Slowly but surely the language of lumpen totalitarianism creeps into democratic political life.

Scarcely a day goes by with President Chavez of Venezuela ‘seizing’ some or other private company, usually with some banal bombastic menacing statements:

A few days ago, during one of the rambling television and radio monologues for which he is notorious, he announced he was “declaring war” on the private sector. The main battleground, it seems, will be the food industry and the principal target the Polar group, which is Venezuela’s biggest private conglomerate owned by the Mendoza family.

The group supplies Venezuelans with many of their basic foods, including margarine, cooking oil and maize flour. It claims to represent nearly 3 per cent of non-oil GDP.

“But you’re mistaken if you think I don’t dare expropriate Polar, Lorenzo Mendoza,” Mr Chavez said, addressing his broadcast remarks to the company chairman.

Then we have this headline in the Times in 2008 (which uses fascist language not reflected in the article itself):

Americans must give the Republicans a good kicking on November 4

What does that ‘good kicking’ conjure up? A group of cowardly, bullying Clockwork Orange-type thugs viciously piling in to someone on the ground – an image far from moderate, inclusive democratic process which assumes mutual respect and open-minded tolerance.

This violent expression seems to have inflitrated the Labour Party in particular, sneaking in with the influence of Trotskyist activists and their proclivity for street brawling during demonstrations.

Here’s a typical example oozing post-modern irony, from a Labour blog written by one Chris Paul. The subject is the National Bullying Helpline – which itself is said to need the incentive structure offered by a bullying boot:

The National Bullying Helpline (NBH) deserve a good kicking, a good metaphorical kicking, for their truly horrendous fails in professional standards.

Most recently we have this appalling example from two senior members of the Obama administration:

Sunday talk show of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar describing their tough dealing with BP by saying, “Our job is basically to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum…”

The “step-on-the-neck” image had the White House seal of approval that was made clear on Monday by Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs. “I think that kind of sums up in that Western Colorado way how – what we’re trying to convey,” Gibbs said.

Not so much Western Colorado as jackbooted Brownshirts in Weimar Germany?

Vile, and inexcusable. President Obama himself quickly but unconvincingly rowed back from that expression, but now has come up with another crude kicking metaphor.

Maybe as his ratings deservedly decline it will dawn on him that by kicking BP he is kicking millions of American shareholders, pension fund stakeholders and workers. But by then real damage to everyone will have been done.

All this sort of thing stems from a dumbed-down populist nervousness in our decaying political classes, manifesting itself in the idea held by many politicians that these days they are entitled to lash out at any opponents and even at their own voters to show how tough they are.

And for a stunning example of this, live on camera, enter US Congressman Bob Etheridge – angry Democrat bully and, we fervently hope, now Official Loser: