The Myth of Fascism: Neo – Fascism In The United States 2009 -- Present

The Myth Of Fascism

How to debunk a myth? A myth in this sense, is a widely held but false belief or idea. Such is the myth of fascism. Or, more precisely, for the main thrust of this essay -- who is a Fascist.

This essay examines and debunks the myth that Republicans and Conservatives, in the personification of Donald Trump and his Administration, exemplify fascist regimes of the 20^th Century. And, that the tactics employed by the Left today are, for the most part, those that were employed by Communist and Soviet regimes, to a greater extent, than that of Mussolini’s[1] and Franco’s[2] Fascist regimes. Hence, the reality today, is that the ideology of the Democratic Party and its left-wing followers, are the ones employing Leninist – Stalinist means to achieve their ends.[3]

In the parlance of our time, the terms fascism and fascist have become sophomoric epithets, and little more than a pejorative used by the Left and its supporters (Democrats) to insult and damage their opponents (Republicans and Conservatives). Accordingly, the word fascist is sometimes used to denigrate people, institutions, or groups that would not describe themselves as ideologically fascist, and do not fall within the formal definition of the word.

If fascism is, as Roger Griffin, Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University parsimoniously defines it, "a political ideology … of populist ultra-nationalism." Then indeed, Donald J. Trump’s campaign and administration slogan, “Make America Great Again,” would qualify. Still, so would others such as John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier,” Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” Abraham Lincoln’s “ a new nation, conceived in Liberty” and Ronald Reagan's, “It’s Morning Again in America.” Moreover, if Donald Trump is a fascist by believing in “American Exceptionalism,” than so is every president in US history except Barack Obama.[4] However, as Stanley G. Payne, asserts, “rebirth and re-creation of the nation are goals fundamental to many different forms of nationalism.”[5] Clearly then, fascism is more than a notion of national rebirth.

Linda and Morris Tannehill, libertarian academics, posit "Fascism is a system in which the government leaves nominal ownership of the means of production in the hands of private individuals but exercises control by means of regulatory legislation and reaps most of the profit by means of heavy taxation. In effect, fascism is simply a more subtle form of government ownership than is socialism.” Clearly, this economic doctrine has not been espoused by the Trump campaign or administration. Yet, if any recent US administration has emphasized control of the economy by means of regulation, it has been the  Democratic Obama Administration.

Today, the Left, the Democratic Party, liberal pundits, academics, and the mainstream media, seek to label their opponents such as the Republican Party and conservatives, as fascists; perpetuating the myth handed down by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Stalin) with which to cloak conservative traditions such as populism, traditionalism, religiosity, nationalism, and communitarianism. The collaboration primarily of leftist academics and the mainstream media have each played an essential role in creating and nurturing this myth.

Anti-Fascism has become the perpetual banner and byword of the Left, in their resistance to conservatism and populism. Yet to do so, as Stanley Payne points out, “is to separate all (political movements and thought) opposed to both liberalism and Marxism and to assign them the arbitrary label of fascism while ignoring the basic differences between them. It is a little like identifying Stalinism with Rooseveltian democracy because both were opposed to Hitlerism.” [6]

Historically, fascist regimes, both Italian and Spanish, were authoritarian. However, they were predicated primarily on the fight against Communists and radical leftist, which were attempting to take over their countries.

On the one hand, fascism is quintessential Italian, with origins’ found in the writings of Machiavelli and celebrated by Mussolini. Fascism was unique at the time in the way it combined elements of political theory from both the left and the right.

On the other hand, National Socialism[7], Nazism, was distinct from Fascism. Its origin was Bismarckian – an unhealthy departure from Bismarckian Realpolitik, it should be noted. Heinrich von Treitschke, the anti – Semitic 19^th C. German historian, known as the prophet of National Socialism, argued for the importance of power in the German national ideal. Still, it was Hitler’s racialism and revanchism that most significantly differentiated National Socialism from Fascism. Anti-Semitism was not a component of the Italian and Spanish Fascist regimes.

As John Bew posited in his insightful book, Realpolitik[8]:  “While all nations practiced an element of Realpolitik, it was to be Germany that went further in rationalizing this for a practice into the glorification of destruction. And the consequences were disastrous.”

Neo – Fascism In The Unites States 2009 - Present

In the Unites States today, fascism, or what can be termed neo-fascism, is the domain of the Left.

In order to understand what is taking place today in western civilization, it is essential to understand two things. First, that neo- fascism is a left-wing system of government – not right-wing, as it is traditionally defined. And second, it is not fascism in the historical sense, but more akin to the ideology and methods of radical socialism and communism.

The Left, for purposes here include, to a greater or lesser extent: The Democratic Party of the United States; liberals; progressives; socialists; globalists; radical environmentalists; public sector unions; radical racial movements; authoritarians; communists; college and university faculties; entertainment and sports celebrities; anarchists; nihilists; and the mainstream media. What they all have in common and what binds them, is the need to change the United States from a free capitalist society, and defeat Republicans and Conservatives.

The issue is the reanimation of radical Socialism or Communism by the Left. There is a sophisticated network of corruption in the United States, which is an essential part of the Left’s playbook. In which a parallel can be drawn with communist Russia. Corruption of our educational institutions from Head Start to colleges and universities; Federal, State, and Local government employees; Election Commissions; and the Judiciary; all made possible by a biased, complacent, and corrupt Mainstream Media. Additionally, there is a strongly held and valid perception that institutions such as the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the United States Judiciary, which were established to protect our democracy, have been compromised and no longer, to an unacceptable degree, conduct themselves under the rule of law.

The Left, has voiced no qualms to resort to severe measures to silence and defeat its opponents. Today, Leftist such as pundits, entertainment celebrities, and some college and university faculty members, spew venomous rhetoric; even in the extreme to go as far as speaking openly of harming the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. It is important to keep in mind that never before in modern United States history has the opposition advocated and participated in civil disobedience and lawlessness; and encouraged the circumstances to make it possible, to the extent it does today. These are the tactics of Community Organizers, not an opposition party in government.

Today’s Democratic Party identify not so much with a democratic process to be scrupulously respected (“we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in...”)[9], but rather with radical reform, where the ends justify the means; fabrication, subterfuge, disinformation, and lying, are the acceptable currency of their cause. Moreover, the goals of the Left are always camouflaged: first because the truth is unpalatable; and second, because reality is unacceptable.

One of the most important initiatives of the Left has been to organize a cadre of “thugs” (Public Sector Unionists, Student Radicals, and Anarchists) to stage protests, some of which are violent, with the aim of disrupting society and silencing the opposition. As Stanley Payne insightfully notes, “one of the most characteristic features of fascism, (is) its attempt to militarize politics to an unprecedented degree.”[10] [11] This has been done by the Left today, by making mob protests central to its organization.  

Organized mobs such as those protesting on college campuses: riot; destroy property; obstruct the rights of others from participating in legal assemblies; and set fire to buildings and other property (arson). It should be understood, that these violent tactics are only directed against conservative, libertarians, and Republican targets. Recent examples include Charles Murray at Middlebury College, Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley, Ann Coulter also at UC Berkeley, NYU conservative speaker seminar, and Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna College, to name a few.

Protestors have attack mainstream religions, insisting on regulations that restrict religious freedom. The ultimate goal is the total suppression of religion, except for Islam, which thus far seems to be off limits for the Left.

Another tactic of the left is taking vengeance on your enemies. Enemies are anyone who does not strictly endorse your policies. An example in the Obama Administration, was when Lois Lerner, Director of Tax Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), delayed processing tax exempt 501(c) (3) and (4) applications from conservative groups; and transferred 1.25 million pages of confidential tax returns from the IRS to the Department of Justice in October of 2010.

Although Republicans decisively won the 2016 Election, the left contends that President Trump’s victory was fraudulent, resulting from Russian interference in the election. Therefore, they promote the myth that his victory over Hillary Clinton was illegitimate.[12]

There should be little doubt, that the Left would have labeled all the viable conservative candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican primary election a “fascist”, had they become the Party’s candidate. However, it was a populist, Donald Trump who became the Republican Party candidate for President, and thus ended up with the fascist mantle. In the eyes of the Left, Donald Trump went from a capitalist pig to a fascist swine!

Hence, regardless whether your enemy wins a “free and fair” election, the Left will do all it can to obstruct the new government’s ability to govern. In the 2016 Election, this included using highly sophisticated government surveillance to illegally spy on the incoming Administration’s transition team, using false pretexts to justify their surveillance, and certainly unethical and unlawful dissemination to the mainstream media. Other obstruction tactics include: not allowing new appointments to have Senate confirmation hearing and votes; and failing to participate in official Senate hearing.[13]

Furthermore, it is important to note that between the 2016 Election in November and the Trump Inauguration, officials at the highest level of the Obama Administration, used sophisticated and highly classified surveillance to spy on the Trump Transition Team.[14] This is a serious matter in any democracy. Not since Watergate have organs of government in the Executive Branch been used for such nefarious purposes. Just as egregious is the mainstream media ignoring and dismissing out of hand the matter, out of their allegiance to the Left.

It has been the intent of the Left to destroy the Middle Class, or in terms of the 1920s and 1930s parlance, the ‘bourgeoisie,’ through the transfer of its wealth in the name of social justice. In 1971, the Middle Class made up 61% of the adult population, and by 2014 it accounts for less than 50%, while the percentage of households in the upper income brackets has grown from 14% to 21% between 1971 and 2015.[15] Pew defines “middle-income” Americans “as adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median, about $42,000 to $126,000 annually in 2014 dollars for a household of three.[16]

Republicans in the Bush Administrations and Congress, have failed to protect middle class values and economic viability; while Democrats and the Left become ever more radical and exclusionary, insisting that only their agenda is acceptable, and all the time moving further to the extreme. However, a fundamental mistake of the Left is their total scorn for America’s middle-class, their values, their religion, and their defense of the Constitution, and all it embodies. Which is an important reason why they lost the 2016 Election.

It was Donald Trump the populist, who spoke to the Middle Class; not Donald Trump the fascist.

The Left (Democratic Party) refuses to compromise even with the democratic center, commonly referred as Independents and Moderate Republicans, preferring to pursue their own radical agenda at the expense of the legitimate interests of the nation. When they lose an election, they seek not reconciliation, but foment conflict and subterfuge.

In the same vein, the Left is failing to remain relevant because its priorities, are first to maintain an exclusively leftist reality, and second, to genuflect to their radical base because their support is speciously viewed as necessary to remain in power.

“Elections have consequences.”[17] Yet, according to the Left, when Donald J. Trump won the Presidency, it was the beginning of “fascism,” absent any evidence to support their allegation. The Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media refused to accept the overwhelming Republican election results. Refusing to accept the results of a fair and free election in a democracy can be seen as a subversive act.

The Lefts’ response after the 2016 Election was to take to the streets in a number of major cities in Democratic states; interfering with commerce; creating protests; and orchestrating civil disobedience. Mob actions and disorderly conduct were not spontaneous, but organized and financed by leftwing political organizations such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundation(s).[18]

Violence and obstruction by the Left continued after the Election, and has become increasing common through tactics as civil disobedience, disruptions of meetings and assemblies (sometimes violent), as well as keeping up a constant drumbeat by their representatives in the mainstream media, educational institutions, and celebrities of all stripes, in an effort to delegitimize the election results.

Direct clashes with conservative speakers by paid thugs on college campuses take place, while the Campus and Local Police are ordered to stand down by liberal administrators, and not arrest the perpetrators.

It should not go unsaid that Federal spending has overtaken state spending as the main source of public funding in higher education.[19] “In 2013 the federal government spent nearly $76 billion on higher education, while states spent about $3 billion less, according to the Federal and State Funding of Higher Education study.” That begs the question, what would higher education do without Federal funding? If any public or private school receiving federal monies cannot ensure the constitutional right to free speech, then why should taxpayer monies be allocated?

Immediately after the 2016 Election, one of the more salient frauds has been the allegation, by the Democratic Party, politicians in Congress, Democratic politicos and pundits, and the mainstream media, that the Russian Government under Vladimir Putin “hacked” the Election so Donald Trump could win.

The canard, so far unsupported by any evidence, alleged that Russia manipulated voting machines in certain closely contested states,[20] and disclosed, in concert with WikiLeaks,[21] emails detrimental to the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton. There is yet to be found any evidence to support the Lefts’ allegation of fraud, and the Left has not challenged the authenticity of the documents released. Still, the Left repeats the accusations daily, and seven months after the Election cowered Republicans in Congress are conducting a hearing to investigate the canard. In the meantime, the real crime of the Election, the Obama Administration’s use of false pretenses to secure a FISA warrant to “wiretap” the Trump campaign and Transition team, as well as “unmasking” private citizens, goes thus far seemingly without investigation by the Legislative (Congress) and Executive (Federal Bureau of Investigation) branches of the government.

Finally, another ploy employed by the Left was that laws would not be enforced that conflicted with its goals and objectives, even though officials took an oath to do so. This was in full view under the eight years of the Obama Administration.[22]

  

SUMMARY

There is a battle of ideology, being waged in the United States of America today. Clearly, differences have always persisted in American politics, and politics in general, yet today these differences are so profound that the Right (Republicans) and the Left (Democrats) can find no common ground. These differences manifested into populism and nationalism on the one hand, versus statism and globalism on the other. The former exemplified by Donald Trump and conservatism, while the latter is epitomize by  Barack Obama and liberalism.

It is apparent from the foregoing analysis that eight years of the Obama Administration has injected a neo – fascist thrust into America’s political and social landscape, not previously seen in the American polity.

Trying to understand the Left’s animosity to Republicans and conservatism is an essential question, in understanding neo – fascism. The answer may be remarkably simple. The reason why, is that by drawing attention to its sins and failures is to support the conservative opposition. The Left’s incapacity to reconcile principle with current circumstance in achieving an impartial and just result has led to repeated failure. In other words, the policies of the Left simply have not worked.

Indeed, in fairness to the Left, it must be difficult for members of a movement, to admit that their life’s’ work and intellectual ideological political foundation has failed. However, it is an open question as to whether that work was for altruism or aggrandizement?

It is generally agreed that leftist enablers such as intellectuals, writers, educators, artists, the mainstream media, etc., buttress Democratic politicians and officials, in spite of their faults, lies, and illegalities.[23] When the Obama Administration violated laws that even a dimwit would recognize; their crimes are excused as the cost of doing business, fighting the good fight, or the ends always justify the means. Of course, the same deference is not extended to the other side.

So what can be deduced by the myth of fascism and advent of neo – fascism today?

1.   Fascism is not Republican or Conservative. It is not Conservatives who engage in fascist tactics today in the United States, contrary to what the Left wants others to believe.

2.   Evidence to the contrary of the Left’s plaint, neo – fascism today is solely the domain of the Democratic Party and the Left.

3. The Left holds that anything opposed to them is fascist, and ipso facto reactionary and illegitimate. Therefore, any means are employed, including but by no means exhaustive: civil disobedience and lawlessness; organized and financed violent protests; mob action against democratic institutions and organizations; shutting down free speech; advocating harm to their opponents; vengeance on their enemies; disruption of government; intimidation of government officials and others; failure to enforce the law and open ideological defiance of the law, even by federal, state, and local court judges.

4. Absurd claims divorced from reality and supported by leftist enablers are the modus operandi of neo – fascism today, as it was in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Preposterous allegations such as insisting that the Russians “fixed” the 2016 Presidential Election, is a case in point.

5. Stigmatizing your opponent as “Fascist” and a “Nazis,” is a devious ploy by the Left to delegitimize the opposition, and is a threat to democracy itself.

  

Who’s a Fascist? 

It’s not Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The inaccurate and inappropriate application of “fascist” to Donald Trump, thereby hoping to denigrate and delegitimize his presidency, can be seen as a facetious praxis employed by the Left resulting from failed arguments and reasoned policies. 

An argument has been made here, that it is in fact the Obama Administration (2009 – 2017) and the Democratic Party who were and are characteristic of an authoritarian left-wing socialist regime; whose recent violent tendencies are more akin to the popular myth of fascism, than anything employed by the Trump Administration.

Indeed, who is the fascist?

---

[1] Hibbert, Christopher, Mussolini: The Rise And Fall Of Il Duce (St. Martin’s Press Griffin, 1962, 2008).

[2] Payne, Stanley G., The Spanish Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

[3] Jonah Goldberg is an American conservative writer, whose book, “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning,” provides the first serious critique of this subject. Goldberg posits that understanding what is termed “fascism,” requires dismissing tendentious beliefs in vogue today. Goldberg astutely understands, “that American liberalism is a totalitarian political religion,” however, this author does not hold that its roots are as Goldberg proffers in twentieth century European fascism. To the contrary, this author sees its foundation in radical European Socialism and Leninism. Furthermore, the author must disclaim any first hand knowledge of Mr. Goldberg’s book, however, his seminal impact to the subject needs to be acknowledged.

[4] At the NATO Summit in Strasbourg, France, in 2009 President Obama said, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

[5] Payne, Stanley G., A History of Fascism 1914 – 1945,” (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).

[6] Payne, Stanley G., A History of Fascism 1914 – 1945, (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995, 16).

[7] Liah Greenfield’s Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge, 1992), and Stanley G. Payne’s “A History of Fascism 1914 – 1945 (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), are two of the most influential works on the subject.

[8] Bew, John, Realpolitik: A History (Oxford University Press, 2016).

[9] US House of Representatives, Democratic Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, in a speech to the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH), on March 9, 2010.

[10] Payne, Stanley G, A History of Fascism 1914 – 1945, (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 12.

[11] “Militarize” is used here only in reference to a military character, and not the traditional sense of a formal militarization of a state.

[12] Republicans won the White House and both houses of Congress. Moreover, beginning in January 2017, Republicans control two-thirds of the state legislative chambers, an all-time high. The GOP controls both legislative chambers in 32 states, another all-time high; the same is true for Democrats in just 13 states. Republicans will hold 33 governorships for the first time in 94 years. And, 25 states have a Republican “trifecta” with control of the executive branch and both legislative chambers.

[13] The Left’s resort to churlish behavior in this case was a similar ploy engaged by Democrats in the Wisconsin State Legislature to thwart the Republican Governor, Scott Walker, passing of legislation the Left opposed. On February 17, 2011, a group of Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill by ignoring orders to attend a vote, fleeing across the state border to Illinois. Out of the reach of the Governor’s State Patrol.

[14] Breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/05/deepstategate-obama-trump surveillance-fisa-investigation-russia

[15]  Zerohedge.com, April 22, 2017, at 9:05 AM.

[16] Lee, Tony, Pew Study: Middle Class Declining, No Longer Majority, Breitbart.Com, December 6, 2015

[17] President Barack H. Obama made the remark in 2009, during a private meeting in the White House, with Republicans hoping to negotiate their position on an issue. The full quote: “Elections have consequences. And at the end of the day, I won. So I think on that one I trump you.” Little did he know at the time, that in eight years a Republican by the name of Trump would win the 2016 Presidential Election, and set out to repeal, replace, and nullify his political agenda. Indeed, elections do have consequences.

[18] The George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, has been partially funded by the Obama Administration’s State Department’s USAID program, thus using taxpayer monies, to foster interference by the Left in domestic political affairs in the United States such as Black Lives Matter, and in elections of foreign countries. Furthermore, their objective is an attempt to influence public opinion against Conservatism aka Populist and Republicans. These tactics are aided by what Stalin termed “useful idiots,” through the support of the media and cultural and entertainment celebrities. Interference by Soros’s Foundations in domestic political affairs of a Nation is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

[19] Woodhouse, Kellie, Impact Of Pell Surge, Inside Higher Education, June 12, 2015

[20] Jill Stein, an obscure third party candidate, who won no electoral votes, and only 1,457,222 or 1.06% of the popular vote, legally challenged the 2016 Presidential election results in three states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). No irregularities were found. In fact, Mr. Trump gained votes in states where a recount were conducted. Ms. Stein raised $6.3 million in her effort, which was almost twice as much as she rose for her Presidential campaign ($3.5 million). How much of the money Ms. Stein collected was actually spent on the recount(s) is unknown.

[21] WikiLeaks is an independent, non-profit online media organization that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous sources.

[22] The following are examples of serious violations of law not investigated by the Obama Administration: Operation “Fast and Furious;” Benghazi terrorist attack and cover-up; IRS’s targeting of conservative entities; Department of Justice’s seizing records of journalists; NSA surveillance of ordinary Americans; Ransom payments to Iran for release of hostages; Bowe Bergdahl’s prisoner exchange; Secret Service prostitution scandal; Hillary Clinton's email scandal; Clinton Foundation scandal; The VA death-list scandal; Solyndra green energy scandal; Administration Officials lying to Congress; Voter Fraud in 2008, 2012 and 2016 Elections; Russia hacking White House computers in 2014; Clinton campaign coordinating with DOJ and Attorney General Loretta Lynch; US Taxpayers Funding Iran Military; etc.

[23] For example, 91% of mainstream media coverage of Donald Trump is negative; 96% of donations by the mainstream media went to Hillary Clinton; on average 99% of the total amount donated by faculty and staff at major universities went to Hillary Clinton – Harvard University faculty and staff gave $440,907 to Hillary Clinton, and $2,446 to Donald Trump – there is every reason to believe that this same result is duplicated at most colleges and universities (Donation Preferences, Pro-Market, The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, by Tania Diaz Bazan, October 7, 2016); Hedge Funds in the 2016 Election donated $123 Million to Hillary Clinton, and $27 Million to Donald Trump; billionaire investor George Soros gave 7 Million to the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities, and nothing to Donald Trump (The Washington Post, Clinton blasts Wall Street, but still draws millions in contributions, by Matea Gold, et al, February 4, 2016); Hollywood actors, studio executives and musicians donated $20.7 Million to Hillary Clinton, and $350,000 to Donald Trump, with Steven Spielberg and Jeffery Katzenberg giving $1 Million each (Sky News, UK, October 27, 2016).