Facing Fascism

Truth is, when I began writing this book coming off the 2004 campaign, I never realized that my research would take me so far into the dark side of what is going on in our country. It has been both an education and a chilling experience. What began as a rather simple political primer quickly turned out to be something much more than expected. In every area that I delved into I found an America deeply divided between the few ultra-privileged and the rest of us. Be it the tax cuts for the rich, corporate welfare, the nation’s structural budget deficits, globalization, deregulation, poverty, education, health care, energy dependence, religious and racial intolerance, women’s rights, the environment, nuclear proliferation, military spending, the wars, and on and on, there was the unmistakable stench of fascism….

As a child during World War II, I grew up with the word “fascism”; it was commonly used back then. As a history student, I learned that fascism is far more complex than the cartoon characters shown by American propagandists during the war. Today the word is rarely heard—it is apparently too frightening for our sheltered ears. Anyone who uses it is labeled a conspiracy fanatic or a slanderer. I am neither, but be that as it may, when viewed as a body of evidence in its historical context, the threat to American democracy in the 21^st century is “fascism.” And as we learned in Worldview, fascism, in its variant forms, is not new in the United States. I think of the current threat as the reemergence of unrestricted capitalism that has found structure in a world of huge international business empires, and regained strength to form the mutations of America’s current elite—all the while being applauded by the religious fanatics who want to take our culture back into the caves. Given the immense power of today’s industrial-military complex, and today’s national priorities, there is little question that the United States has developed the characteristics of a fascist state….

It is imperative that thinking Americans wake up to the fact that the fascist threat to our democracy is real. Patriotic Americans shouldn’t shy from the word; they should use it in its proper context to identify the danger. I have no doubt that if the corporate, political, and religious far right have their way, we will revert to a modern version of the first Gilded Age, an age when privilege controlled politics, votes were purchased, legislatures were bribed, bills were bought, and laws flagrantly disregarded—all as God’s will. It will be a day when income on wealth will not be taxed at all, and public expenditures for social programs would come exclusively from taxes on salaries and wages. Burdened with debt caused by structural deficits and stripped of power, over time, the government of the United States will do little more than wage war and reward privilege….

Our beloved country is in great peril. The fascist leaning government that has emerged in the United States in the 21^st century must be stopped from planting its roots deeper and destroying our national soul.

It didn’t happen overnight. The far right launched its campaign over a quarter century ago to dismantle the institutions, laws, and the intellectual, cultural, and religious infrastructure that made up America’s social contract as a nation. The convergence of the corporate, political and religious far right went largely unnoticed for a long time as they cleverly manipulated the nation’s worldview, accumulated power, and waited for the right moment to exercise that power. That moment came with the presidency of George W. Bush in 2001, Republican control of Congress, and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It was then that American fascism emerged from the shadows—they had the power, and the cover of  “war” to use that power to effect fundamental structural changes in our society.

To win elections and influence legislation, the movement, led by some of the wealthiest men in the world, zeroed in on the deep flaw in America’s political system: the power of big money.

Elected officials need enormous sums of money to finance their campaigns, most of it going to buy television. In 2006, the average cost of running for a seat in the House of Representatives—the “people’s house”—will top one million dollars. A run for the U.S. Senate will cost many times that amount. The chairman of the Federal Election Commission has said that anyone who expects to run for the nomination for president—just the nomination—will have to raise $100 million by the end of 2007. It is expected that each of the two major party presidential candidates will spend between $300 and $500 million in the 2008 race.

Given the fact that less than one half of one percent of all Americans made a contribution of $200 or more to a federal candidate in 2004, most of that money will come from those special interests who have mastered the money game and taken advantage of this fundamental weakness in our system….