The Eternal Debate

Is Bush a fascist, or just evil?

For the former position, Kevin Drum and Digby present Prudent Bear, who argues rather forcefully yes, Bush is a fascist. As way of evidence, he presents this list of fascist characteristics from Dr. Lawrence Britt:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

By my count, the only aspects that don't apply to the Bush administration without question are 6 (controlled mass media) 10 (suppressed labor power) and 14 (fraudulent elections.)

This might already be causing some of you to spit blood at your screens, and I should be clear it's not like I approve of Bush's labour policies, or the performance of the media. But let's be clear - Bush doesn't control the media. He doesn't have to, they're already tame. There's certainly no evidence of anything as heavy-handed as Italian or Spanish fascism.

Similarly, while Bush's labor policies are pretty noxious, he really just inherited a long line of noxious labour policies from both Republicans and Democrats.

And now, #14, the "rigged elections" question. Questions about black-box voting and all that aside, it's worth pointing out that, in both 2000 and 2004, the election did exactly what it was supposed to do - let slave states pick the president. This is the grand compromise (or grand shame) of the US constitution: The electoral college is heavily weighted towards smaller, agricultural states. Given the environment this compromise was forged in (1790) this by definition meant that slaveowners were going to have a disproportionate say in who was elected. Flash forward to 2000, and unsurprisingly the south elects a crypto-racist republican administration.

If the electoral college were weighted only by population, and ignored senate seats, Gore would have crushed Bush. As would Kerry. (Admittedly, in 2004 this would have been "undemocratic" in that Bush would have gotten more votes.)

Now, back to the wider point. Even if we throw out the three aspects of Fascism as defined by Dr. Britt, that still leaves 11 out of 14 aspects that I think the Bush qualifies for in spades. For possibly the first time in his life, Bush has scored close to 80% (78.5, if you must know.)

But I've always maintained that whether or not Bush can be fairly labelled as a "Fascist" is really immaterial. By their works shall ye know them, and we've seen more than enough of Bush's works to know that he's at best an incompetent, and at worst a cruel man. If that's as good as it gets, he doesn't deserve to be president.