Are We In America Now In Fascist Territory?

Many people are asking the same question: Are we in America now in fascist territory? (Here I will capitalize “Fascism” but not “fascist.) There’s no easy, simple answer. Here I will describe Fascism and leave it to you to decide whether or not we, in America, are now in fascist territory.

Fascism began in Italy with Benito Mussolini in the early 1920s. He is the original prototype of Fascism. All later Fascisms must be tested by him and it although most scholars of Fascism agree that other, contemporary and later national political parties and states can rightly be called fascist.

After Mussolini there was Adolph Hitler and National Socialism in Germany with many European political parties and states imitating him and it. Many scholars think it right and true to label Francisco Franco and Spanish ruling party and state as fascist. After and apart from those three, identifying Fascism becomes a bit more controversial.

Fascism is not simple authoritarian or dictatorial leadership. For example, no scholar thinks Communism counts as Fascism even if there are some similarities. The differences are too stark; all truly fascist regimes and states have been passionately anti-communist.

Here are the commonly stated features of real Fascism:

1. Passionate nationalism that comes close to a religion of the nation-state and its people; other nation-states and peoples viewed as inferior;

2. One political party and its leader acquiring complete control of the nation-state and persecuting dissenters;

3. A large proportion of the nation-state and its “real people” (usually identified as an ethnic group to the exclusion of others) giving near-religious obeisance to the national leader (head of state and/or head of government);

4. A heavy emphasis on militarism often, perhaps usually, leaning into imperialism;

5. A subgroup of national residents treated as a scapegoat, identified as a source of the nation-state’s problems and subjugated;

6. State capitalism; the government controlling businesses (directly or indirectly);

7. Government use of some kind of military or police force to intimidate and detain people without due process;

8. A ruling ideology that subordinates individual rights to the security of the state; such an ideology emphasizing nationalism and ethnicity to the exclusion of pluralism and diversity.

One historical “stand out” national state in this debate over Fascism was Salazar’s Portugal. Most scholars do not count it as fascist because it lacked some of the above features. It was simply a garden-variety dictatorship.

Fascism is religious in nature in that it tends to blend its ideology and actions with a particular religion (Franco heavily favored the Catholic Church and gave it special status) or take on features of religion for itself and the nation-state and government.

So, is America sliding into Fascism as many claim? What do you think? Give reasons.

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