Fascism (with an update!)

Fascism. The word has been thrown around a lot, by both side of the political spectrum. In many ways, it has lost its original meaning. One of the guys I work with, one of President Obama’s True Believers, assures me that President Bush was/is a Fascist, because he was shredding the Constitution, suspending Habeus Corpus for non-citizens, making special deals for his Oil buddies in Iraq, and of course, HALIBURTON!!

As a Political Junkie ( I actually have a PolSci degree, which explains why, after getting a lot of after-college training, I am now working in the IT world…), I prefer the original definition.

From The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics , Here are a few highlights of what Fascism truly, originally meant;

As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer.

In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—“blood and soil”—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism.

fascism sought that control (of economic processes) indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners.

requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it.

fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities.

fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically.

State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions.

So, with that in mind, lets take a look at the news.

GM CEO resigns at Obama’s request

Geithner Asks Congress for Expansive Power to Seize Non-Banks

Bank chiefs hold peace talks with Obama

Treasury Maps New Era of Regulation

"The days of 'light touch' regulation are over," said Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Thanks, Rep. Frank, I can now rest easy, knowing you are on the case. I just threw up in my mouth a little.



So lets go down the checklist.


• fascism sought that control (of economic processes) indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners

Check, the government has now established the precedent for directing the hiring/ firing process at the very top of these “independent” corporations

• requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it.

True or false, as part of the bailout, the government has sought to impose “green” measures into both the manufacturing process and the end product of the auto industry.
True , oh so true.

• fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities.

Wagoner ...considered responsible for increasing GM's focus on trucks and SUVs—at the expense of the hybrids and fuel efficient cars that have become more popular in the last couple of years.

• fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-857


It’s a heck of a checklist.

And so, my liberal friends, I think it may behoove you that in the future, you be careful about throwing the term Fascism around to freely, lest you offend some of your heroes.

UPDATE:

Jonah Goldberg of National Review fame comments on the Fascist Bargain