trouble is, finding out who sponsors them means listening to their shows. I'm too old for the strain on my heart and have a weak stomach, too, alas, but if someone else wanted to post a list, I'd send email.

Anyway, if enough people write to the sponsors threatening to never buy their goods or services as long as they are paying for the death of democracy, it could well have an effect.

Starbucks, for instance, now refuses to allow those guys carrying unloaded guns into their coffee shops in the Bay Area, because so many customers complained.

On a fantasy-fiction note, maybe we should allow a certain number of Tea Party states to secede, as their proponents want. Since these tend to be the poorest states in the nation, without the taxes from the "liberal" areas of this country, they'd find themselves mired in poverty and lacking an army, navy, and air force -- real fast. We could offer the decent people in those States asylum elsewhere of course. :-)

The really ironic thing is that the states with the most Teabagger action are the states who get the most federal aid. Some of them in fact get as must as 129% of the amount of federal taxes they pay -back- in federal aid. States like California get somewhere around 70% back, is all. Yet the Teabaggers insist they don't want "big government". Without it they'd be drowning.