The Cronon Test

A friend I went to grad school with and myself will frequently talk ideology. My friend, who considers himself right of center, thinks President Obama, with his dependence on governmental services, tends to be more fascist than socialist. Actually my friend considers himself Libertarian but just happens to vote Republican. Therefore, the entire direction of the country, according to him, is moving quickly in the direction of fascism.

I've always acknowledged an element of governmental control, especially in the realm of support of the nation for the good of everyone as a whole. Like our teachers should be teaching our children how great and ordained the USA is and how our forefathers couldn't tell lies and whatnot. Or that our industry should produce the best products on earth to prove to the world how great we are. Another way of saying this is we have private ownership but public debt. TARP and Bush's other bailouts are a perfect example of this. For the good of the nation as a whole, we all (tax payers) had to chip in and bailout the financial industry. We had to do this for the survival of the country. Private ownership with public debt.

I think that's a strong argument to make in terms of what is or isn't fascist because it produces a strong sense of nationalism, which we most certainly have. I've always argued, too, in order for fascism to exist there had to be an element of hate mostly comprised of Party chauvinism. Or the belief that your political party is not only the best but the only platform from which to lead the nation.

Such a strong sense of Party i.d. is nothing but a hatred for all other political parties. It can lead to wanting to defeat your opponents, whom you believe to be enemies, not just politically through elections but by any means necessary. It may lead to having people arrested that show up at your rallies wearing t-shirts of which you don't approve. Or it may lead to you giving political tests to government employees to make sure they walk the Party line, a line from which there can be no straying. Or it could make you try to undermine your opponents by demanding access to their emails just so you can read their thoughts and their conversations because they might be saying things you don't approve of and you can use it against them to paint them as being against your Party, which is the same as being against America.