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Is Fascism A Real
Concern for the U.S.A.?
Author: Sam Lucero, November 2005. © 2005, Samuel J. Lucero. All Rights Reserved.

Americans, living in the United

States after the attack of 9/11 and
during the war in Iraq, have given up
a few rights to try to help our country
stop terrorism. However, as we begin
the fifth year since the twin towers fell,
we have to ask ourselves: What is too
much? How much are we willing to
forsake in the name of the very thing
that we are sacrificing: freedom.
Abraham Lincoln said on July 4, 1861:
“Must a government of necessity be
too strong for the liberties of its
people, or too weak to maintain its
own existence?” Clinton Rossiter,
author of Constitutional Dictatorship,
1963, wrote, “Can a democracy fight a
successful total war and still be a
democracy when the war is over?”
America is heading toward a future
that has been shared by many other
countries, and that future is:
Totalitarian Dictatorship by way of
Fascism.
 To determine whether
America is becoming fascist, fascism
must first be defined. Paul Wilkinson,
in his in International Fascism puts it
best when he says, “…reactionary
ideologies compounded of virulent
ultra-nationalism, exaltation of
irrationality and, illegality, violence and
dominant in the right wing coalition of
the ‘national movement’ and fanatical
anti-communism.”(27) The word
fascism is a derivative of fasces,
meaning bundles of elm or birch rods,
bound with record and carried by
lectors in Ancient Rome; the rods
symbolized unity and authority.
Fascism, peaking between 1930 and
1945, is “a wide variety of nationalistic
and authoritarian movements”.
(Wilkinson 27) Fascist ideology can
easily be summarized as the belief in
the supremacy of the national group
over all other races and minorities, the
total subordination of the individual to
an absolute state under an absolute
leader; the suppression of all
independent secondary institutions;
the rejection of the values and
institutions of parliamentary democracy
and their replacement by fascist
dictatorships; total opposition to
peaceful internationalism; a foreign
policy of expansion and conquest as
the natural ‘destiny’ of the nation
(Wilkinson 29).

Fascism became a reality as

a new type of socialism in 1914,
constituted by Mussolini and the
revolutionary syndicalists together with
Corrandini’s nationalists. From 1902,
throughout the period prior to World
War I, Mussolini developed in the
shadow of the revolutionary
syndicalists. In Italy, fascism was
viewed as an Intellectual Revolution.
Fascist ideology was a rejection of
materialism – liberalism, democracy
and Marxism were being regarded
simply as different aspects of the
same materialistic evil, and it is also a
demonstration of economic frustration
during a period of recession. The
fascist ideology started in Italy around
1910-12, but did not materialize in
mass form until after World War I. This
movement was seen as the
expression of national unity, and
demonstrated the importance of unity
of command, authority, leadership, and
moral mobilization, the education of
the masses and of propaganda as an
instrument of power.

Lawrence Britt in Free Inquiry

Magazine lays out the 14
characteristics of Fascism Powerful
and continuing nationalism. “Fascist
regimes tend to make constant use of
patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols,
songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags
are seen everywhere, as are flag
symbols on clothing and in public
displays.”

Human Rights are disdained.

Because of fear of enemies and the
need for security, the people in fascist
regimes are persuaded that human
rights can be ignored in certain cases
because of need. The people tend to
‘look the other way’ or even approve
of torture, summary executions,
assassinations, long incarcerations of
prisoners, etc. Identification of
enemies/scapegoats as a unifying
cause. The people are rallied into a
unifying patriotic frenzy over the need
to eliminate a perceived common
threat or foe: racial, ethnic, or religious
minorities, liberals, communists,
socialists, terrorists, etc. Even when
there are widespread domestic
problems, the military is given a
disproportionate amount of
government funding, and the domestic
agenda is neglected. Soldiers and
military service are glamorized; Crime
and punishment are overemphasized.
Under fascist regimes, the police are
given almost limitless power to
enforce laws. The people are often
willing to overlook police abuses, and
even forego civil liberties, in the name
of patriotism. There is often a national
police force with virtually unlimited
power.

Sexism is rampant. The

governments of fascist nations tend to
be almost exclusively male-dominated.
Under fascist regimes, traditional
gender roles are made more rigid.
Opposition to abortion is high, as is
homophobia and anti-gay legislation
and national policy. Intellectuals and
the arts are disdained. Fascist nations
tend to promote and tolerate open
hostility to higher education, and
academia. It is not uncommon for
professors and other academics to be
censored or even arrested. Free
expression in the arts is openly
attacked, and the governments often
refuse to fund the arts.

Attempts are made to control

public opinion in various ways. Mass
media is closely controlled, sometimes
directly by the government. In other
cases, the media is indirectly
controlled by government regulation or
through sympathetic media
spokespeople and executives.
Censorship, especially in wartime, is
very common. National security is an
obsession. Fear is used as a
motivational tool by the government
over the masses. Religion and
government are intertwined.
Governments in fascist nations tend to
use the most common religion in the
nation as a tool to manipulate public
opinion. Religious rhetoric and
terminology is common from
government leaders, even when the
major tenets of the religion are
diametrically opposed to the
government’s policies or actions.

Corporate power is protected.

The industrial and business
aristocracies of a fascist nation often
are the ones who put the government
leaders into power, creating a mutually
beneficial business/government
relationship and power elite. Labor
power is suppressed. Because the
organizing power of labor is the only
real threat to a fascist government,
labor unions are either eliminated
entirely or are severely suppressed.
Cronyism and corruption are rampant.
Fascist regimes almost always are
governed by groups of friends and
associates who appoint each other to
government positions, and who use
governmental power and authority to
protect their friends from
accountability. It is not uncommon in
fascist regimes for national resources
and even treasures to be appropriated
or even outright stolen by government
leaders.

Fraudulent elections are

another unfortunate feature of fascist
regime. Sometimes elections in
fascist’s nations are a complete sham.
Other times elections are manipulated
by smear campaigns against (or even
the assassination of) opposition
candidates, the use of legislation to
control voting numbers or political
district boundaries, and the
manipulation of the media. Fascist
nations also typically use their
judiciaries to manipulate or control
elections. All of these features are
common in Hitler Nazi Regime,
Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain,
Suharto’s Indonesia, and Pinochet’s
Chile.

Although fascism regimes

have not lasted long (Mussolini’s
Fascist State 1925-43 and Hitler’s
Third Reich 1933-45 being the most
successful), they have exploited fears
and prejudices. Real or imagined
fears of a communistic take over, or
even something as basic as economic
frustration, are the problem addressed
by aspiring fascist regimes, and
Fascism is their answer. This is how
the average citizen would give up
his/her rights for a more unified and
moral government, and how liberties
could be deferred to arrive at such an
end.

All fascist movements, to

some degree combine mass
revolutionist strategies with reactionary
ideologies compounded of active ultra-
nationalism, exaltation of irrationality,
illegality, violence and fanatical anti-
communism (Wilkinson 28). Mussolini
used the techniques of the mass
movement with elegance and
propaganda. According to Mussolini,
man has existence only in so far as he
is sustained and determined by the
community. “Hitler was vastly more
successful both in his use of mass
revolutionist strategies, mass
propaganda and party organization,
and the control of mass
communications media, nationalist
symbolism and slogans” (Wilkinson
28). During the rise of fascism
between the years of 1921 and 1928,
the inherent problems and
contradictions became apparent.

War is one of the forces that

can most affect a country. After World
War II, civil rights in this country
became a big concern and forever
changed the motive behind many laws
created. After 9/11 many of our laws
changed to protection laws, and
unfortunately gave the president a lot
more power then was normally
granted to just one person. In a
constitutional democracy, the laws
assumed for war should be retractable
and normality restored when the war
is over. Wartime laws should only be
created for this end, however the laws
that have been created since WWII,
that have granted the president more
power during war, have not been
retracted or even created to enable
 their retraction. In the struggle to
address the atrocities caused by
terrorism and war, the American
government has chosen to start
legislating morals, such as same-sex
marriages and instating ‘sin’ taxes.
None of these laws are meant to be
temporary. In this time of unrest,
people turn to whatever gives them
comfort. For some that may be God
and religion, however, this is not true
for all. The constitution states that
there is not supposed to be a
promotion of any specific religion, but
our president is proactive in
intertwining Christianity and
government without a second thought.

Bush defenders say that he is

just trying to protect the US and that
he is trying to bring about a more
moral America, but nowhere in the
Constitution does it say that the
government has the power to instill
morals in the people. . A good
question to ask would be: How can we
be safe if the new national security
system can not take care of its own
people during a hurricane or even
after the hurricane has passed? This
is not the America I grew up with, it
wasn’t the one I went into the Army to
defend, and it sure is not the one that
my grandfather was taken as a POW
while defending in WWII. The question
at this point is not will we become a
fascist state but rather will we let it
complete its mission.

Author: Sam Lucero, November 2005. © 2005, Samuel J. Lucero. All Rights Reserved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bracher, Karl Dietrich, (1970) The German Dictatorship
New York & Washington: Praeger Publishers
Britt, Laurence, (2001) Fascism Anyone?
Free Inquiry Magazine (www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm)
Broder, David S., (2000) Democracy Derailed
New York, San Diego & London: Harcourt, Inc.
Friedrich, Carl J. & Brzezinski, Zbigniew K., (1965) Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy
 Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
Griffin, Roger, (1998) International Fascism
London, Sydney, & Auckland: Arnold Publishing Co-published by Oxford University
Press, Inc.
Kershaw, Ian & Lewin, Moshe (1997) Stalinism and Nazism
Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press
Rossiter, Clinton, (1963) Constitutional Dictatorship
New York & Burlingame: A Harbinger Book

Author: Sam Lucero, November 2005. © 2005, Samuel J. Lucero. All Rights Reserved.

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