Charles, it's unclear to me whether you think fascism is already here, or are just worried about the possibility of fascism down the road, which is quite a different thing.
Do you consider the the Bush administration is "fascist", as some on the left do? ^^^ CB: Hello Marvin. I 'd say fascist in foreign policy, proto-fascist in "domestic" policy. ^^^^ If so, what if the "fascist" Bush administration were at some point succeeded by one which outlawed elections, other political parties, unions,demonstrations, judicial review of its decisions, press and internet criticism, etc. and organized its party ranks to terrorize dissidents and the poor - what would you call that regime? Wouldn't it represent a qualitative change in the American political situation from what currently exists? ^^^ CB: That would be proto-fascist domestic policy becoming fascist. ^^^^ Most people would say yes. That's what fascism means to them. ^^^^^ CB: Include me im most people. ^^^^ They think they'd lose whatever rights they now have to criticize and organize against the government. These rights, however imperfect, matter to them. Would you challenge them on this? ^^^^ CB: See above. I agree. We are not fascist now, but there is a clear danger of becoming fascist, and the trend has been to move to the right over the last twenty-five years. In a dialectical sense, looking at direction, trend, the direction is toward fascism, the state is proto-fascist. Like pre-cancerous cells, to use a metaphor. There is a qualitative accumulation of changes in the U.S. state, law, politicians toward the right. At some point, quantitaive change turns into qualitative rightwing change of the type you describe as fascism, what I said was domestic fascist policy. ^^^^^^ No doubt there are conservatives within the Republican party who want to curb the democratic rights which the masses have fought for and won under capitalism, and perhaps it even harbours closet fascists who would like to eliminate these entirely, but so long as these rights exist, and however much they're threatened, we don't live under fascism. ^^^ CB: That's right. It's only Yugoslavs, Iraqis and others who live under our fascism. ^^^^^ I don't think you'd find anyone on the left who has lived both under fascism and under the Bush administration saying they're the same thing. ^^^^ CB: However, you do have people who have lived under fascism who say that the current regime in the executive and the legislative, on the federal, state and county levels is proto-fascism. There have been a number of people announcing that in articles posted here. They lived in Nazism, and this reminds them of Germany before it turned fully fascist, things remind them of the early Hitler governments. You've seen those testimonies, no ?
