Fascism in America

[arisbe]

The Left has been denouncing American Fascism, indeed, denouncing America as Fascist, for so many years that we are deaf to the din of it. Lately, though, the warnings of an emerging Fascist mentality have been repeated from what some describe as the fringes of the Right, both the traditionalist (paleoconservative) and individualist (libertarian) wings. The American Conservative is seen as more moderate and mainstream, sceptical of big government, critical of the war, but willing to give both Republicans and Democrats the benefit of the doubt when they seem honest. It is therefore a milestone that even they are now insisting that we ought to take the threat very seriously indeed. Scott McConnell, a student of Fritz Stern, Columbia's great historian of the European Right, makes a sobering case, with the essential qualifications, in Hunger for Dictatorship: War to export democracy may wreck our own.

It is, I think, essential reading.

Comments

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I can't wait to read it!

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised the isolation wings of the libertarian and conservative movements have taken to calling the pro-war contingents Nazis.

All of their other attempts to sway public opinion have failed. Therefore it's time to trot out the "Nazi!!11!!!1!one!11!" accusations.

Unnamed websites, anonymous "letters", etc.. Color me bored.

[winegodeatsyou.livejournal.com]

Did you read Lew Rockwell's post at the new year about Red State Fascism?

I Saw This Today Too

[keith418.livejournal.com]

It's a great piece!

[eru-illuvatar.livejournal.com]

Great article, Frank. Thanks for posting it!

[otterboy.livejournal.com]

Excellent article. It really reinforces my thoughts on the power of ignorance. Not for the ignorant, of course, but those who benefit from widespread ignorance. Freedom, as used in the current administration, is a blatant Orwellian illustration. Yet, so many genuinely good people have accepted that freedom looks like what the Bush administration prescribes. I hear some of my dearest friends and family casually commenting that the "whole Middle East should be wiped out." The objectification/oversimplification of the situation is maddening and frustrating for me. I explain to some of these critics, some devout Christians, that the Middle East is filled with Christians and diverse ethnicities/cultures, and I get a shocked reaction. How should violence be labeled? One man's spreading of freedom is another man's terrorism. The scary thing, though, is that the people who blindly support our government and everything "America stands for" are acting in a way as if to ensure its untimely demise, as the article so strikingly demonstrates.

I'll Tell You What I Think...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

...I think that American society has a Messianic, millenialist tendency to fight "crusades" that will cause this nation to IMPLODE. I think that our Puritan past is at the root of it, and I think it weighs much more heavily upon the consciences of the vast majority--particularly in the "Red States" than anything inscribed in the Founders' documents. I also think American "fascism" will look, feel and tast very different from the European version but that it will be far more virulent because of its Protestant Fundamentalist "idealism." All of this is foretold in the deeply prophetic penultimate chapter of Harold Bloom's The American Religion. I'm going to make the best effort I can to get myself and those I love OUT of this debauched, heretical and perverted society as quickly as I can!

THREE OBSERVATIONS FROM WEIMAR

[tausirhasirim.livejournal.com]

(1) Societies based in middle class values that move towards two-class societies - as I believe America is slowly doing - tend to turn sharply right, rather than the sharp left turn two-class societes tend to take in comparable circumstances. Thus I expect that to be the direction things will continue to go in here, barring a burst of unexpected grace.

(2) America has been called the land of "Friendly Fascism". I think there is a germ of truth in this.

(3) One need not be an isolationist or noninterventionist - I am not - to consider the war in Iraq not just wrong, but bizarre. It comes close to an alternate universe Phil Dick zap gun world in which, in response to Pearl Harbor, the United States declares war on Spain. After all, it was a fascist state, and much easier to beat than Germany or Japan.

Allen sez, when government gets this bizarre the Weird Times are truly upon us. Fellow citizens of Weimar, we do need to wake up awfully soon.

[lilburne.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I'd use the f-word, but I have certainly been exposed to the popular attitudes the article describes. There are people who would probably form a natural constituency for a politician who wanted to lock up dissenters and start putting a real hurtin' on some foreigners.

President Bush is not the leader these folks are looking for. He's no Woody Wilson, signing laws making it a crime to criticize the federal government's war policies. Bush is no FDR or Earl Warren, seeking to banish citizens from their homes and intern them in prison camps based solely on their ancestry. He's no Winston Churchill, willing to use methods of warfare that kill lots of civilians.

If a politician arose today like Wilson, FDR, Warren or Churchill advocating the roundup and imprisonment of Arab-Americans and critics of the war, as well as vicious warmaking tactics, the politician could rely on a following. I don't know how successful (s)he'd be, but he'd certainly make a splash.

More re. Israel

[marginaleye.livejournal.com]

And, aside from the purely pragmatic need to support a faithful client-state outpost in an otherwise unfriendly region (an unhealthy relationship, akin to co-dependency) Jesus needs his landing pad!