This is an article by Barrie Zwicker who produced and hosted the documentary "End of Suburbia". It's about a year old. I don't know if I agree with it all but I'm posting it anyway.
I like the Lew Rockwell Libertarian slogan "Antiwar, Anti-State, Pro-Market". I think Fascism is an abuse of state power every bit as dangerous as Communism. Zwicker is obviously much further to the left.
[url=http://www.newsgateway.ca/America_The_Fourth_Reich.htm]
America: The Fourth Reich
It should not be denied any longer: America is hurtling along the road to full-fledged fascism. To recognize this is the necessary first step in deflecting the juggernaut and creating the possibility of more peaceful tomorrows. It is legitimate and also necessary to correctly employ the power of naming.
By Barrie Zwicker, Global Outlook, Issue No. 6, Winter 2004[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zwicker', 'F')ascism according to the Collins English Dictionary is “any (#1) right wing (#2) nationalist ideology or movement with (#3) an authoritarian and (#4) hierarchical structure that is (#5) fundamentally opposed to democracy and (#6) liberalism”. Add (#7) racism and #8 brutality and you have Hitler’s Third Reich in a nutshell.
By any sober analysis America has become extremely right wing and nationalist. At the same time I am soulfully aware of the tremendous numbers of Americans ashamed, appalled, afraid and angry about the direction of their government and that of too many of their fellow citizens.
Signs of growing authoritarianism in the US are evident especially to those outside the self-absorbed cocoon of US culture. The signs include the supine attitude toward authority of most of the mainstream media.
Contrary to incessant rhetoric about democracy, the US power structure is considerably hierarchical. Money power comprises the main rungs of the hierarchy. According to the New York Times the Republicans were confident of raising at least $170-million for George W. Bush’s 2004 election campaign, redefining what the Times called ‘standards’ for fund-raising. Both the hierarchy of money and the antagonism to democracy are spelled out in Greg Palast’s The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
That the US establishment is opposed to liberalism – no matter how you define liberalism – can hardly be debated. We already have six grounds for applying the term Fourth Reich. But consider another 20 parallels between the USA today and Hitler’s Germany:
Concepts like anti-communism, anti-Marxism, anti-socialism stir up visceral reactions. The core opposition to the regime is from the strong conscious left.
A fundamentalist faith in capitalism, specifically the systematized form of greed known as monopoly capitalism, is dominant. Corporations are at the centre of the power structure. Corruption at the top is endemic.
The number of people consigned to the grave by military and paramilitary actions in both cases is in the millions. Backdate the Fourth Reich to the end of the Second World War and the number murdered by US forces equals or outnumbers the toll in the Holocaust – almost three and a half million people in Vietnam alone. The brutality is a matter of record for those who are willing to look at it. See William Blum’s Killing Hope for one researcher’s record...