The Rise Of American Fascism

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." -Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address 1838

Prescient, that man Lincoln.
A tiny downgrade in one's credit rating from the highest possible score to the second-highest can not, in and of itself, be proof positive that a country is failing. But when that credit rating has stood since 1917, and when one reflects on the political crapfest that precipitated that credit downgrade, one certainly can't help but wonder if America understands the perils of the road it is travelling.

I, for one, think not.

The vitriol spewing out of various Fox-holes...well, Lincoln would have recognized it for the variation on mob rule it seeks to foment. There is a long and storied tradition in America of populist leaders emerging out of relative obscurity, urging the population to rise up in revolt against elitist, statist masters. McCarthy. Malcolm X. Michele Bachmann. For that matter, President Obama himself has repeatedly used the highest pedestal in the land to incite class warfare; his elites are the rich corpocrats. He is either frightfully naive or willfully ignorant: corporations have running Skyscraper America from its lobby for decades now.

The Left and the Right used to be two parts of the same body politic. In America in the second decade of the twenty first century they can't be said to inhabit the same reality. Twenty years ago I thought David Frum leaned so far right he was in danger of toppling; today he sounds almost like a Democrat. Believe me, it's not because Frum has mellowed. Rather, the United States started running into right field a few years back and is now so far out there it can't even see home plate anymore.

I don't see how this is correctable. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, we will see the rise of American fascism.
Sinclair Lewis, the first American to be honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature, once said that "when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." We see in the Tea Party a patriotism that borders on the fanatical (and which, of course, comes with its attendant branding of anyone not of the Faith as "un-American"); the cross surely need not be explained.
This article, originally written in 2009 as the Tea Party was gaining in popularity, argues the U.S. is already pulling into the parking lot of Fascists 'R' Us. It's not tinfoil-hat territory: truly, it's worth the read. It defines facism thus:

"Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline."

Here are what it posits as the three signs of fascism in formation:

1. Are [neo- or protofascisms] becoming rooted as parties that represent major interests and feelings and wield major influence on the political scene?
2. Is the economic or constitutional system in a state of blockage apparently insoluble by existing authorities?
3. Is a rapid political mobilization threatening to escape the control of traditional elites, to the point where they would be tempted to look for tough helpers in order to stay in charge?

The recent debt ceiling debacle illustrates point 1) perfectly. America now has two parties: Democrat and Tea. The Tea Party, while not explicitly fascist, certainly fits the definition above in that it faults liberals and liberals alone for the decline of America and seeks by means increasingly foul to restore order both fiscal and social. That they portray themselves as innocent VICTIMS is telling.

The answer to 2) is an emphatic yes. The Democrats have historically disagreed with Republicans on just about everything, but at least they used to be able to make themselves understood and occasionally listened to. Today, the political system is all but paralyzed. So is the economy. It's only in the last ten days or so that the stock markets seemingly have deigned to recognize there is an economy outside their bubble, and that bubble is in the process of going pop.

And as to 3)...let the economy fester much longer, as it probably will, and we'll just see what unholy alliances those traditional elites cook up to maintain their grip on power.

For nearly ten years now I have worried that America would get around to posing a Muslim question in the manner that Germany once posed a "Jewish question". I am still worried about this. The United States persists in overstating the strength of al-Qaeda for political ends, and Muslims are thus widely distrusted; it would not take overmuch to reach a tipping point. But now I'm starting to wonder if the scope of my worry is too narrow. It seems to me that the Tea Party has a very strong opinion on what it means to be American, and an even stronger opinion on who doesn't qualify. They have a real bee in their bonnet over "illegals"; ironically enough, people who escaped utter misery in Mexico for what they imagined to be a better life in los estados unidos. The Tea Partiers like to lump them in with the "bleeding heart liberals" who, they imagine, are conspiring to destroy "their" America.

The truth is that America's rightward drift is what is destroying America. Impoverish the middle class and keep the lower class down in the name of LOW LOW TAXES and eventually that lower class, not to mention much of what used to be the middle, will get desperate enough to listen to anyone with a solution. In normal times, Michele Bachman's proposal to eliminate the minimum wage would cue fits of hysterical laughter, as would her assertion that her having run mental health clinics qualifies her for the Presidency of the United States of America. (Those mental health clinics, by the way, have been accused of performing 'conversion therapy'--seeking to change homosexuals into heterosexuals...which would also be funny if it wasn't so scary.)

Michele Bachmann has a decent shot at being the next President. If that happens, the Tea Party's apt to get...raucous.