So, we hear cries of fascism from many on the so-called left. But fascism has many disputed meanings and definitions, or rather it has so many different meanings to so many different minds. In this age of repeater, repeater news, where “lies told often enough become the truth,” what is this ‘fascism’ that so many are ‘protesting’ against? I will proffer two fascisms for consideration. I will call them right wing fascism and left wing fascism. Really, what we see before us is a contest between the two.
The right wing fascism is what is commonly referred to as fascism.’ A simple definition is the union of state and corporate power. Many on the left cry against the corporate forces that shape and drive government (and some on the right too). It is obvious and real. Big money buys political power and drives the force of government to create benefits, even enforced monopolies like the FDA/AMA/Big Pharma/compulsory insurance cartel, sold to us as ‘Health Care.’ What do they really ‘care’ about? Insane profits. The easy way to picture it, is a fascistic union of for-profit corporations and state power.
But what is left wing fascism? Think of all the many and varied non-profit corporations that have sprung up over the several decades past, and the many ways they have come to shape and drive government. Environmental issues, social issues, poverty, health, justice, funding innovations, veterans affairs—a myriad of opportunities for salaried, non-profit corporate operatives (some paid quite handsomely) to exert their influence, especially on the ever growing administrative branches of government: the unelected, barely accountable bureaucrat. This fascism has stolen lands, driven business out, down or bankrupt. It has put people in prison for violating ‘rules’ never passed by a legislative power. It has compelled some recently to suicide, because the inane powers of this left wing fascism have forced an unacceptable absurdity into their lives. And it has grown government exponentially with its never ending quest to be the solution in search of a problem.
Sometimes there is even some crossover/unification of the two. Take Nevada Senator Harry Reid for example. He enjoyed the benefits of left wing fascism and the environmental restrictions imposed to ‘help’ the desert tortoise, which the BLM used to drive off Cliven Bundy’s neighboring ranchers, seizing their lands and making it possible for Senator Reid and his son to enjoy some right wing fascism with a for-profit solar venture with the Chinese. And now the general fascism of the general government is working on the final eviction of Mr. Bundy.
So what are we seeing in the streets today? Our new president is dismantling left wing fascism at breakneck speed. So fast, that most of the protesters are not even sure what they are really protesting against. Nor can the rest of us keep up. The several decades of non-profit corporate influence on state power is facing a public burning. To put it mildly, they are not happy. From the initial cries of not my president, to public screaming, to unfettered vulgarity against a barely defined ‘something,’ subconsciously they are facing the flames of their demise. Onward they move in desperation, mobbing airports to ‘stop’ the new executive immigration orders that model precisely the previous half dozen president’s similar orders, which they didn’t protest.
We see ‘democracy’ in action, as the mob attempts to rule by mass and obstruction, flailing, falling into anarchy, destruction and riots with no discernible, positive goals. Listen to their chants. They will grow hungry soon, and tired. It will not last forever. But it is an event to watch and wonder at. Against ‘something,’ but ‘for’ what? Meanwhile, the republic is emerging from suffocation by layers and layers of excess government. Fascism, both left and right. We the People can begin to breathe again.
As the pendulum swings, we must be careful not to push too far. In the extremes, we lose. In the center we find balance. Really, left wing and right wing fascism are both the enemies of ‘We the People.’ Corporations are not ‘people.’ Citizens United and the Supreme Court be damned. Corporations are a piece of paper; a legal ‘person. They do not bleed, breathe or vote. People have rights. Corporations exist by a privilege of the state. They should not be its partner, nor its master.
The current test of fire, set to burn left wing socialism, should not become the fuel for an unfettered emergence of right wing fascism. The Declaration of Independence, which created America, instructs us: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.” It speaks of building; Rights of the People: All of us that can breathe, bleed and vote (corporations not included).
In the due course of time, ‘We the People’ may find America again, somewhere in the middle and beyond either wing of the fascistic state. It will not be a nation of entitlement and social looting through taxation and endless borrowing, fueling regulations for the benefit of the left wing fascists. Nor will it be a nation of for profit corporate overlords, with the People, reduced to consumers and wage serfs, for the benefit of the right wing fascists.
We may find that our original form of government (the constitution that lays semi-abandoned) may have laid its foundation on such principles and organized its powers in such form as to us, shall seem likely to effectuate our ‘safety and happiness.’ I may be a dreamer, but that is how the great American Experiment began. Let us continue the dream … in balance … and build. We have work to do!
