When Fascism Comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. -Sinclair Lewis

"It’s plain to see we have fallen into the bog of fascism when the two political parties are nourished from the same corporate feed- bag; when a single party dominated by corporations and devoted to their interests controls the executive, both houses, and the judiciary; when corporations and government have become merged to the end that often no clear distinctions can be made between them; and finally when war and the threats of war rule our nation’s agenda. The evidence is nearly irrefutable that the democracy envisioned by our founders has, in major ways, failed." Gerry Spence's book "Bloodthirsty . . .

Inverted Totalitarianism: A New Way of Understanding How the U.S. Is Controlled By Chalmers Johnson, Truthdig A new book offers a controversial but ultimately convincing diagnosis of how the U.S. has succumbed to an unacknowledged totalitarian temptation. Read more »

More Lies from the Bush Fascists (Paul Craig Roberts) 2/22/2008

So here's the question: Can what happened in Germany in the 1930's (and '40s) happen here ? Look carefully at these 14 points of Fascism. It is the sheepish submissiveness that leads to creeping fascism.

George W Bush's grandfather participated in the failed coup of business titans against President Roosevelt. They had planned to replace our democracy with a fascist regime modeled after Adolf Hitler's.

Let's not make the same mistake (video).

"...the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play - isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy. Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation." from Chalmers Johnson's recent book 'Nemesis' subtitled 'the last days of the American republic.

Germany was certainly an advanced country, but major media helped to put in place a head of state who increasingly demanded more power. Here the FCC, with strong Bush backing, is working to further consolidate media so that a small number of their favorite corporations can provide only the official story. Media concentration means that only the official word is broadcast, and it is done by a lap-dog, corporate press. Cable news broadcasts are hatchet jobs on Democrats. US major media were cheerleaders for the war in Iraq even though most of the public had strong doubts. Media dissidents were suppressed.  So much for a free press. The first amendment has been shredded.

Elections were highly suspect in both of the Bush elections. Right wing  partisans manufacture election machines that can be hacked. A partisan Supreme Court called it.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called CORPORATISM because it is a merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini (from Encyclopedia Italiana, Giovanni Gentile, editor). It is no surprise that Corporations are writing our new laws: making bankruptcy harsher, undermining environmental safeguards, making prescription cost uncontrollable, weakening food safety, concentrating media, undermining union organizing, and in general asserting the most regressive policy ever pursued by so-called 'Christians'. Repeal of the estate tax will benefit only the very wealthiest (which tells you who is really running the show.) It appears that all of our regulatory agencies have been taken over by the industries that they are supposed to control. It is accompanied by super patriotism.

As in Germany, a terrorist incident became the pretext for a pre-emptive war. The Germans staged an Anshluss, where the US invaded Iraq in 'Shock and awe'. At Nuremberg pre-emptive war was regarded as a war crime. The pretexts for war in Iraq have all been found false. Major media didn't bother to notice. If 'democracy' were healthier in the US, it might be more credible as a motive for war in Iraq, but it has its problems in the US as well. Congress all but abandoned its Constitutional obligation to determine when we go to war just as it has failed to act as a check on the Presidency.

Bush has, in signing statements, asserted that he can challenge or ignore laws passed by the Congress. He has ignored international law when it does not suit him. His ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, who was appointed in spite of the Senate, is making ultimatums. Bush proclaimed "You're either with us or against us." Since Congress has not provided oversight, war profiteering, privatizing, torture, rendition, have been accomplished in secrecy. Secrecy is, of course, a major restraint to democracy. Although Presidential power expanded as soon as he was able to declare a state of war, the power of the office has expanded with the line item veto, fast track authority, lack of Congressional oversight, Bush minions have been justifying an imperial presidency.  Diplomacy is forgotten and the Pentagon has taken control. Constitutional checks have been all but eliminated.

Military spending has increased to a level that dominates the economy. Many of the previously civilian functions are becoming militarized: border security, public health, ... We spend more on our standing army than the rest of the world combined. Eisenhower warned about allowing the military-industrial complex to grow out of control, but our media has a very short memory and rewrites history to specification.

Since military spending is so out of control, health care, higher education, pensions, and other social programs are drying up. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security was largely recognized for what it is, a plan to further weaken a fairly solvent program that would ultimately destroy it. Wall street brokerages would create millions of new accounts though, and they would be the major beneficiary. All plans to 'reform' Social Security will result in cuts. US industry has largely migrated to low wage countries.

Civil liberties have been severely curtailed. The "Patriot Act" allows the government to monitor borrowings at public libraries, telephone companies turned over their records for data mining, internet search history has been turned over with little objection. The Congress has passed a bill that requires States to issue drivers licenses with RFID tags that will allow everyone to be tracked. Bush claims the right to monitor phone calls without court oversight. Commercial records from credit cards and so on, formerly kept from the government, are now resources for data mining as well. Regularly we read about entire databases of personal records that have been stolen, but our politicians don't think we need the privacy protections that are demanded in Europe. The passive, pacified electorate has not demanded it. 

The wall came down in Berlin years ago, but who would have imagined that they would be built again on US borders ? US Concentration camps are being readied as well. Watch what you say. Republicans always need a victim to blame and they have created one in the form of the 'illegal alien'. Immediately we have an underclass of millions of people who will lose any rights that the Constitution might have defended. Rather like the Germans did to their underclass.

Bush and the "Neocons" that accompanied him, have publicly declared their intention to reshape the middle east. Chalmers Johnson describes hundreds of military bases scattered throughout the world, and concludes that the US is building an empire. Most people don't think about it. We didn't vote for empire, and it is a very bad idea, but our politicians think we won't notice. It is no surprise that Bush has promised a long, perhaps endless, war.

Like Hitler, Bush cast himself as a religious savior. His general has said that his god is bigger than the Muslim god, so we have been thrown back to the crusades. Kevin Philips and others have opined that we are headed for a theocracy. The war can easily be mistaken for another crusade.

Scientists who do not agree with the Republican doctrine are dismissed. Bush denies global warming.

We are at a point, reminiscent of past great empires, where a single strong-man claims power, where the legislature becomes ineffective, where civil liberties melt away, where the military becomes the dominant power, where we embark on an endless war, where the government goes broke, where the domestic economy becomes one of bread and circuses, and then, sometime after that, we will be destroyed. The obvious lessons of war in the last century are that they are rapidly becoming more destructive. The rest of the world is angry. What happened to Germany in 1945 could be much worse here if we continue on the current course. Every empire in history has come to a sad end. Why should it be different this time ?

...we can look forward with confidence to character-building bankruptcies, picturesque bread riots, thrilling cavalcades of splendidly costumed motorcycle police. Lewis Lapham (Harper's Magazine Oct. 2005)

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." Sinclair Lewis (1935)

Harper's Magazine: We now live in a Fascist State

Turn Off the Life Support: America is Dead

Heading for martial law ?.

That's why we should see that Republicans are removed from office.

http://www.worldcantwait.org/

Where were the good Germans ?

The Bush-Hitler Connection (video)

http://raenergy.igc.org/republicanfascistparty.html

A status report: Idaho Observer- Police state USA

and a warning from Sandra Day O'Connor

http://www.johnkaminski.com/

Fascism

Did the dream disappear ?

Senator Byrd is correct to equate Bush with Hitler

Yesterday and Today: Nazis and the Righteous Right 
by Donna Glee Williams  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8735.htm

http://villagevoice.com/news/0601,mondo1,71442,6.html

Chuck Baldwin's comments.

Bringing down a Tyrant.

Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

November 19, 2007

Originally published by the Guardian.

Order your copy of Naomi Wolf's "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot."

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all:

Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.

They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps. [more]

Americans Have Lost Their Country

By Paul Craig Roberts The Bush-Cheney regime is America's first neoconservative regime. In a few short years, the regime has destroyed the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, the Geneva Conventions, and the remains of America's moral reputation along with the infrastructures of two Muslim countries and countless thousands of Islamic civilians. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17216.htm

America: Freedom to Fascism (the Film)

Bibliography

The End of America: Naomi Wolf

Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power: Gerry Spence

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America Chris Hedges.

It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush: Joe Conason.