Almost exactly a year ago, I came across a three part series of articles by Sara Robinson of Campaign for America's Future titled "American Fascism: Are We There Yet?" It left me shaken and afraid. With Glenn Beck's spectacle to begin in two days, I want to share this with those of you who may not have seen it before. Sara, and the historian Robert Paxton whom she cites, offer a guideline for determining "where we're at" along a descent through stages to fascism. It begins:
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?
According to Sara Robinson, "Fascism only grows in the disturbed soil of a mature democracy in crisis." She adopts Paxton's definition of fascism:
"Fascism is a system of political authority and social order intended to reinforce the unity, energy, and purity of communities in which liberal democracy stands accused of producing division and decline."
"[It is] a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
The articles describe five stages into fascism and, drawing upon the history of 20th century fascist movements, relates these stages to our own recent history, beginning with the collapse into recession, to the election of Obama, the polarization of Congress and the emergence of the tea party movement.
Though there are three articles in the series, the first covers the ground fairly completely, including describing the five stages in rough detail. It's about a five minute read. The second article hones in on identifying where we are now in this progression and where the 'exit ramps' are. The final article, titled "Resistance for the Long Haul," is essentially a civic survival manual. The articles are linked together.
Please pardon me for 'pimping' this series of articles. I am doing it because I think it is clear, helpful and astonishingly prescient, especially Paxton's material, which was written in 1998. I've provided a link to the material in comments a couple times, and have gotten good feedback. If this diary is out-of-line, please let know and I'll delete it.
I'm very interested to know if anyone thinks this series in imprecise, off-base, overblown or tin-hat. I'd also welcome ideas of other things to read. Thanks.
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Diary title from William Yeats' poem
The Second Coming
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-1939