Where Fascism Lives: Food, Fascism, and Obama Rules
John Mackey, the feisty CEO of Whole Foods, says Obamacare is “fascist economics” and he regrets having said it, even though he insists — correctly — that it’s a textbook case of Mussolini-style corporate statism. Private property continues to exist, but the state controls all business. That’s why the fascists called their totalitarian system a “third way” between unbridled capitalism and Soviet-style Communism.
Back in the twenties and early thirties, before German National Socialism became the archetypal “fascist” doctrine, Mussolini’s call for a new kind of national economy intrigued many serious thinkers and leaders, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Mr. Mackey was also right to regret using the term “fascist,” because it invokes so many passions and stereotypes that it hinders, rather than advances, understanding. But “fascism” was a very successful mass movement in Western Europe for an entire generation, and it flourishes in many countries today. It behooves us to understand why it was so popular, and how most of our politics differ from it. We have fascist economics, but certainly not fascist politics or foreign policy in America today, even though there are echoes of it every so often.
There are many varieties of fascism, but the principal elements are:
- A single party dictatorship, headed by a charismatic leader.
- A politics of enthusiasm, involving the masses in ritual public celebration, and direct exchanges between the leader and his followers en masse.
- Hypernationalism, or, in the Nazi case, racism, based on the claim that the nation or race is unique, superior, and entitled to play a major role in world affairs.
- The aforementioned “corporate state” in which private property is legitimate, but the state dictates its proper use.
Fascism was created by the generation that fought, and died in historically unprecedented numbers, in the First World War. It was very much a war ideology: the post-war world, they insisted, must not be governed by the effete and corrupt ruling classes of the past, but by those who had demonstrated courage and virtue in the trenches. The elevation of war heroes to national leadership was seen as a guarantee that future generations would be shaped by the best the nation (or, in the case of the Third Reich, the race) could offer, and they vowed to fight, and destroy, those who had opposed the war, and sapped the nation’s virility thereafter.
As they extended their control over their countries, the fascists bragged of having created a new polity, a totalitarian state that controlled everything and everybody. Fascists’ heroic virtues were incarnated in a charismatic leader. Mussolini’s mass appeal was remarkable — you can see it in the monster crowds that gathered under his balcony in Piazza Venezia — as was Hitler’s, and that of others, from Romania to Spain (the charismatic leader there was not Franco, but Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange). It was common to speak of such leaders as “men of destiny,” world-historical individuals who had imposed their will on history and would reshape the world.
It’s hard to imagine our current leaders speaking in this sort of language. The very idea of bringing war heroes to domestic power is anathema to them. President Obama ran on a promise to end our involvement in Middle East wars, and, in his Second Inaugural Address, boasted of fulfilling his pledge. Fascists don’t change the world by “leading from behind.” They take charge in front of the troops.
Nor is there much in the way of hypernationalism in our current crop of leaders. We’ve rarely had much in the way of traditional nationalism in America; we’re patriots, we celebrate the American dream, but we don’t believe in a unique “people” or “race,” destined to impose its will on the rest of the world.
No doubt there are American political activists who would like their side to totally dominate the country’s affairs, as we can hear in recent calls for Obama to “destroy” the Republican Party once and for all. But it is hard to imagine a mass movement in this country based on an open call for a totalitarian state.
Charismatic leaders are not unique to fascism, and we have had many political leaders, including Obama, who are inspirational orators and who produce crowd behavior — such as the “jumpers” who rallied to Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign — that is reminiscent of the fascist masses. But we are a long way from the cult of personality that dominated Italy and Germany in the fascist epoch.
Indeed, one feature of charismatic leadership seems common to all modern politics: the tendency of people to excuse the leader for the errors of his government. When things go badly, there’s a tendency for followers to say “if only our leader knew what was going on, he’d fix it.” So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see poll results that show the American people unhappy with Obama’s programs (they don’t like Obamacare, or higher taxes), but largely supportive of the man himself.
If you want examples of contemporary fascism, the easiest place to start is radical Islamists who openly call for totalitarian rule by men chosen by God, and invoke jihad in the “war against the infidel.” No wonder their predecessors in the 1920s and 1930s were inspired by Mussolini and Hitler. And no wonder they despise Obama, who they view as a weakling, a loser, and a pushover.
History repeats as…whatever it repeats as. Can’t expect the next jackboot to be the same as the last or to be as recognizable.
Everything for the State? Nothing outside the State? Nothing against the State? We do seem to be moving towards satisfying the three.
History doesn’t really repeat but it sometimes rhymes.
Georges Santayana put it this way. “Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.”
Hasn’t history and current events amply demonstrated the peril of Big Government, be it communist, fascist or the modern ‘social[ist] Democracy?’ Yet here we are, condemned to Obama bin Lenin’s view of the proper role of government.
The thing you learn from history, is that nobody learns anything from history.
I agree that we are in a proto-fascist phase, and under the Democratic Party, we may make the full transition. Here is one Democratic initiative that supports my dire prognostication. http://clarespark.com/2013/01/05/american-fascism-and-the-future-of-english-and-american-literature/. But that is not the worst of it, for the President’s inauguration speech was just as alarming to those of us who have studied the fascist movements in Europe. See http://clarespark.com/2013/01/21/citizen-obama-political-pluralism-and-the-elusive-search-for-unity/.
please remember that not all tyrants are fascists or communists. sometimes they’re plain tyrants. fascism is a specific historical phenomenon, not just a nasty dictatorship we don’t like.
Ordinary dictators who aren’t fascistic generally are nowhere near as bad as the actual fascists. That’s because fascism involves totalitarianism, along with a socialist economy that looks “crony-capitalist” on the surface in that some degree of private ownership is maintained, but in fact involves heavy state regulation of everything. Fascism also involves emotional idolatry of the government, and we certainly have seen that.
The twentieth century saw national socialism (Nazism) and international socialism (communism). The primary form in the twenty-first century, thus far, has been Islamofascism. How obvious do we need it to be, before we start to recognize what we are up against?
I don’t see why we would have to have all four of the conditions exactly as they were in pre-war Europe to be worried about fascism taking hold here in America.
1) A single party dictatorship, headed by a charismatic leader.
– if one party is not defeat-able and controls all public policy and administration, then it differs in no consequential way form what we think of as fascism.
2) A politics of enthusiasm, involving the masses in ritual public celebration, and direct exchanges between the leader and his followers en masse.
– I was absolutely chilled when I saw videos in 2008 of school kids singing praises of Obama with approving adults egging them on. It’s only gotten worse.
3) Hypernationalism, or, in the Nazi case, racism, based on the claim that the nation or race is unique, superior, and entitled to play a major role in world affairs.
– true that this is not in play here but why would it be? Most of the civilized world realizes that military aggression will not work. Today’s version of this is domination of world government by central banks, cap-and-trade schemes, unionization and other things that allow “control” of the world’s resources without the necessity of military actions.
4) The aforementioned “corporate state” in which private property is legitimate, but the state dictates its proper use.
– as you have said this is here now. From putting an addition on your house to collectively accessing the natural resources beneath our feet, we can do nothing without the approval of government bureaucrats.
You started to draw a very important parallel, but then backed off. Just because it isn’t our father’s fascism doesn’t mean it is any less frightening.
I would urge you to revisit point #3. No, we don’t have the racism or racial divisions being directed against other nations, but we do have them being used internally. Our “dear Leader” is very busy using his proxies to gin up racial and class warfare hatreds and divisions. When the time comes, there will be plenty of ready-made domestic scapegoats.
The Obama administration and the Democrats also use children as props, very much as the Nazis did in their propaganda films. Unionized teachers are also not averse to promoting the government line to teach “the children”.
Italy had a population of 40M+ during WWII and the rise of its fascism. The US has over 300M, more than Europe had during WWII. The hyper-nationalism was between country states. I wonder if our hyper-partisanship can be a substitute for the hyper-nationalism? Could the European map be substituted by the red vs. blue maps of the US? Can military war heroes be substituted by culture war heroes? If so, all the ingredients to fascism are in place except for the property thing. But… what happens when wealth starts being redistributed? The US owns parts of major auto companies, etc.
Political science seems to be devolving as fast as the rest of the culture. Regardless of the propaganda you hear, Left and Right are, in fact, opposites. The impetus for all Leftism is the destruction of normal human society. Started with the delusions of the Enlightenment (the Social Contract, tabula rasa, etc.) and became real with the French Revolution. The French Revo was the first, and the type, Left-wing movement. Every foundation of society was attacked simultaneously — religion, culture, language, and, numero uno, race. Note that ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ derive from words denoting common ancestry. Every society, animal or human, is related individuals competing for conventional goals by conventional means. Per the author: nation, people, race, breeding population, deme, tribe, whatever name you give to genetically distinct groups of people, are unigue. This is basic genetics. To claim that one race is ‘superior’ to others, or ‘born to rule’, and only this, is racism. Please do not promote the lie that racism includes the perfectly factual obserevation that human races are different. This is as fantastical as the related claim that men and women are not different, but behave differently because of upbringing.
Sorry, my train of thought got side-tracked there. Rightism is a modern reaction to Leftism. Leftism being based on the destruction of normal society, Rightism is the orgsanized movement to defend and preserve normal society. Hitler (although promoting socialistic economic ideas, used violence to defeat the anti-German Leftists, to great accliam from ordinary Germans whose society had been under relentless attack) came to power promising to defeat the Leftist Weimar Culture, which was anti-German (really, anti-human) in every regard — religion, language, art, history, and, generally the very idea of a ‘German people’ instead of a global Kumbaya humanity. As one’s everyday observations contradict this ideology, serious brainwashing is required before it can gain a foothold anywhere. It has succeeded very well in the US, where the dominant WASP society has dis-integrated, and a number of competing socities are fighting to fill the vacuum. The most sucessful anti-American front of the 20th Century has been the ACLU, for example
“History repeats as…whatever it repeats as. Can’t expect the next jackboot to be the same as the last or to be as recognizable.”
Oh, but the current fascism is recognizeable, if you pay attention to the rhetoric and to history. The first time I heard Barack Obama going on about “change” in the 2008 cycle, I told my wife that he was either socialist or communist. Later in the 2008 cycle, I heard him state in an TV inteview that he had little regard for the Constitution, although he didn’t say that in so many words. His actions since then have borne out my initial impressions of the man.
Of course, he is not the only one with fascist notions. Just today I read that John Brennan, the man who would be CIA chief, came out in favor of restricting the First Amendment as a University of Texas graduate student in 1980. I have no confidence that he has changed his views much since then.
But then just about everyone in the Obama administration is inimcal to the Constitution.
I don’t know what Dr. Ledeen would make of this, but…
The Mystery of Fascism – http://www.la-articles.org.uk/fascism.htm#b20
And it’s only taken a generation. Just think what the next generation will bring unless we’re smart/fortunate enough to turn things around.
My view is the American electorate is more analogous to the Jews of Egypt some 3700 years ago just before they were totally enslaved by Pharaoh. The Jews there were enslaved slowly over time.
Americans are in the process of becoming enslaved to the government. The government taxes your income; that means you are a slave to the state for those hours you worked for that income. The government imposes many useless regulations on business and does not pay the businesses to carry them out: EG: prove your employees are legal et al; just paying your taxes requires many hours of free slave labor; not being able to pass your estate on to your heirs tax free is slavery to the state…
The TSA and the Islamic terrorist are there as part of the enslavement process: Ethanol energy independence using cellulosic ethanol (corn cobs)(yea, I know it is a BTU thang, and the fact that Brazil is is ethanol energy independent and all their GM, Toyotas, Fords et al come from the factory running on ethanol made in Brazil & not gasoline, does not change it for you, it is a BTU thang; the physics are different down there, right!) means no blackmail oil money (100/bbl) for the terrorist sponsors of the “war against free speech to criticize Islime”…& 10/bbl oil: war ends, we win (yes, 10/bbl if all cars ran on ethanol)…the TSA has nothing to do with AP security, only the process of enslavement.
AP security would have check points on the ramps a mile from the AP with dog sniffers walking around the cars and people would walk by dogs beside a fence walking into the AP and nothing else would be needed.. if AP security were the goal. But you prefer 1000 people/targets in one place unchecked and sex assault by government goons to a brief stop and car sniff, followed by walking past dogs…how long till you submit to sex assault to walk in a grocery store?
Yes, by 1984 I built an ethanol distillery and converted my car to ethanol and no gas; specifically to keep us out of the war we are in now…I failed to get anyone to go to ethanol, and you are becoming a slave…
“…they despise Obama, who they view as a weakling, a loser, and a pushover.”
And are they completely wrong?
Ill Douche…
http://obamacartoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-il-duce.html
The meaning of nationalism isn’t “a unique “people” or “race,” destined to impose its will on the rest of the world”. This is ultra-nationalism or racist nationalism. Healthy nationalism means a people who wants self-determination, independence, to rule their own destiny, where ‘people’ refers to a collective of people usually united by common and distinct language, culture, history, homeland and some common ancestry. This may not be relevant to the USA that was founded on an idea, but it is relevant to peoples that have existed for centuries or millennia and wish to continue existing both as individuals and as a distinct culture with its own heritage and way of doing things. It shouldn’t be delegitimized. The alternative is usually an empire holding different peoples together by force, oppression and intentional eradication of their national identity and culture.
“But it is hard to imagine a mass movement in this country based on an open call for a totalitarian state.”
“recent calls for Obama to “destroy” the Republican Party once and for all.”
“If you want examples of contemporary fascism, the easiest place to start is radical Islamists”
“Hard to imagine”, (that’s the problem) therefore we ignore the warning signs. Obama and his minions desire an imperial presidency as long as Obama lives; they can taste it … and its showing; but that’s too “hard to imagine”.
Islam via the MB wants the flag of Islam flying above the WH, Sharia law as the juriprudence and the want to CHANGE the name of the U.S.A … but that’s too “hard to imagine”. The MSM and the courts openly support all this … but that’s “too hard to imagine”.
By the way; it’s NOT “radical Islamists” that “openly call for totalitarian rule by men chosen by God, and invoke jihad in the “war against the infidel.” That my friend is ISLAM … and we now have an MB arm of the media right here on our shores to carry the water for Islam … that would be Al Jazeera. But that’s too “hard to imagine.
To summarize:
The left sees an opportunity – with Obama in full compliance mode – to seize power and control.
Islam sees an opportunity – with Obama in full compliance mode – to seize power and control.
The MSM the – propaganda arm of the left – sees an opportunity, with Obama in full compliance mode – to seize power and control.
Al Jazeera – the propaganda arm of Islam – sees an opportunity – with Obama in full compliance mode – to seize power and control.
Obama with full support from ALL the above; “dreams” of an imperial presidency for life; he has admitted it on numerous occasions in many different ways – “I can be more flexible in my second term” – and my third and fourth etc. Eliminating the GOP is specifically for that purpose.
ALL the entities mentioned above are NOW engaging in a LAST STAND effort to accomplish everything they’ve said they’re gonna do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But … “that’s too hard to imagine”!!
Let’s not fart around anymore … we face an enemy of the U.S.A. at home; the likes of which has NEVER been seen before. Time to get real!!!!!!
“Hard to imagine”, (that’s the problem) therefore we ignore the warning signs.
The intelligence failures that didn’t stop 9/11 were based on a “failure of imagination.” There were signs and pieces of evidence but people didn’t connect the dots for a variety of reasons, such as the Gorelick (sp) wall between the intelligence agencies and law enforcement that prevented them from working together.
Will we connect the dots this time, or will it also be deemed a “failure of imagination” after the fact?
Amen, brother, amen.
Varieties of Fascism
Lenin/Easter Bloc: Class-based International Socialism
Mussolini/Hitler: Race-based National Socialism
Obama/EU: Class- and Race-based Post-National Socialism
You are falling for Soviet propaganda. Mussolini’s ideaology was not race based, it was nationality based along the lines of the Roman Empire where a Jew like St Paul could become a citizen. If anything Mussolini believed in hybridization of the races.
Where did Mussolini first direct his military for imperial conquest? Was it not Ethiopia? It was not as systematic a style of racism as promulgated by the German National Socialists, but clearly Mussolini saw the legacy of Rome and the “right to dominate” as justification for the Italian conquest of its Mediterranean neighbors.
Mr. Ledeen, nice article.
Permit me, if you will, to add my two cents and my perspective of changes obviously all Americans must soon accept.
As a nation, we aren’t what we used to be. There will be no more Obama Beaches. No more raising flags on MountSuribachis. America used to be drunk with power. Now Americans who long for the old American Dream will have to resort to drinking their troubles away. Obama is here to stay. A few more three year terms is just one executive order away.
One of the most interesting aspects of the transformed America is the role of the President and the first lady.
To me, Michelle Obama represents the neo fascist look, 2013, and President Obama, the neo fascist outlook.
And I heartily approve of both. For it’s high time this nation realized the days of free enterprise and tearing up at the sight of the raising of the red white and blue are over.
Kaput.
Gone.
Sayonara baby.
Those white men values and ideals held by so many so deeply in America’s heartland have been given their walking papers. No even Jack Bauer at his best can stop the tidal wave of ObamaPopularity by proclamation (executive order).
I know Obama opposers are mad. Republicans are furious Obama’s taken their country and turned it into a puppet state where Obama pulls all the strings. No wonder Republicans feel so unconnected. They’re out of power to stay. They’re shocked. Flabbergasted. It’s undeniable that with President Barack Obama at the helm, this nation has a new feel and look.
And so does Michelle. Wasn’t she gorgeous at the inauguration, sporting a $25,000 outfit and a first lady do.
Now, I did hear some catty, jealous slams at her new look. Those people should be put in jail and the key thrown away. Don’t laugh. All in good time.
With Obama, that’s the new American way. If you’re looking toward the old constitution for the law, you’re mistaken.
Just look to Obama.
It should be apparent as all get out to any Republican who knows the score. Obama’s word is now law.
And as beautiful as she is, that’s how intelligent Michelle is as she does her best to help her husband, the great Barack Obama, turn this country into a nation she can be proud of. One where the meek and the poor, our black brothers and sisters, shall inherit the earth.
Remember, there’s a reason Obama transferred 4 trillion in white wealth to black supporters over his first four years.
He was repaying our forebearers who were brought from Africa in chains to slave day and night to make their white masters rich; that same money, which was passed from white generation to generation for generations, deserves to be in black pockets and used to destroy the Republican Party, to steal every vote possible and to ensure that it will never rise again.
Personally, I was so proud of John Roberts for helping turn this past election around with his vote for ObamaCare. Yet I was disappointed it had to be bought with such plum jobs for Roberts’ relatives and children. The Republicans, though, are too tied up in their own underwear to realize it.It seems to me that every day they’re more and more afraid to speak. How funny. How far the mighty have fallen since those hateful times when they were the kings of the castle, on the top of the heap.
In private, Michelle makes me proud when she says she hopes every white man with hate in his heart ends up in ObamaHell, especially anyone who disagrees with the President who knows all things and speaks of honor and truth and, longs for the day when all white males are eliminated from positions of strength and power.
I love watching and listening to Rachel Maddow sing every Obama tune, sucking up to Obama every time she meets him.
I love to hear Rachel talk; the way she describes white men like impotent, empty suits who can’t fight with fists, but need their guns to compete with the blacks busy liberating their big houses, their green money and their white women.
Notice how all the black football, basketball and baseball players have white women? How does it feel. The shoe is now on the other foot. And white women’s lips are finding out what a real man feels like.
Once Obama threatens whites who refuse to give up their guns with jail time, the white gunholders will begin dancing to Obama’s orders like Obama was shooting bullets at their white little feet.
In about nine months, when the white Catholic leaders start going to jail for refusing to abide by ObamaCare and provide black women with the birth control that is their right, everybody will see how soft the mainstream Catholic support of their leadership truly is. The Pope being against abortion and gay marriage is going to come to a gradual end, thanks to Obama not putting up with their entreaties about their claimed rights in the Constitution. Poppycock, Obama will say.
President Obama has said many times that the Constitution, which was used to keep slavery alive, is to be defined however Obama Barack defines it.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer to more and more whites on the hill that the law is now whatever President Obama says it is.
And I laugh and laugh every time Obama issues an executive order and the Republicans stand around like cigar store indians without the faintest idea what to do or say, they’ll mouths open; agast.
When Obama became President,he said he was on a seek and destroy mission, seeking out whites that opposed him, and destroying the white institutions in this evil country that have oppressed our black brothers and sisters for far too long.
The Muslim terrorist attacks, the ones to come, will make 9/11 look like child’s play.
But the fear they engender will be nothing nothing like the fear that would have them shaking in their boots if they knew the plans President Obama has for them over the next four years.
Guns gone. Constitution on its ear. Republican Party doomed. National debt so vast that it will require the hubble telescope to see it.
It will be fun watching. Because I’ve got a ringside seat.
I forced myself to read your post. It was worth the effort. I’m not sure if it was sarcasm; but, it doesn’t matter. There is no better example of why we will surely have another Civil War.
Wow. You are the perfect example of Right wing Exteam Extream extarem Extreamism. Where in the hell did you come up with that crap. Ive seen people mix a little truth with lies before but you take the cake. You must get ALL your info from PJ media. WOW You put Limbaugh to shame. Wow.
Wow. You’re the epitome of the low-information proletariat. Everything he said is obvious to anyone willing to actually see what’s happining in the US today. Just because you hold your hands over your ears, scrunch your eyes shut, and chant loudly about how everyone you disagree with is a mouth-breather doesn’t mean you won’t be run over by the real American people when we finally take measures to stop your destruction of our country.
You’re Eric Holder right?
That has got to be the most bizarre rant I’ve seen in quite some time.
I really like Thomas Friedman’s column today : Breaking All the Rules
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khc9Bv8h3m4
John Kerry side stepping the the leaders and appealing to the people. And this talk about Apes and pigs can be turned upside down . Apes are child angels that used not be abused nor put in filthy cages and pigs their flesh taste like the flesh of Jesus we are Christians are commanded to eat.
Lets war on bugs not mammals or birds those creepy mosquitoes and ticks biting bed bugs and fleas and abused women beat up by her husband see him as a over sized bed bug ready to bite her sleeping next to him or when he meets her at the door with stick she see him as a human sized mosquito and is so glad there are sanctuaries to flee to to restore her beauty
Then I do the War on USA to get animals treated with great respect and highest honor for the child angels I see
footnote
then liberated woman with her eyes wide open see her over worked husband come home look like dirty ape or muddy pig have great affection for him and serve him and his needs as he brings home the bacon
I think it is closer to the F word than your article suggests for more reasons than the Obama Administration’s explicit adoption of Industrial Policy and repeted alliance with tech companies to collect data to reorganize the economy around Sustainability. As if more data and a supercomputer were all the Kremlin needed to make central planning a success. Except now “decision-making” is the substituted term.
Beyond the Crony Dirigisme, the real connection is emotional. Feelings being cultivated instead of reason. The interest by officials in charge of education to cultivate an unconscious impulse to act on behalf of the collective. That’s the nationalism that led Germany to World War I. It was fighting against Individualism with very romanticized views of what having a State directed economy and society entailed. Obama’s actual Common Core K-12 and his higher ed changes through unheralded initiatives like The Crucible Moment report are all consistent with creating just such an impulse. In fact the frequency with which the blueprints mention using education to create a new form of nonrational consciousness are beyond anything that horrified Julian Benda in the 20s. And he was right. Such deliberate cultivation of emotion to act on behalf of the collective did lead to another conflagration.
It’s why Outcomes Based Education never goes away and is pushed by UNESCO as part of its cultural evolution of the West efforts. If you are going to remake people and a culture noetically as both this Administration and the UN generally are trying to do, you need values,. attitudes, and beliefs in order to create different mindsets. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/excellence-means-education-putting-what-we-feel-wish-for-and-think-in-harmony/ lays out not only what is being forced on students in the name of education. It also makes it clear why performance assessments that involve activity are so important to changing people vs the old test of knowledge. That bolstered the independent abstract mind.
I wrote a paper in college on the T word. What made a government totalitarian vs merely authoritarian. And it was whether personal beliefs and emotions and private thoughts themselves were targeted by the state. And the answer is absolutely. The definitionof Learning and Student “Growth” and Student “Achievement” are heavily affective and involve collecting exactly that data.
So I am careful about using words laden with emotion that get in the way of rational analysis. But that does not mean they are not more apt than this fine article lays out.
Crony capitalism; e.g., how Oskar Schindler made his money in Schindler’s List.
Crony capitalism was the only way anybody could make any significant amount of money at that time.
Crony capitalism isn’t capitalism; it’s corruption, and yes, fascism is a system founded on corruption.
“It was common to speak of such leaders as “men of destiny,” world-historical individuals who had imposed their will on history and would reshape the world.”
Hmmm, “reshape the world.” Where have I heard that one before? Oh, that’s right, Obama said that he would “transform” America, shaping it to HIS vision of what it should be. Personally, I don’t know what was wrong with the “old” America, the one that was well-grounded in the basic principles laid out in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. But I guess that shows you just how old-fashioned I am. But it seems more and more that liberals and the Democrats in general have no use for our past or our founding documents, and promote this idea that with the “modern” age comes “modern” ideas, like “social justice” and the “redistribution of wealth,” which is basically just your tired-old socialism and communism dressed up with new names.
I’m getting tired of people wanting to “transform” this nation. Rather than stick with the ideas, laws, and principles that made this nation a world superpower, we now are supposed to emulate the failed social-welfare states in Europe, all in the name of “social justice” and “wealth redistribution.”
This country is coming dangerously close to another civil war. I do not say this lightly. The current ideas in Washington cannot coexist with the ideas and laws in our founding documents. And the social elites that go to the cocktail parties in places like Washington, San Francisco, and New York City do NOT represent the people that live in most of the rest of America. Something has got to give, and soon. Perhaps the final straw will come when we finally do go bankrupt and can no longer support the expensive welfare state Obama and his minions have created. Another possibility is the federal imposition of massive gun control laws, which would force Americans to choose between Washington or the Second Amendment. All I know is, when the break finally does come, Americans will not know how to deal with it, making the possibility of a severe fracture in this nation a distinct possibility. And with that will come civil war. All it will take is one major issue (like gun control) that will send this nation over the edge. And if you don’t think it can happen here, well, that’s what people said back in 1861, and look what happened.
We are much closer to the charismatic dictatorship than it may seem. Ever since movies became common, the American people have been swayed by the pretty boy on the screen. If they look good, talk good and make the right gestures and facial expressions in time with the right words, they’ll rope the suckers every time. Nothing new in that really only that modern media meant instead of roping in small mobs they could get nations for the same effort.
I suppose Obama is charismatic since so many seem to fall for him. Simple, weak minds easy to dominate, especially if conditioned by government schools not to think critically but to see emotions as the highest ideal. Obama strokes their egos and they purr. When the time comes, they’ll bare their claws, too.
The real saving grace may be that usually something happens to break the spell. Former worshipers no longer see Captain Charisma as the savior but a fraud. That’s when they turn on him. What will it take? Who knows. Maybe a failure one month of the food stamp cards or a series of terror attacks by Jihadis. The left is pretty invested in the lie so it would have to be something major. Pity we’ll be here for it all.
“John Mackey, the feisty CEO of Whole Foods, says Obamacare is “fascist economics” and he regrets having said it, even though he insists — correctly — that it’s a textbook case of Mussolini-style corporate statism.”
Why the Hell did he apologize?
He is absolutely right and I’ve been saying it for years. Italy had the fascist Benito Mussillini and we in America have our Barackito Obamalini.
Fascists, and other socialists like communists, must always believe in the state rather than in individuals. It’s in their nature. America’s, or Kenya’s, Benito Mussolini is Barack “You didn’t build that [the state did]” Obama, aka Barackito Obamalini. And whether that be a business or career or whatever, it is pure unadulterated Benito Mussolini, just less erudite than the way Benito Mussolini put it as Obama has a much lower IQ than Mussolini did. So if Benito Mussolini was a fascist, and he was, so is Barack Obama.
Benito Mussolini: “Against individualism, the fascist conception is for the State; and it is for the individual [only] in so far as he coincides with the State, which is the conscience and universal will of man. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived in their relation to the State. The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State — a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values — interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people.”
Feral-just think how useful it is with such aspirations to have education blurring the lines among head, heart, and hands and expressly adopting John Dewey’s definition of the distinction between religion and the religious:
“religion confines itself to a special domain of human experience usually associated with the supernatural and, therefore, does not intervene to alter the affairs of daily living.” http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/producing-docile-instruments-and-captive-souls-putty-at-the-hands-of-the-predator-state/
That’s everything within the domain of the State. Yesterday a report came out involving potential domestic and international security risks that might arise from CAGW. It was taken as a given based on cites to the IPCC that Donna Laframboises’s has done such a fine job tearing apart. It called for a whole-of-government approach and strategy, hyphenated just like that to deal with the uncertainties and unquantifiable risks.
Again that’s the State in charge of everything in the name of hype and the unquantifiable.
But in charge just the same. With any concept of a Republic in shreads.
Mackey’s business (Whole Foods grocery) depends substantially on the granola crunchers’ trade, most of whom are Obama supporters. He cannot alienate them politically. Once before he got into hot water with his clientle with an op-ed in the WSJ opposing Obamacare. He is a pragmatic capitalist rather than a courageous one; it just slips sometimes.
Well after all, Barack Obama, he’s an ordinary liberty grabbing fascist man
Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance
To make all people live exactly as he wishes, and do precisely what he wants…
An average fascist man is he, of no especially clever whim
Who wants to control everyone else’s life
While he goes golfing or on yet another royal vacation with his ugly wife
With everyone supinely doing whatever he commands
Well… just an ordinary fascist man is he …
BUT!
Let some real Americans speak out against his destructive schemes and his serenity will be through
They’ll protest his grand controlling plans, from the cellar to the dome
And then go on to the enthralling fun of piece by piece eviscerating him…
Although he tries to slip it all in under another guise
To all his fascist action most foul we must still be wise
In spite of all the Houdini lies
Dancing in Obama’s evermore Mussolini eyes!
The degree to which the US political system frees us from the suspicion that we labor under single-party rule is open to debate. I like the Englishman Hilaire Belloc’s ode “On a Great Election”:
The accursed power which stands on Privilege
(And goes with Women, and Champagne, and Bridge)
Broke — and Democracy resumed her reign:
(Which goes with Bridge, and Women, and Champagne).
The shadow-boxing between the parties distracts us from the fact that both the Dims and the Pubs are cooperating to centralize power in DC to the detriment of citizens’ liberties.
Barack Obama, la, la, la.
We elected and re-elected Mr. Obama as President of the United States because he is charismatic, not because he has any idea of what he is doing. His ignorance is appalling, his policies are either wrong or right by accident. History will judge him, since we, the American People, seem unable to do so.
History will judge Obama, but victors write the history. Who will be the victors? It’s far from clear, at this point in time.
We?…….speak for yourself.
The ground was prepared by what successive administrations have done to America’s productive base.
See,”The Great Betrayal” at:
http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/
For a great take on the ignorance, sloth and convenience that has brought America to this pass.
While fascist may not be the word to use concerning Obama, loaded and misunderstood as it’s become, maybe we should inspect him in terms of the ultimate, may I write it, the TOTAL, word—totalitarianism.
Know your enemy.
I think it’s about time we started realizing the true nature of the Obama Machine. As a true-believer socialist, Obama knows enough history of HOW the Nazis and Communists took power, especially the latter, in Russia, and that, therefore, he would love to mimic their successful takeover of their countries.
Thus, I posit the essence of “Obama” is a “secret society”, so read Hannah Arendt’s take on this (I recommend reading it out loud, and/or several times, to absorb her brilliance.)—my take in parenthesis:
“The chief value, however, of the secret or conspiratorial societies’ organizational structure and moral standards for purposes of mass organization does not lie in the inherent guarantees of unconditional belonging and loyalty, and organizational manifestation of unquestioned hostility to the outside world (Republicans, for Obama, who he wants to destroy), but in their unsurpassed capacity to establish and safeguard the fictitious world through consistent lying (Ring a bell?). The whole hierarchical structure of totalitarian movements, from naïve fellow-travelers to party members, elite formations, the intimate circle around the Leader, and the Leader himself, could be described in terms of a curiously varying mixture of gullibility and cynicism with each member, depending upon his rank and standing in the movement, is expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders and the central unchanging ideological fiction of the moment.
A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world (Doesn’t THAT exactly describe 2013?) the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds. Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all time to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow (Isn’t THAT a true statement, NOW, for practically all Americans, especially non voters?). The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness (There it is! The perfect description of the MSM, one fool at a time.).”
Page 382, “The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt, 1951 revised 1966.
So, Michael Leeden are you to define FASCISM so that Obama is not a Fascist, eh? You focus on charisma and nationalistic militarism, and wholly invent a new cultural dynamic — born on the results of WWI — to populate your definition’s leaders of Fascism. It was the fields of Belgium and France that the blood spilled — who were the big Fascists there? And in Britain, also hard hit by WWI in terms of losing a generation of the elite, the Fascist movement was marginal, significant but marginal.
Spain was neutral in WWI. Greece neutral, Romania in and out, a short-timer.
Here’s my own definition of Fascism: “A rule by a oligarchy of elites that tightly coordinates operation and ownership of all private and public institutions, and the government.” That exactly matches Obama’s policy. Obama is a Fascist, His imagery — a feature you only touched upon — is classical era Fascist. You did get the era of classical Fascism right but you misstated HOW it arose, by which culture forces it arose.
I must remind everybody here, including the author, that Mussolini was the first Progressive hero. Mussolini did not become a villain until the Spanish Civil War. One must not forget that in was Mussolini who stood down Hitler’s first attempt at Anschluss in 1934. Had he stayed neutral in the Second World War Mussolini would still be lionized by Progressives everywhere.
To “Chelease”. What happens to you and the other parasites when the producers of America’s wealth refuse to support you any more?
You suck the life out of America and give nothing of value back. That is unsustainable.
Stand by for an injection of reality into your racist fantasy.
No, she thinks they’ll become the new masters of their own little plantations full of white slaves where they’ll be able to fully act out every depreaved thing they think every white master ever did to any and every black slave, forever.
Chelease is too stupid to realize that if it were not for her ancestors being American slave she would right now be somewhere in Africa eking out a living on a plot of dry land, with a real “hoe” in her hands.
They made the trains run on time, especially the ones bound for the concentration camps. It would behoove today’s young skulls full of mush who idolize ObamaRx and company to remember that history.
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — In today’s “Single Best Chart,” Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu displays how inflation has increased in the 100 years since the creation of the Federal Reserve. She speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/is-inflation-the-legacy-of-the-federal-reserve-ZsuSCqK4QKaWEcfAnrEcHg.html
As a lifelong fan of Fascism, I object strenuously to this article.
People throw the word “fascist” around loosely, but fascism was not that mysterious. The fascist movements of the early 20th Century had very specific characteristics; and Ladeen, who began his academic career studying fascism, is quite right to point out that whatever the Democrats are, they certainly aren’t fascists. I think he has another motive, though. His own political philosophy is rather close to fascism so that he can hardly be happy if fascism’s good name is sullied by association with Obama. I don’t mean that Ladeen wants to repeat the March on Rome, exactly. He knows that mistakes were made, etc. He does make clear, however, that his own neoconservatism has many points of kinship with fascism. His candor on this connection is admirable. I wish more folks at PJ Media would join him in recognizing the fascist affinities of their reactionary populism. It would clarify things for everybody.
Please don’t waste your time and energy on the likes of Jim Harrishmuck. He has venomous opinions on every topic, even ones he knows nothing about. He is simply too ignorant to understand how ignorant he is. However, he thinks he knows everything about everything and thinks he has the solution to all of the world’s problems. The guy is what Thomas Sowell might call a self-anointed messiah. He believes that civilized and successful people and countries are intrinsically evil and he has a vicious hatred of Jews and Israel. His posts are often incoherent ramblings. He evades questions, he tells outright lies and he throws tantrums. Please don’t waste your time and energy on this immature, malignant, narcissistic, attention-starved, anti-Semitic demagogue.
The truth about Obama was first proffered in Webster G. Tarpley’s pre-nomination book, Obama: The Postmodern Coup and in the Unauthorized Biography of Obama.
Tarpley was proven absolutely correct in his assessment of Obama, from the viewpoint of the FDR tradition of the Democratic Party, as a revival of the Hamiltonian/Carey/Lincoln American System of Economics outlook. That Obama is a fascist, that Obama would usher a revival of fascism as a phenomena of the left, like Mussolini, where the financial oligarchy would utilize a fake left, puppet candidate, like Obama to push forth its policies. Obama delivered the goods for Wall Street zombie banks, and continued and expanded upon the warmongering of the Neocons with his acceptance of the official cover-up to the crimes of 9/11 by the “Rogue Network” in and around our nation’s Intelligence and Defense Departments, where Michael Leeden is seen as a likely suspect, if not cheerleader against the truth and war.
(
The Democrats, threatened by the “Anthrax Letters”-(Shut up or your dead) message, went along the coup.
Back to Obama. Obama is not a NeoCon, but he does serve their interests in variety of ways, but comes from the Brzezinki mould of world domination, which means war against Russia and China.
Tarpley also warned that Obama would lead to ‘civil war’ in America. We have that now on a number of fronts.
Tarpley also discusses in his books how to fight Obama-ism. You fight Obama-ism, by fighting for a revival of the American System of Economics which means support production not derivatives speculation and free trade swindles that are destroying the productive capabilities of the United States.
One example I would add and emphasize is to address the issue of a profit disparity, a lack of profit for the most fundamental producers in the economy, farmers. Farmers are being paid 60% below parity, which means a 60% reduction in the monetization of real wealth, that multiplies seven times throughout the rest of the economy. Parity is the law if we would drop the Farm Bill, make Food Stamps a separate budget item, and use a basement guarantee of 90% of Parity so farmers do not go out of business. This was a vital ingredient to winning World War II and the success of the economy after the war.
To be clear Obama has nothing to do with FDR, Lincoln, nor of Martin Luther King Jr., but he mockingly appropriates their legacies and reputation in the worst sort of hypocrisy which befits the sociopath that the warmongering, murderer, con-artist and terrorist that Obama is.
Obama should be impeached, but he does not qualify to be impeached, because he is not qualified to be President, which still is being fought in court.
It is to oppose Obama’s fascist policies of austerity, where austerity can only be stopped through a revival of American System of Economics pro-Agro/Industrial policies that the economic destruction and division in America can be defeated.
Il Duce, the primo genitor and architect of Fascism, wrote[1]: “The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State with its corporative conception puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill.” That fits the definition I gave: “A rule by a oligarchy of elites that tightly coordinates operation and ownership of all private and public institutions, and the government.”
In that statement Mussolini alluded to the police-state nature by alluding to the confrontation with “selfish individual who [asserts] the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity”. Yet we see that police state nature, in modern guise today in the post-Sandy Hook actions, the calls for more gun laws, and even confiscations. We have had it now for 12 years in the airports, with the TSA agents breaching the zones of human decency, modesty and privacy every minute of every day, 24-7-365. We see that with the suicide of Aaron Swartz victim of a “intellectual property” over-the-top prosecution. Or the jailing of the maker of the anti-Mohammed movie. Or of George Zimmerman, ALL OF THEM, the open source advocates, the persons no longer flying to preserve what little dignity of person we have left, those who speak against Islam, or against gay marriage, or who seek to protect themselves from the the violent by means of guns — they are guilty of rebelling against the law of the Collectivity. And the manifold official arms of the government and non-governmental-orgainations allied to the “Collectivity” are brought to strike against them.
This is reality, and it is far further along than Ledeen would admit. We are today more a Fascist nation than a free one. I can not leave New York City by train without showing my papers. I cannot fly to Europe without risking being felt up in my most private parts. I can not take apart a piece of software, like one takes apart a clock, in order the re-engineer it. I can not take what I read from public journals at a University or Courthouse and republish it. Can we get back to freedom from here?
[1] http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html
I disagree with the narrow limits brought by Mr. Ledeen to demonstrate that there is no fascism today in America.
Of course there is. Self-imposed, it bears a smile. No need for violence here, the same desire for a secure future makes this people lock their own shackles.
When I write of what Fascism is and is not, please be aware that I am an authority on the subject.
I rise up every morning, turn to my poster of Adolf Hitler, next to his Lesser Acolyte Barack Obama, flatten my right palm, straighten my right arm, and raise my right arm up sharply and quickly saying in a clear and loud voice:
Sieg Heil!
I recommend that anyone interested in the topic read Michael Burleigh’s books on political religions, “Earthly Powers” and especially “Sacred Causes”. Or even better Eric Voegelin’s “The Political Religions”.
Is there anyone who doubts that the majority of the members of the so-called Fourth Estate would welcome an Obama dictatorship? I used to think that most of them would still like to see some form of Chavez style “elections” to maintain the facade of democratic legitimacy, but as time goes by I have come to doubt that many of them believe even that figleaf is neccessary anymore.
When a person sat in a pew for 20 years and denies hearing his pastor spew racist vitriol directed at jews, whites and America, I must believe he is a liar. I need not know anything else about that person. He has told me all I need to know about his character.
I would most certainly NOT vote for that man to be President of the United States!
Apparently Barack Hussein Obama can fool 53% of the voting public all of the time!
Obama is the charismatic leader of what might be called neo-fascism. Consider just a few:
- Socialism is the base governmental theory.
- Statism is practised openly and coercively.
- Education has become an indoctrination tool openly deployed.
- The State has begun punishing non-conforming activities.
- Racism is used as a political weapon of choice.
- Nationalism has morphed into Green-Enviro conquest.
- The main political party in the US is out to destroy it’s “enemies”.
In the US, the neo-fascist have succeeded in creating the “enemy” that must “exist” in order to advance their agenda. Enemies are much easier to fight and stir a usually indifferent population since it invokes fear, outrage and the passions of conquest and self-righteousness.
Fascism
– If you have 2 cows, you keep the cows but give the milk to the government, who then sells you the milk at an inflated high price.
Nazism
– If you have 2 cows, the government shoots you and keeps the cows. But at least the trains run on time for once.
Theoretical Democracy
– You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
Representative Democracy
– You have two cows. You work very hard to make them productive and strong. Then your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
Democracy, American-style
– You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support all the under-privileged minority people who have only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
1930s American New Dealism
– If you have 2 cows, you shoot one, milk the other one; and then pour the milk down the drain.
Liberal-ism
– You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The politicians you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous and all warm inside. Hollywood entertainers sing for you, and the media call you a champion of justice.
Capitalism
– If you have 2 cows, you sell one and buy a bull and build a herd of cows; you then sell all the excess milk to the government who in turn ships it to fascist and communist governments.
Bureaucracy, American-style
– You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.
The author seems to be splitting hairs on those criteria he chose to differentiate 20th and 21st century American politics from those of European totalitarianism. The US continues to move toward European totalitarianism whether one wishes to label it “national socialism” or “international socialism”. That appears to be the essence of dispute in the de facto one party system we now “enjoy”. Democratic elites seem to prefer the international socialist form of totalitarianism, whereas the Republican elites appear to prefer the national socialist form of totalitarianism.
It’s all bad and inherently un-American.
President Obama Wants To Protect Children? Why Not End U.S. Drone Strikes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldUHR_8-piY
Obama Government Equal to Population in 1776 by KEITH KOFFLER on JANUARY 23, 2013
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/01/23/federal-government-size-entire-population-1776/
Fascism 3.1 is/was Peronismos, now called Chavezismos in South America. The North American version is Obamaismos. All Liberal Fascism movements without the strong, visable, military content. Though the military/police muscle is ever present in the background.
Yes, if you define degeneracy and brutal hatred as success, if you define mass murder as success, yes, fascism was a success. This type of thinking is cliche’ and needs to be ridiculed as thoroughly as ‘Communism hasn’t been tried yet’.
Yes, friends the trains ran on time, because anyone who reported otherwise was guilty of treason.
Give me a major break. Mackey already pays for unemployment insurance and FICA for his employees, complies with wage and hour regulations, workplace safety regulations, complies with local zoning regulations. I could go on and on. Now he has to go along with new health care regulations and taxes. Yes, it’s going to cost him. Is this creeping socialism (most people on this site will say yes), or the cost of doing business?
1. single party dictatorship, headed by a charismatic leader. Check
2. A politics of enthusiasm, involving the masses in ritual public celebration. Check
3. Hypernationalism. Now replaced by hyper one-worldism. Both seek total power. Partial Check.
4. “corporate state” in which private property is legitimate, but the state dictates its proper use. Check
Yes, they are fascists. They became fascists the second they got the egomaniac nominated.
It fits much better than socialism or even marxism, particularly because of point 4.
But it’s only a step.
Does anybody think for a second that they don’t want TOTAL control of the economy, and every single business in it. If you think they will be satisfied with anything less, you are a blind fool.
Is America too big for democracy? Too big for its traditional republican form? What does it mean if the answer is yes? This video series proposes that the source of our biggest social and political problems is our SIZE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCNd7h0fsdE&list=HL1358985716&feature=mh_lolz
I would disagree with you, hyper-nationalism is not a required element of Fascism. It was in Germany and Japan, but in Spain, Italy not as much, nor in Venezuela today.
The ABSOLUTE requirement is the belief in the EXPERT! One that you did not mention. The backbone of Fascism is that the masses, the hoi polloi are too easily swayed, too ignorant, not focused enough to “get things done”. Therefore a government that has “the smartest guys in the room” running it without fetters of limited government need to run things regardless of opposition.
Obama and his fellow travelers are Trotskyites (as are the neocons – this is really a one-party system), not simply fascists. They believe in revolution at the point of a gun – which requires removing ours. I don’t think Feinstein is smart enough to have read Trotsky – but she certainly has been busy fighting to disarm us, in between scams to line her pockets.
Go to http://jpfo.org/ and click on the alert. A great graphic regarding Obama posing “with the children”.
in the aftermaths of WW1, two european countries weren’t fashist, Britain and France
There were a lot more than 2. In fact, it could be argued that there were really only 2 “Fascist” states in Europe between WWI and WWII, those being Italy and Spain, although Spain is a bit tougher sell, since Franco used a lot of the trappings of Spanish traditionalism. National Socialism was not really Fascism, although many people seem to follow the lead of Stalin in eliding the two ideologies together into one movement. The rest of the states of East Central Europe and the periphery (Horthy’s Hungary, Pilsudski’s Poland, Salazar’s Portugal, DeValera’s Eire, etc.) were generally conservative, authoritarian regimes and not totalitarian, Fascist ones. Again, Soviet post-war propaganda has pretty much been responsible for all this misinformation.
Fourteen points of fascism:
1. Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, etc. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols in public displays, and on clothing, like lapel pins. Remember how Republicons questioned anyone’s patriotism who DIDN’T wear one?
2. Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture (or it’s current p.c. version of “enhanced interrogation), summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners (y’know, kinda like Gitmo), etc.
3. The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities, liberals, communists, socialists, terrorists’ even making up new “threats” such as “Islamo-fascists and the like.
4. Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Republicons have even gone so far as to force the Pentagon to continue funding projects it doesn’t even want. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. It’s just that the GOP doesn’t want to PAY for them; just use them as political props.
5. The governments tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under such regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution. DOMA, Don’t-ask-don’t-tell, all the anti-choice legislation coming from Republicons and stuff like that.
6. Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. It has been widely reported that CEOs of media conglomerates tend to lean towards Republicons by their own admission. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common; much the way the shrub banned pictures of the returning coffins and such.
7. Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses, sorta like the Ironically named PATRIOT Act, expanding police powers, etc.
8. Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. They’ll even narrow it down to the most extreme, “conservative” version. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, and that nation’s “exceptionalism” will be cited even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions. They will accuse opponents of not being “[religious] enough”; like the way the Democratic Convention was castigated for leaving God out of each and every gathering of two or more people.
9. The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCOC)and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)fit this VERY well.
10. Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed. Again, the USCOC and ALEC-authored Right-to-work-for-less laws bringing ruin to the middle class (what’s left of it anyway) and America.
11. Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia much like presidential-candidate-wannabe Rick Santorum’s decrying the snobbery of the well-educated; or at least those more intelligent than he (which is anyone smart enough not to vote GOP). It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked. Corporations donate funds to colleges and universities in exchange for control of the curriculum.
12. The police are given increasing power to enforce laws. The people will often overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism forgetting (or ignoring) Benj. Franklin’s axiom that those who willfully give up their freedoms in order to feel more secure deserve neither freedom nor security. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. This idea has been floated numerous times by Republicons as has a national i.d. Proper i.d. is often requires to prove one’s citizenship and that they are otherwise where they belong.
13. Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. One example is called a “revolving door”. Witness the recent high=profile Republicons leaving civil “service” for MUCH higher-paying jobs in the private sector over which they once exercised authority as well as the Congressional exemption from anti-insider trading statutes.. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders and handed over to their corporate pals/masters.
14. Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham, such as the famous “hanging chad” situation of 2000 or the notorious promise of Diebold chair Wally O’Dell to deliver Ohio to the shrub in 2003. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against (“swift-boating” Kerry)or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers (purging voter registration rolls) or political district boundaries (the gerrymandering which allowed Republicon to maintain control of the House even though they did NOT receive a majority of votes), and manipulation of the media (y’know: GOPTV/FOX, the so-called “unskewed polls”, etc.?).
Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections i.e. all the instances of the courts upholding voter “de-registration” (at least until 2012 when several FINALLY said that that was a load of [crap]).
Another mistake the author made was, “The aforementioned “corporate state” in which private property is legitimate, but the state dictates its proper use.” as being a trait of fascism. That’s actually hard-line socialism.
He goes on to talk about “men of destiny” and “It’s hard to imagine our current leaders speaking in this sort of language. The very idea of bringing war heroes to domestic power is anathema to them.” Has he never listened to Republicon oratory?
Then there’s his statement, “We’ve rarely had much in the way of traditional nationalism in America; we’re patriots, we celebrate the American dream, but we don’t believe in a unique “people” or “race,” destined to impose its will on the rest of the world.” WHAT?!? He’s either not been paying attention to the whole “American exceptionalism” line coming from the right (especially from Pres. Ronnie forward) or he’s just plain lying.
“No doubt there are American political activists who would like their side to totally dominate the country’s affairs which is common among Tea-baggers”. He continues with, “as we can hear in recent calls for Obama to “destroy” the Republican Party once and for all.” which is not only a mis-statement but taken wildly out of context. “But it is hard to imagine a mass movement in this country based on an open call for a totalitarian state.” Unless you read the comments on this and other FRWNJ sites.
The author continues to mis-use the term “fascism”, only this time confuses it with theocracy saying, “If you want examples of contemporary fascism, the easiest place to start is radical Islamists who openly call for totalitarian rule by men chosen by God, and invoke jihad in the “war against the infidel.” Learn to use a dictionary, dude. Or care to.
The Soviets and their Western allies did a very good job of convincing useful idiots like you that anyone who was anti-communist was a “fascist.” The Comintern/Western Left has parrotted the meme that somehow the National Socialist Party of Germany was a conservative, traditionalist, or “right wing,” to use the French description, political party when the only party in ’30s Germany that the NSDAP was to the right of was the Communists.
Now, of course, I know that none of this means anything to a useful idiot like you who has been told by his/her peers and professors that because s/he professes the same usefully idiotic beliefs that they do it makes them one of the smartest people in the World. Flash punk: lefty and smart are not synonyms.
One day people like you and people like me are going to have a serious disagreement.
Go read “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg, “Modern Fascism” by Gene Veith, and “The Pournelle Political Axes” (http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm) by Jerry Pournelle. Fascism is an economic/political theory and is a branch of Socialism. Marxism nationalizes industries and other means of production; Fascism allows private ownership of production but exerts heavy control over it through bureaucracy and regulation. In either case, socialism is indicated by centralized economic planning and control, as opposed to a free market system which lets market forces determine what is produced and why, leaving the government to ensure a fair playing field and enforce basic rules.
“The author continues to mis-use the term “fascism”, only this time confuses it with theocracy saying, “If you want examples of contemporary fascism,…Learn to use a dictionary, dude. Or care to.”
On this point, Dr. Ledeen pointed out to contemporary fascism! Generally the term of fascism is refer to a variety of political movements that are based on extremist authoritarian nationalism. No doubt that extremist Arab nationalism also is consider a contemporary fascist mindset…but when fundamentalist religion becomes a political tool, adopting an extreme totalitarian mindset and violent it is consider to be a form of fascism. the Islamic contemporary religious movements and groups “Sunni and Shiite” as (Iran theocratic regime, al-Qaeda that hatched by Saudi Wahhabism) they indeed represent forms of clerical neo-fascism.
Please take a look at atrocities committed by muslim neo-fascists “http://www.thereligionofpeace.com”
Not to persuade — but for the record:
Nazism was never termed Right Wing by the American press — right through to the end.
That notion was pushed by Moscow — AFTER the end of WWII.
By that time it had become obvious that many of the ‘best’ new Communists were ex-Nazis.
Some distancing — image craft — was in order.
The fact is that utterances of Communists and Nazis — on economic issues — are so twinned that you need a score card to figure out which faction spoke.
The Stalin-Trotsky split ran along the same axis as the Hitler-Röhm split: both losers wanted the regime to move even further to the LEFT — particularly in economic/ party craft matters.
The overwhelming parallels between Stalin and Hitler run even stronger in Trotsky and Röhm.
They’re astonishing, really.
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In your cut-and-paste screed you catalog a string of attributes that don’t correlate with Fascism. They correlate with Hyper-Nationalism instead.
Fascism, per se, is an economic philosophy of how national political power and private property rights ought to function. Under Fascism, the unitary view of the central government is permitted to circumscribe private economic acts. The central government is deeded functional macro-control without taking full title to private property. Thus, property under such regimes is semi-private and semi-public.
With this in mind, one can see that most of todays governments are Fascism in practice. The bigger the enterprise the more the central government tramples its property rights. BP, in the Gulf, is a blatant example of Fascism under a Liberal Regime. Other examples would be the speedo bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM.
The Left refuses to self-admit that it’s philosophy of government demands Fascism — government meddling on a grand scale — as their core ambit.
Hyper-Nationalism may, or may not, travel with Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Crony-Capitalism or Imperialism. It’s not an economic philosophy — not at all.
Romans and the Mongols practiced Hyper-Nationalism — centuries before the concept of Fascism even popped into anyone’s head.
Now, do you get it?
Lying, cheating climate scientists caught lying, cheating again By James Delingpole October 30th, 2011
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100114292/lying-cheating-climate-scientists-caught-lying-cheating-again/
Michael, given you are more of a scholar than I am, primarily due to more familiarity with history – am I correct that what fascism seeks to supplant is more hardy than fascism?
“Fascists don’t change the world by “leading from behind.” They take charge in front of the troops.”
I’ll disagree: Obama shows all the signs of being a fascist. Remember, fascism is an economic form; Mussolini and Hitler’s predilection for the military is a symptom but not necessary. The desire to centralize economic control is what is important.
Swiftboat Veterans Ad on John Kerry – Sellout (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phqOuEhg9yE
“No wonder their predecessors in the 1920s and 1930s were inspired by Mussolini and Hitler.”
By Hitler yes, but Mussolini I do not think!
The Italian fascist regime was not evil, it became just when they came after the alliance with Hitler, yet, Jews for instance were persecuted in fascist italy but they were killed by the germans once the nazis occupied italy…there was no mass antisemitism in Italy.