Is America Becoming a Fascist State?
Last year Jonah Goldberg released a book called Liberal Fascism in which he points out that fascism often is born from liberalism. While I do not want to re-argue Goldberg’s point, or to say something unnecessarily inflammatory like “Barack Obama is a fascist!”, given the rise of liberalism in this country, it is important to point out that we should not take for granted that America is immune to falling victim to fascism itself, just as other democracies, such as Italy, have in the past.
A fair definition of a fascist state is one in which a single party governs a nation and suppresses opposition, criticism, capitalism, and individual liberties. In a fascist state The State consolidates as much governmental authority as possible, believing – not necessarily out of malice, perhaps benevolently, at least at first – that it is the mechanism that will give rise to whatever is deemed for the best. It operates much the same way as would a parent. When a parent believes it is in the best interest of the child that the child eats his or her vegetables, of course the parent will not let the child rise from the dinner table until all of the broccoli has been consumed. The child will likely have no say in the matter.
The more liberal this nation becomes, the more evidence we see of our government behaving more like a parent, or, in other words, becoming fascist. Rarely has the government been as liberal as it is today. And yes, President Obama and his allies have been very successful in implementing an agenda that increases the power of government at the expense of both private enterprise, and of individual liberties.
For example, the government has issued a stimulus plan that attempts to make more people dependent upon the government. It ostensibly creates more public jobs with massive hiring for such things like infrastructure repair, but does little if anything to help the private sector create jobs. It does not lower corporate taxes or payroll taxes, it does not allow states more freedom in determining its minimum wage, and it does not allow for more domestic energy production – all of which would greatly spur private sector hiring. Therefore, with more people either unemployed or employed by the government, more people are, of course, dependent upon the government.
More private businesses have, under Mr. Obama’s government, been forced to become dependent upon The State. CEOs of private companies have been fired by The State. Banks have been forced to take loans from The State, forced to adhere to the conditions of those loans, and have been denied the right to repay those loans. Auto companies have been ordered to manufacture certain types of cars, not based on the demands of the free market, but rather based on what The State has determined to be for the greater good.
The State, in its benevolence, has declared plans to provide health insurance for all of its children. The price of this insurance will naturally be The State deciding what the child can eat, what the child can do, and what treatment will be allowed for the child. And The State has declared that taxes are no longer a necessary evil, but rather, a ‘patriotic duty’.
States themselves have been forced to become more dependent upon The State. The State has required states to accept money from its stimulus plan. To refuse would be to incur The State’s wrath as well as legal penalties. And how the money is spent is not determined by the state government but rather by The State government. Gov. Sanford of SC for example has said he would like to use The State’s money to pay down debt in his state. The State has refused to allow him to do so.
An important tenet of fascism, besides simply making more of us its children, is to suppress opposition to it. Much of it has come from a social level from those who are loyal to The State. For example, coverage for the recent Tea Parties from - well, I won’t say “state-run media” yet - but from media outlets with a clear allegiance to The State, alternated from dismissive to insulting. Visible spokesmen for the opposition to The State, such as Rush Limbaugh, are regularly held up to ridicule, and are the victims of personal attacks ordered by operatives from the very highest level of government. And even those who have risked their lives to protect The State, but who might oppose how The State operates, have been demonized. Military veterans are now considered by The State to be dangerous extremists, at least according to a recent DHS report.
Furthermore, what better way to demonize, and thus marginalize, opposition to The State than to portray that opposition as advocates for something as heinous as torture? Forgetting that this “torture” has only been used against the worst of the worst of villains the world has ever seen, and that it has only been used to extract information in order to prevent attacks that would have caused a loss of life beyond human comprehension, and that the acts of “torture” were no more severe than water boarding or sleep deprivation or forcing detainees to stand for an uncomfortable period of time, and that these acts of “torture” were performed with full knowledge of many of those in The State that are now so vocal in their opposition to it - what better way to demonize and thus marginalize opposition to The State than by linking that opposition to a word that conjures up images of prisoners being fed to a meat grinder foot first, which was an example of torture under Saddam’s Iraq? Today there are reports that those who argued for the use of these techniques may be put in prison.
A fascist state’s power derives from the number of citizens who believe themselves to be dependent upon the government and from the amount of fear it can generate in those citizens. President Obama’s government has not only expanded the power of government over its citizens, it has also worked to increased the number of those who will fear and believe themselves dependent on it for their survival; namely illegal immigrants. Just as African-Americans have fallen victim to a large degree of overreliance to The State, illegal immigrants given amnesty by The State will be similarly reliant, and thus, fierce supporters of The State.
Finally, what better example of a government becoming fascist is there than having the leader of The State become the recipient of publicity and promotion to the degree that it begins to seem to be deifying propaganda? And has this not happened with The One?
We are not children at a dinner table who must be forced to eat our vegetables for our own good, and we should not allow the government to think of us in those terms. We should not allow ourselves to be lead about by the ear for the greater good.
--DK