Pour yourself a cup of coffee or pop open a beer. This is a long one. I'm on a rant.

First, Amos gets an A+.

From an article in a book on political science on my bookshelves:

Fascism is a philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal and democratic values are disparaged.

Fascism arose during the 1920s and '30s partly out of fear of the rising power of the working classes; it differed from contemporary communism (as practiced under Joseph Stalin) by its protection of business and landowning elites and its preservation of class systems.

The leaders of the fascist governments of Italy (1922–43), Germany (1933–45), and Spain (1939–75)—Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco—were portrayed to their people as embodiments of the strength and resolve necessary to rescue their nations from political and economic chaos. Japanese fascists (1936–45) fostered belief in the uniqueness of the Japanese spirit and taught subordination to the state and personal sacrifice.

Benito Mussolini described Fascism as a "bundle" or "unit" made up of the corporations and the government. Essentially one and the same. Hence, the use of the old Roman symbol of the fasces, from which Fascism derives its name. Mussolini said that the fasces is a perfect symbol, since it is a bundle of sticks tied around a battle-axe. All acting as a unit, they are far stronger than they would be if acting separately. The sticks symbolize the corporations, and the axe symbolizes the power of the government.

Where Hitler differed from other Fascist leaders and Fascist states was in the racism of Nazi Germany. The idea that Germans were of the Aryan race, and all other races had to go. Non-Aryans were the source of all society's ills. Hence, the death camps.

To Mussolini and Franco, the other major Fascist leaders, this didn't seem to matter that much (although in the mid-1930s, Mussolini did crap all over Ethiopia, but that was not essentially a racial thing. He had designs on East Africa).

Hitler characterized his government as "National Socialism." Socialism is a system whereby "the people" own the tools of production and share in the profits thereof. Under National Socialism, the government owns the tools of production. He was a bit fuzzy about who gets the profits.

The United States is a system of regulated Capitalism, the idea of which is to glean the advantages of Capitalism, but not let the corporations run rampant to the point where the country slides into Fascism.

In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt stomped on the slide toward Fascism by starting regulatory agencies such as the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, and The Fair Labor Standards Act (among other things, establishing minimum wages). He also instituted the Works Projects Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps to put people back to work, build the country's infrastructure, and put money in peoples' pockets, particulary money they have to spent right away on things like food and rent, which would put the money back into circulation and immediately stimulate a very sick economy. He also ended poor houses and poor farms and provided security (referred to back then as the "old age pension") for the elderly by creating the Social Security Administration.

Some of these regulatory agencies kept the bankers and financiers from continuing to fleece the public, and made them generally behave themselves.

The people loved him! They voted him back in for a total of an unprecedented four terms. But Wall Street seethed. And plotted. It took them awhile but—

This may sound strange, but a giant step toward turning the U. S. into a Fascist country was made by Ronald Reagan, who began systematically castrating the regulatory agencies by replacing the commissioners with people from the very businesses they were supposed to regulate. I've said it before and I'll say it again: a classic example of putting the foxes in charge of the chicken coop.

Another, and more obvious giant step is "Citizens United," giving corporations free reign to buy politicians by the bulk!

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I am not happy with Obama. He equivocates and tries to compromise with people who will NOT compromise. But in the last two presidential elections, he was the only viable candidate who was NOT hell-bent on continuing the gallop toward that amalgam of corporations and government which is known as

FASCISM.

What this country needs is another Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or at least, someone with real guts and determination, like old "give 'em hell" Harry Truman.

Thus endeth the sermon for today!

Don Firth