Are we nearing the crisis from which an American fascism will emerge? Neiwert has studied and written about the extremist right in America for many years. On his blog he has taken a reasoned, academic approach to the issue of fascism. He does not throw around the term lightly. He has posted two parts of a six-part series on the current conservative movement in America and its similarities to European fascism.
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The "conservative movement," in the course of this mutation, has become something entirely new, a fresh political entity quite unlike we've ever seen before in our history, but one that at the same time seems somehow familiar, as though we have seen something like it.
What's become clear as this election year has progressed -- and especially in the wake of the Republican National Convention -- is the actual shape of this fresh beast.
Call it Pseudo Fascism. Or, if you like, Fascism Lite. Happy-Face Fascism. Postmodern Fascism. But there is little doubt anymore why the shape of the "conservative movement" in the 21st century is so familiar and disturbing: Its architecture, its entire structure, has morphed into a not-so-faint hologram of 20th-century fascism.
<snip>
Without these facets, the current phenomenon cannot properly be labeled "fascism." But what is so deeply disturbing about the current state of the conservative movement is that it has otherwise plainly adopted not only many of the cosmetic traits of fascism, its larger architecture -- derived from its core impulses -- now almost exactly replicates that by which fascists came to power in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s.
<snip>
But does all this add up to fascism?
Not in its fullest sense. But it does replicate, in nearly every regard, the architecture of fascism in its second stage of growth -- the stage at which, in the past, it has obtained power.
All that is needed for a full manifestation of American fascism, at this point, is for a genuine crisis of democracy to erupt. And if that occurs, it is almost inevitable that the differences between fascism and pseudo-fascism will vanish.__________
This last paragraph of Part 1 is chilling. Could it be that the "crisis of democracy" might take place on November 2 with an unclear winner and numerous states in dispute? Imagine Florida 2000 multiplied exponentially. There will be a strong impulse by the rightwing repugs to consolidate their power and seize control--to "ensure stability" for the "good of the nation."
Could it be that the only thing worse than a bush win in November is no winner at all? Could it be that there are some on the right who are hoping for that very outcome?
Part 1: The Morphing of the Conservative Movement (scroll down)
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004_09_19_dneiwert_archive.htmlPart 2: The Architecture of Fascism
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/Here's a link to a revised version of a series he did last year:
Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An exegesis
http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php
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