Is fascism the merger of the state and corporate power?

Fascist, how close are we: TO DAMN CLOSE and if we don't watch out we will be there before you can blink your eyes. The Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the President of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators.

That's how close we are and the more BIG BROTHER gets your power the LESS RIGHT'S YOU WILL HAVE!
Fascist America: Are We There Yet?

By Sara Robinson
August 6, 2009 - 1:23am ET


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All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators. With each new outrage, the small handful of us who'd made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it? Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?
And every time this question got asked, people like Chip Berlet and Dave Neiwert and Fred Clarkson and yours truly would look up from our maps like a parent on a long drive, and smile a wan smile of reassurance. "Wellll...we're on a bad road, and if we don't change course, we could end up there soon enough. But there's also still plenty of time and opportunity to turn back. Watch, but don't worry. As bad as this looks: no -- we are not there yet."
In tracking the mileage on this trip to perdition, many of us relied on the work of historian Robert Paxton, who is probably the world's pre-eminent scholar on the subject of how countries turn fascist. In a 1998 paper published in The Journal of Modern History, Paxton argued that the best way to recognize emerging fascist movements isn't by their rhetoric, their politics, or their aesthetics. Rather, he said, mature democracies turn fascist by a recognizable process, a set of five stages that may be the most important family resemblance that links all the whole motley collection of 20th Century fascisms together. According to our reading of Paxton's stages, we weren't there yet. There were certain signs -- one in particular -- we were keeping an eye out for, and we just weren't seeing it.
And now we are. In fact, if you know what you're looking for, it's suddenly everywhere. It's odd that I haven't been asked for quite a while; but if you asked me today, I'd tell you that if we're not there right now, we've certainly taken that last turn into the parking lot and are now looking for a space. Either way, our fascist American future now looms very large in the front windshield -- and those of us who value American democracy need to understand how we got here, what's changing now, and what's at stake in the very near future if these people are allowed to win -- or even hold their ground.
What is fascism?
The word has been bandied about by so many people so wrongly for so long that, as Paxton points out, "Everybody is somebody else's fascist." Given that, I always like to start these conversations by revisiting Paxton's essential definition of the term:



Fascism: While none of those examples are completely fascist, if they involved the lost of rights leading to a more authoritarian state or the enhancement of the elitists in a capitalistic society then we shall consider the label appropriate. After all fascism comes in various degrees or flavors just as democracy has.

No term generates more confusion or misunderstanding than fascism. It has been applied to people like McCarthy, Hoover, government policies and governments themselves. Exactly what is fascism? It is a totalitarian system of government that bases its economy on capitalism. While none of those examples are completely fascist, if they involved the lost of rights leading to a more authoritarian state or the enhancement of the elitists in a capitalistic society then we shall consider the label appropriate. After all fascism comes in various degrees or flavors just as democracy does. Further it took Hitler over a decade before he attained full power. Fascism and capitalism are inseparable. Notice how the corporate power structure is authoritarian and is geared to reward the elite owners but not the workers.

Leon Trotsky in a brilliant pamphlet first described Fascism. This description of fascism in and of itself is not noteworthy and has been expanded by several others, but the analysis of the evolution of a capitalistic society into a fascist society was brilliantly prophetic. We have already alluded to the fact that Hitler attained his power gradually and no rebellion or revolution was required, this is what makes fascism so insidious and dangerous. It is just a natural degenerative process of a capitalistic society. Likewise, Mussolini also attained power not through rebellion or revolution but through what could be termed a loud march or strike, a riot would simply be an overstatement of the facts. This paper will examine the creeping fascism present in the US and where it may lead if it's unchecked. We shall define creeping fascism as the lost of individual rights or the enhancement of the rights of the elite and corporations containing one or more elements of fascist behavior as defined by past philosophers of fascism or as defined by past behavior of fascist regimes. But first we must look at the evolution of governments and define exactly what fascism involves.