United State of Fascism

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie--The Who

During a recent campaign speech, Ron Paul suggested that the United States increasingly resembles a fascist state. Fascism is a political structure that itself can be characterized by a number of 'isms' such as:

Corporatism - dominant influence of special interest groups in government action.

Militarism - use of force both inside and outside the country to enact national objectives, including occupation of ground in other sovereign states.

Nationalism - subservience of the interests of the individual in favor of the interest of interests of the nation, often expressed as 'patriotism.'

Exceptionalism - belief that the country is uniquely gifted and plays a supervisory role in the affairs of other sovereign states.

Welfarism - forced reallocation of economic resources by government in the name of 'equality' or 'fairness' which commonly creates dependency among those who receive distributions.

There can be little doubt that behavior has been intensifying in each of these areas for many years in the United States.

Lew Rockwell notes that fascism was an outcome of the Progressive movement. One of the early fascist regimes was enacted in Italy under Mussolini. By the early 1930s, Mussolini's brand of fascism won broad support worldwide. New Deal programs such as the NRA were patterned directly from Mussolini's government-controlled verticals.

Indeed, the 1930s can be viewed as the decade during which fascist regimes sprouted round the world. Italy (Mussolini), US (Roosevelt), Russia (Stalin), Germany (Hitler). Hindsight suggests that betting on subsequent world war was one of the easiest wagers in history.

I do have to disagree with Lew Rockwell on one point. During the video interview (about 4:20), Lew compares fascism with socialism, implying that socialism is also political ideology. It is not. Socialism is a design for economic organization grounded in government ownership and/or control of productive capacity.

All fascist regimes employ socialistic economic systems. This of course was one of Hayek's primary messages in his 1944 work. Enact socialist policies and head down the road to serfdom, a serfdom that could easily be expressed under a fascist regime.