NeoCon or NeoFascist?

The fascist label is frequently applied to any conservative political opposition and often loosely applied to different ideological perspectives – see Islamo-fascism. It has event been applied to the progressive left by the NeoCon fiction writer Jonah Goldberg.[1] The radical NeoCon Republican Party under Bush II, DeLay, Rove, now and hopefully short-lived McCain and Palin, and their wrong-wing allies is fundamentally different from classical conservative or even the anti-conservatism of early neo-conservatism. The dominant voice and brand of the Bush II government and the radical Republican Party and their wrong-wing allies can prudently can be labeled neo-fascist and incipiently fascist. America’s home-grown fascist hate groups as the various Klans, skinheads, militias, and Christian identity organizations have increased by over 50% to exceed 900 organizations during the Bush II years.[2] This number is in addition to the “main-stream” religious wrong fundamentalist hate groups and extremist organizations such as the National Rifle Association that have reared their ugly heads during this election season. Bush II, McCain-Palin, and the Current Republican Party have provided a congenial environment.

The Bush-Chaney radical Republican Party is fascist because it satisfies fascism’s historical criteria and standards. The Italian scholar Emilio Gentile defined fascism as:[3]

A mass movement, that combines different classes but is prevalently of the middle classes, which sees itself as having a mission of national regeneration, is in a state of war with its adversaries and seeks a monopoly of power by using terror, parliamentary tactics and compromise to create a new regime, destroying democracy (p. A19).

The current radical Republican Party is heavily white and middle-class party on a mission of national moral and social regeneration (the cultural wars). It sees America as in a state of perpetual war at home and abroad (the cultural wars, ”if your not with us, you’re against us,” and the perpetual war on terrorism). It demonizing the domestic liberal opposition as well as foreign enemies (“the axis of evil”), labeling critics of policies as “unpatriotic”[4] and likening dissert to treason. The radical Republicans hungers for a monopoly of power (Patriots Acts I and II, extremely radical judicial nominations). The radical Republican government stifles debate and promotes a one party state and government. The Republicans rammed legislation through the House when it had the majority without hearing. Its principal strategist, if not ideologue, Rove views the two-party system as antiquated and the Republicans should end it. The radical Republicans tried to make Bush II a charismatic leader (the ‘mission accomplished” staging on the aircraft carrier and other strong leader or ‘decider’ shenanigans). It failure was not due to a lack of effort, but because of laughable raw material. The radical Republicans hope to more successful with a geriatric John McCain and a trashy Sarah Palin.
The generally agreed upon characteristics and criteria for a fascist political ideology are:[5]
1. the rejection of both liberalism and socialism – The Bush II Republican Party has not only rejected socialism and liberalism, it has made liberalism an obscenity.

2. the primacy of the nation over the rights of the individual – Bush II nationalism with the its prevailing conception of Patriotism and embodied in the Patriots’ Act and related legislation and the Constitutional mis-named War on Terrorism has made individual rights, privacy, and habeas corpus archaic, warrantless spying, Telecoms immunity in spying on citizens, torture and extraordinary renditions, anointing of state sanctioned religious sects with Charitable Choice and Faith-based funding to selected religions.

3. demonizing the nation’s enemies (Axis of Evil, the Evil, and if not with us, then against US, the French Chocolate Makers, Islamo-Fascism, etc).

4. the elimination of domestic dissent and creation of a one-party system (Rove’s Permanent Republican Majority, The Supreme Court and the 2000 Florida election).

5. the dominant rule of a charismatic leader (If don’t stand with Bush, then you unpatriotic and giving aid and confront to the enemies, and the president as commander-in-chief, the Imperial Presidency and efforts to make Bush II a charismatic leader, holding that criticism of God’s chosen Bush II in time of war is treason). Unfortunately they picked an a-charismatic gelding ride.).

6. appeals to emotion and myth rather than reason (Re-doing of responsibility for 9-11, American history with America a Christian Nation, God’s chosen nation). Racism constitutes a part of their jingoistic patriotism.

7. glorification of violence on behalf of a national cause (Bush II doctrine of Preemption and First Strike as justification of Iraqi war, death penalty, anti-immigration efforts).

8. the mobilization and militarization of civil society (Department of Homeland Security, the terrorist risk alert levels, America in perpetual war).[6]
9. expansionist foreign policy intended to promote national greatness (The American Century doctrine).

The Radical Republicans’ brand of fascism maybe their choice as Colin Powell asserts. However, when they want to impose it on America through a McCain - Palin administration, it is our choice. Make the truly conservative, patriotic choice, America

[1] Although passed by Goldberg as nonfiction, a cursory review of (2008) Liberal Fascist: Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning. (NY: Doubleday) indicated it’s doubtlessly a fantasy.
[2] See Southern Poverty Law Center data.
[3] Stille, A. (2003, September 13). The latest obscenity has seven letters. The New York Times, pp. A17, A19.
[4] For example see Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann on MSNBC’s Hardball, and the need to determine who in the House and Senate are “pro-American or anti-American” as defined by Bachmann.
[5] For a discussion of fascism and nationalism see: Griffins, R. (1993). The nature of fascism. London, UK: Routledge., Mann, M. (2004). Fascist. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press., Smith, A. D. (1995). Nations and nationalism in a global era. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
[6] Naturally the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attached, and then denounce the pacifists for [a] lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country. Quote attributed to Herman Goering, Air Reich-Marshall, last Chancellor, and political heir to Hitler at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials at end of WW II.