America has become a Fascist nation

How bad is the shift in America towards a right-wing authoritarian government? Take a look at this definition of Fascism by Robert Paxton, read the papers or watch TV and you tell me. Fascism is:

"... a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline."

Then he gives some details that I will present as a checklist:

"a form of political behavior marked by

• obsessive preoccupation with community decline,
• humiliation or victimhood and
• by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which
• a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites,
• abandons democratic liberties and
• pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints
• goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

Sara Robinson has presented all this and her analysis of how close we actually are to true Fascism. Her analysis is extremely disquieting, if not too surprising as we have watched the Bush/Cheney administration slide rather rapidly in this direction for the last eight years. She bases her analysis on Robert Paxton's five stages of Fascism. They are:
1. The initial creation of fascist movements.
2. Their rooting as parties in a political system.
3. The acquisition of power.
4. The exercise of power.
5. Radicalization or entropy.

Paxton explains what the stages are, and Sara shows how we have achieved each one. If you have time, start with Paxton's explanation. But Sara's analysis is the most focused on today's America which is suffering through the political illness.

Communism in America has always been extremely unlikely. The barriers here against Fascism, however, have always been much less robust. We are now on the very edge of the precipice.

The Republicans are mainstreaming their worst extremists

It's almost fumy that a Democrat who claims the conservatives are racist, nativist fascist and Imperialist right wingers will be ignored as a radical left wing extremists, while the much worse totally dishonest right wing extremists are given total access to the Republican publicity machine and their Fascism is ignored by the mainstream media. Consider the new book by Jerome Corsi and the support it is getting by mainstream Republicans.

From Digby

the most telling thing about it is that one of the most mainstream Republican figures in the country -- so mainstream that she regularly appears with her Democratic operative husband on Meet the Press with their two daughters at Christmas time --- is giving her imprimatur to a book written by a known delusional, right wing racist. On that side of the dial the separation between the mainstream and the violent fringe isn't even one degree.

Dave Neiwert has, as you all undoubtedly know, written reams about how the right mainstreams its extremists. And this is one case where I think it's come fully to fruition, right out in the open. Corsi is not just a right wing ideologue. He's a full fledged nutcase, and yet he was hired by a major publisher, by a star GOP villager, to write an incendiary book of lies about the Democratic presidential candidate. They aren't even trying to keep their fingerprints off this thing.

In fact, the default position among Democrats, Republicans and the media is that the only kooks in the country with whom it is unacceptable to be professionally or financially involved with are on the left. And "the left" is defined so broadly that it includes groups like MoveOn and Vote Vets. The right, in contrast, has fully integrated even their extremist fringe into the mainstream and everyone accepts it.

This is the basic position of the mainstream media. The Right is beyond question, the Left is extremist.

My bet is that this is a residual effect of the Cold War in which Communism was the great threat to the West. But Communism is dead. It's over. And it has been replaced in Russia by Fascism. It has also been replaced in America by a form of authoritarian Fascism. That's really been the core of the Cheney/Bush administration. They want a nondemocratic form of Presidential authoritarianism, much like that which Vladimer Putin has put into place in Russia.

The ability of Jerome Corsi to get on to Larry King is a clear example of the dominance of this right-wing fascism. His publicity is the equivalent of letting Hitler onto a radio show to promote Mein Kampf.

The scary part is that the media either don't see that they are supporting Fascism, or worse, they see it and want to support it. My bet is the latter. It reduces their economic uncertainty.

Jerome Corsi is a complete Fascist and a liar to boot. And no one calls him on his lies, while the Republican party promotes him.

Is there any honest Media still in existence? If there is, it's sure not on the Sunday morning TV shows. They'll "report" Corsi's book as a legitimate view of Obama without pointing out that it is based on lies.

American Fascism

Are the movement conservative Republicans really Fascists? There are a variety of definitions and it is not always clear if any given political movement was fascist, but here is the definition of Fascism from Wikipedia.

Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and social interests subordinate to the interests of the state or party. Fascists seek to forge a type of national unity, usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, racial, and religious attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, statism, militarism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, corporatism, populism, collectivism, and opposition to political and economic liberalism

Let's see if the Republican Party has any of these characteristics. Does the Republican movement conservative ideology have an

• Authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and social interests subordinate to the interests of the state or party. Yes

Do the Republican movement conservatives want to

• forge a type of national unity, based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, racial, and religious attributes? Yes

Are the following characteristics integral to the current Republican movement conservative party?

Nationalism,	Yes
Statism,	Yes
Militarism,	Yes
Totalitarianism	Yes	Elimination of privacy and right to trial
Anti-Communism	Yes
Corporatism	Yes	As are the mainstream Democrats
Populism	Yes
Collectivism	No

Is the current Republican movement conservative party unalterably opposed to the following?

Political Liberalism	Yes
Economic Liberalism	Yes

The only conclusion this chart can lead to is that the American movement conservative Republicans are Fascists. The term is appropriate to a political movement which is "oppressive," "intolerant," "chauvinist," "genocidal", "dictatorial," "racist" and/or "aggressive," all concepts which apply to the current Republican movement conservative Party. They are characteristics that are at least loosely inspired by the ideology of fascism.

There is a real difference between my use of the descriptive term "Fascism" for the current movement conservative Republican Party and the strange book that Jonas Goldberg is trying to push that supposedly labels Liberals as Fascists. Goldberg has had to go way back and then make up his history to support is ridiculous claim. My claim applies to the current time and the preceding two decades, and you don't need history books to find the evidence. Just read the newspapers and listen to the Republican candidates for the Presidential nomination talking. Rudy Giuliani can 'out-fascist' Mussolini any day of the week, and if he couldn't he has Norm Podhoretz, one of the most outspoken supporters of Americans fighting Muslims in the Middle east in support of Israel who can be found. [Note: I support protecting Israel from those who would destroy it, but the Israelis need to be protected from their own right-wing authoritarian government also. We don't need to fight unnecessary wars in the Middle East just to make life more pleasant for Israel's right-wing Likudniks.]