Do you think the U.S. is headed towards facism and, if so, how can we prevent it?

Question

Some of the reasons I think we're headed towards facism:

- Heightened nationalism, economic corporatism, and xenophobia.
- The "act first, think later" anti-intellectual philosophy of our
government.
- Increased executive authority and ineffective congressional
oversight.
- "Secret" programs that give the government access to private
citizen's financial and personal data.
- A citizenry that trusts its government at face value and increasingly distrusts and despises the media.
- A general feeling that America is infallable, that our ends justify
our means simply because we are so great.
- A general feeling that American, the nation, is superior to its
citizens.
- A citizenry that prefers not to think about what is right or wrong
for the country, but rather what is right or wrong for their party, who
are thinking the same thing themselves.
- A general lack of open-mindedness in regards to foreign cultures andany line of thinking that does not flesh with the global market
economy.

- Lawmakers pushing for cultural bills that aim to narrowly define American culture. Flag burning?!

- A narrow focus on domestic policy that involves defining 'what it is to be American.' Where, increasingly, 'what it is' is natural born,
white, male and married.

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/?entry_id=1512499

I'm not attempting to describe a presidency, or a party, but rather the current state of politics in America. It is what it is.

Answer 1

"- Heightened nationalism, economic corporatism, and xenophobia. - The "act first, think later" anti-intellectual philosophy of our government. - Increased executive authority and ineffective congressional oversight. - "Secret" programs that give the government access to private citizen's financial and personal data. - A citizenry that trusts its government at face value and increasingly distrusts and despises the media.
- A general feeling that America is infallable, that our ends justify
our means simply because we are so great. - A general feeling that American, the nation, is superior to its citizens. - A citizenry that prefers not to think about what is right or wrong for the country, but rather what is right or wrong for their party, who are thinking the same thing themselves. - A general lack of open-mindedness in regards to foreign cultures"

You have just discribed the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency almost perfectly and the truth is Bush can't hold a candle to FDR or even LBJ. Perhaps you and some of the other posters here should read more about your countries history before jumping to conclusions.

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The points that you raised apply to other eras in this countries history more so than today, the world and especially Europeans have considered American pompous and arrogant for over 100 years and we have definitely been a lot closer to statism or imperialism than we currently are.
I certainly agree that we have serious problems to fix though. We work 6 months out of a year just to pay for this enormous over bloated government, the nations total debt has past 44 TRILLION dollars, our manufacturing base has shrunk by over 60 % and a dollar is worth 88% less than its 1957 value.

Answer 2

The government is certainly leaning that way. It's hard to say with the american people, though. IF the U.S. does develop formally into some kind of fascist country, it will be a mutated form--one that involves market forces and consumption. Agribusiness, for example, through genetic engineering, is and has been trying to control not only how we eat and what we eat, but also limit our ability to grow our own food.

American people are a fractious lot, and so overt fascism simply won't work. Get people to "buy into" a mindset, however, and then fascism is possible.

The U.S.'s biggest conflict now is not foreign policy or oil--it's nurturing a citizenship that is critical of how government operates, holds that government answerable, yet still harbors a deep love for the country and the ideals upon which it was founded. The identity crisis we currently experience is one where people either cling to notions of the past, or accuse their country of betraying those ideals. Both perspectives have their truth; the question to be answered is how will the citizenship contribute to a new direction that is honest about itself?

At the very least, skeptics will say the U.S. citizenship doesn't have the knowledge nor the drive to do that. So, I don't know if the U.S. is headed for fascism or some mutated form--but we certainly have fascist elements in place. It's a bit disturbing when the people who most promote freedom are the first ones to say they would be happy to give up a few of their freedoms for increased security.

Until we can look honestly at that type of hypocrisy and the ways government will act according to that consent... we will lose our freedom.

Answer 3

You may be extending your assumptions into facts. an important tool we have to use before formulating a question is "what are my biases." the citizenry doesn't trust the government, you and i are citizens i think and we don't trust the government. Everything is constantly being scrutinized. you want to hear some scrutiny listen to public radio no stop for a month.
Second i have had the discusion about the events that may come of our actions over seas on several occasions with different people.
I believe that our government is a mix of socialism and democracy.

Answer 4

Take American company and world leader in Supermarkets WAL-MART. its a capitalist company, run by capitalist ways but the people working there are treated as Communist everyone no matter what job they are doing from portering outside with trolleys/karts. to being a checkout operator to admin and personnel get paid exactly the same.

US has lack of open minded ness as it says above. it believes that everyone else is against them and they have the right to bare arms against anyone.
Citizens dare not speak out against the government for fear of new anti terror laws commiting them.

Answer 5

hopefully, the majority of the silent people in america have come to realize how much the liberal socialists have taken from our way of life and imposed on us...we are just returning the scales to the middle...where they should be...

you dont give any facts..just feelings...

the leftists would have us in a country where religion is a bad thing...
where right or wrong is what is in the eye of the perpetuator, not society
where morals have no use or standing
where the one is more important than the society

we just want to get back to the balance of right and values.....

Answer 6

I think you may be over reacting slightly. While I agree there are some signs of Facism, I don't think dictatorship is around the corner.

The best thing we can do is write our congressmen, senators and other politcal leaders with our opinions, and vote for those that stand up for freedom and diversity.

Answer 7

Yeh, very likely the US is heading that way.

Best way to prevent it is to introduce more political parties. Because many religious people would rather have fascist government than support people who support gays/abortion/etc

Answer 8

Headed? You arrived at fascism quite some time ago.

What can you do to prevent it? Not much at this stage, I'm afraid. Too many people still support Bush and his cabal.

Answer 9

No; A Fascist government does not have checks and balances. You are paranoid.

Answer 10

Deport all the liberals to cuba and everything will be fine