1. The government is totalitarian because it acknowledges no restraint upon its powers.
2. Government sustains economic life through spending and borrowing.
3. Militarism is a mainstay of government spending.
4. Military spending has imperialist aims.
5. Government is a de facto dictatorship based on the leadership principle.
6. Government administers a capitalist system with an immense bureaucracy.
7. Producers are organized into cartels in the way of syndicalism.
8. Economic planning is based on the principle of autarky.
The question becomes; does our present political/economic system meet these points? In his book, "The Three Faces of Fascism", Ernst Nolte told us that fascism can take different forms even as the underlying reality of the system remains the same. Does the USA represent a fascist state? Let us look at each point in its turn.
Point one can be seen as very controversial in some quarters but many modern political writers from the far left unto the far right have been documenting the government's lack of restraint upon its actions for decades. I think one would have to be blind not to see that. Mussolini himself claimed that, "The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative."
Point two, that the government operates by "stimulating the economy" though massive dept and inflation is beyond debate. All sides acknowledge the fact even as they disagree as to its benefits or lack of benefits.
Point three goes along with point two. The government's main spending is on the military, intelligence apparatus, and other "security" forces. The USA outspends the rest of the world combined on military items. This is, indeed, the mainstay of government spending.
And point four goes along with both 2 and 3. The USA has been an imperialist power since 1900 at least. (longer if you include the "Indian Wars")
Point five brings us to, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of this list. In the USA we bow down to the Office of the President. Even though many are truly following a person like many follow Obama no matter what he does. But the reality is that the "White House" controls the government and does not really change very much as the president himself comes and goes. We don't have a Hitler or a Mussolini (at least not yet), our fascism is stronger because we can stand the loss of the man at the top so much easier than Germany or Italy could have.
Point six should be obvious to any citizen of at least normal intelligence. We have thousands of regulators and hundreds of thousands of regulations in which the central government attempts to run, top down style, a capitalist system in the "third way" manner first conceived of by Mussolini.
Point seven tells us that the government controls the economy via syndicalism which means economic control by the producers. Capitalism is different as it places all control in the hands of the consumers. We are fascists so we place control in the hands of the "producers" who might be the workers but can also be the largest corporations. In today's America the largest corporations are the wielders of the States control over the economy.
Point eight tells us that fascists use autarky. This is the concept of self sufficiency by taking large amounts of resources from others if needed. The idea is that the State mush continue to grow or it will die. This is the reason that even Republicans in modern America do not favor free and unrestrained trade with other countries. The Fascist-State will use its military to secure what it wants and needs via power. It will literally give the resources so secured at great cost to the most favored large corporations so as to fit in with the above points.
The question was simple; is the USA a Fascist-State in the political-economic meaning of that term? I submit that the answer is an unqualified "YES" even if we have a slightly different take on the system than the 30s Italy did under Mussolini.
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