The Danger of American Fascism

1. What is a fascist?
2. How many fascists have we?
3. How dangerous are they?

Excerpts:

- They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty
guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the
spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective
toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power
so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market
simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

- A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an
intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes,
religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his
use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a
fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a
race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may
be a culture, religion, or a political party.

- The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to
poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is
never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use
the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group
more money or more power.

- American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a
purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of
public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of
demagoguery.

- Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to
democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money
and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to
evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic
extortion.

- Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision
of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have
warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry
who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain
some temporary advantage.

- It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some
even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the
Potomac. It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard
against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious
distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men
and "with malice toward none and charity for all" go forward on the
great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a
practical reality, we shall not fail.

Read the full article at the link below.