Fascism U.S.A.

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The past speaks up: “Americans approved of Fascism on the basis of their own predispositions and needs – and would do so again,” wrote historian John Patrick Diggins in 1972 in Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America.

In this vein, every day we now withstand an onslaught of truly “fake news”.  Too bad many 100% legit articles get falsely branded the same way. Both acts unchecked run rampant.

Bona fide media outlets today are flooded with deception.  An inordinate effort is required to filter through to the truth.

By comparison, Rebellious Gonzo journalism of the ‘70s and ‘80s appears inspired and entertaining.

BACK IN THE DAYS

“A fascist,” wrote former U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944, “is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.”

Despite the clarity of his vision, Wallace was speaking of that devastating era then at hand.  It was unlikely he possessed an extraordinary premonition to reach 76 years into the future.  Even more unlikely he could foresee the nightmarish scope of our current political landscape.

Trump is not Mussolini. But his embracing such views of lust and intolerance has created a great divide in the America – a blind polarizing of political and social points of view.

For a fascist, the word universal is an anachronism.  Similarly, me has replaced we.  No longer do legislative bills have their traditional joint sponsors, one from each major party – this practice now a nearly forgotten relic of our past.

FASCISM THEN

the rise of super nationalists and American Fascists.

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In 1944 amid the depths of World War II, Adolf Hitler continued to exercise an insatiable lust for power. Benito Mussolini, on the other hand, was already in a struggle for his own political and real-life survival.

In response to the enthusiasm some Americans expressed for Il Duce, Wallace began showing greater concern for the rise of super nationalists and American Fascists.

“With a fascist the problem is never,” Wallace pointed out, “how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.” Fake news thus appeared and took root in one of its earliest forms.

FASCISM NOW

Trump has been influenced by the words of Mussolini as a sizable number of Americans were in the 1920s and early ’30s. In a recent article, Wallace’s grandson defined Mussolini’s “corporatism” as “a merger of state and corporate power”. This being Trump’s ideal of sorts, leaves us in desperate need of an honest leader: one honest enough to both explain his recently revealed, federal tax returns and stand up to Vladimir Putin, not letting the Russian president walk all over him.

“American fascism will not be really dangerous,” warned Wallace, “until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.”

A southerner, Thomas Nelson Page, in his 1924 novel The Red Riders, celebrated a fictional reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, their motto “first for America and for Americans first”, similarly marketed by 20th-century-American ultra-conservative, Charles Lindberg. Lindberg was not only the first to fly solo across the Atlantic but an individual who strongly supported ties with Hitler and Nazi Germany. Later, Trump too similarly has espoused the saying.

LIP SERVICE IS CHEAP

“It is no coincidence,” continued Wallace, “that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice.”

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright notes Trump quoted Mussolini on Meet the Press, believing: “It is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep.”

When asked about his use of a Fascist saying, Trump minimized the source as he sublimely responded: “I want to be associated with interesting quotes.”

PATRIOT GAMES

“American fascists,” continues Wallace, “are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact… They claim to be super patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Clearly, American fascists must and can be stopped by ordinary Americans, who recognize the inherent danger in their rhetoric. These citizens must rise up and get out to vote. People must not just also reach out to their friends but to everyone they can. They must awaken one and all to get up and go out to cast their ballots. People have no choice but to use the existing system to save our democracy.

BETTER, HUMANS FIRST

“Democracy to crush fascism internally must… develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget,” continued Wallace. “It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit.”

Coming out of the tragedy of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt presented the New Deal to offer jobs to get America working again. His program helped Americans to rebuild our decaying infrastructure. It presented solutions for a better future for our country.

In 2016, it was argued that we once again needed to rebuild our current infrastructure. But no tech specs were presented. On the positive side, Hillary Clinton proposed spending $275 million on infrastructure if elected. Donald Trump, in a speech, proposed double that amount.

But after four years there has been no infrastructure bill. No improvements. Only mass unemployment from the pandemic and infinite businesses teetering on the brink of insolvency. Maybe the time to revisit infrastructure has come, and the government should take the lead.

Nearly half of Americans whose families experienced a layoff during the coronavirus pandemic think the job loss will be permanent — which could mean that roughly 10 million workers need to find a new employer.”

PRESIDENT’S DUTY

A primary function the job as our nation’s leader is to calm and unite. He or she must lead the nation going forward and forget trying to recapture the past. We are missing this direction.

Everything has changed dramatically in the past year and continues to do so. The markets are never going to be the same. Home offices have replaced corporate ones. Events with large crowds have given way to digital ones. New products and services adapting to a new way of life are already starting to emerge.

Fascism is an attempt to recapture the past and not prepare for the future. It cries out for a scapegoat to blame rather than for a leader to accept responsibilities for his actions and/or his inherent failures.

“The American fascists,” states Wallace, “are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism.”

“They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”

Globalization must and will be born anew in a different structure with different emphasis and considerations. And once this happens – after adopting to an entirely new, just and egalitarian basis for interrelationships – the common man will start to be liberated throughout this planet.

RISK OF NO CHANGE

“Fascism…” stressed Wallace, “is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and ‘with malice toward none and charity for all’ go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.”

It is up to each and every U.S. citizen to rise up, make his or her voices heard and take action at the ballot box. The sheer size of a moral victory must scream out for the entire world to recognize and acknowledge a powerful change for the better.

About the Article

Fascism never truly died. The movement today seems to have been resurrected from the ashes.

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