The word fascism has been used for decades to deride political ideaologies of both the right and left. Fact is, fascism has come to America and we have allowed it to happen. Back in 1944 economist and author John Flynn pointed out that we have been laying the basecoat of fascism here in the U.S. in the book As We Go Marching.
But alas, the most terrifying aspect of the whole fascist episode is the dark fact that most of its poisons are generated not by evil men or evil peoples, but by quite ordinary men in search of an answer to the baffling problems that beset every society. Nothing could have been further from the minds of most of them than the final brutish and obscene result. The gangster comes upon the stage only when the scene has been made ready for him by his blundering precursors.
Flynn wouldnt be at all surprised to see that what he predicted 65 years ago is happening in our country today. He said all the elements of facism include the organization of the economic society as a planned economy under the supervision of the state.
Flynn laid it all out saying we faced a planned
economy, militarism as an economic weapon, imperialism and ultimately dictatorship.
I thought of Flynn during the presidential debates when both candidates talked up the necessity for war in foreign countries, for mandating sustainable energy, for demands for a government-controlled health care system, for more farm subsidies, for bailing out the banking industry, despite the voters outcry against it. And I thought of him again when the bailout was passed by Congress because Flynn had written:
Fascism will come at the hands of perfectly authentic Americans
who are convinced that the present economic system is washed up
and who wish to commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering in the affairs of the states and the cities; taking part in the management of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of a great national banker and investor, borrowing billions every year and spending them on all sorts of projects through which a government can paralyze opposition and command public support; marshaling great armies
at crushing costs to support the industry of war
.which will become our greatest industry
adding
global planning
under the authority of a centralized government in which the executive will hold
all the powers, with Congress reduced to the role of a debating society.
Fascism didnt come to America wearing jack boots and brown shirts. It came respectably-clad in suits and ties and calling itself Republicans and Democrats.
The fascism basecoat was laid with each government intervention in the free market system, each undeclared and unconstitutional war and every single incursion by the state into private enterprises like banking and auto manufacturing. And both the Rs and the Ds were behind it all.
As we watched the basecoat dry we continued to allow the incremental creeping toward fascism by electing those who made no secret of their plans to redistribute wealth, make the state the boss of us and dismantle the free enterprise system.
Both McCain and Obama and elected officials in both parties have consistently supported elements of fascism and they never had to worry theyd lose because of it. It was only a matter of how much fascism Americans wanted each election cycle.
Elected officials know that as members of the controlling elite that masquerades as two separate and opposing factions, they will not be deposed. The vast majority will be easily re-elected despite their opposition to the majority of Americans on such issues as illegal immigration, secure borders, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bailout.
Unless Americans make a determined move to unseat incumbents for these and other assaults against the Constitution, we can expect nothing more than a shallacking by those now controlling our government in both Big Box parties.