Fascist America: Are We There Yet?
By Sara Robinson
August 6, 2009
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.
Tags: Fascism
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August 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Why is this article on here? This is ridiculous right-left dichotomy posturing. Pot calling the kettle black. Not one hand watching the other; more like two hands not realizing they are controlled by the same elements.
August 11th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Well, the article mentions the important work of Roger Griffin, for one. And someone reading it, if they hadn’t known who he was, would naturally do a search and be led to books such as this. The included link to the academic paper by Robert Paxton is another reason. Read that in its entirety, and gobble up in turn all of his cited sources.
As for the posturing of the author and article itself - sure. I agree. But I’m not going to suppress it and pretend like it doesn’t exist. Besides, you wouldn’t have had a chance to have your say! It’s good to monitor at the same time the hysterics of both the so-called left and the so-called right. Every day my RSS reader gives me the scoop on both sides and the only conclusion I have come to is that the extreme of both sides use the same tactics to malign various perceived threats and enemies.
August 13th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
WOW SOUNDS LIKE OBAMA’S PEOPLE WROTE THAT ARTICLE….BUSH SET THE STAGE WITH THE LAWS HE WROTE (AND BROKE) FOR OBAMA TO COME IN AND BE THE FACIST. NATIONALIZING OR TRYING TO NATIONALIZE EVERYTHING IN HIS PATH..BANKS, GM, HEALTHCARE…ISN’T THAT A BIGGER WORRY THAN PEOPLE SAYING TO PROTEST
August 13th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Please refrain from shouting (all caps).
August 14th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Sara needs to change her bong water.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
you dont see it? i see it.
August 15th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
It only takes a strong man in the face of a crisis. “Our dear leader” can apply equally to Bush or Obama; left, right, or center. At the end of the day it is all semantics anyway. Actions are what counts.