It Won’t Be Called Fascism

Visa-carrying transplant surgeons, uncharged innocents, and “activist” students are disappeared without much credible explanation. Reporters are libeled, lawyers are targeted, books are banned, and public safety guardrails are ignored. There are loud yearnings for a dictator. More polite people call it a “unitary theory of government.”

Someone watching the roundups is bound to call them entertainment.

By whatever name, the impulses come in the context of an increasingly alienated military, an explosive increase in executive power, and solemn threats to criminalize protest just in case too many people complain about any of the above.

It’s some people’s idea of making America great.

This, too, has happened before. As the Depression deepened in the early 1930s, many Americans (justifiably) felt that politics and capitalism had failed them. Serious people seriously discussed radical change, including following Italy and Germany into fascism. The “Silver Shirts,” the Friends of Germany, the Liberty League, and other well-funded groups worked to establish an all-powerful autocrat. In his first inaugural address, even Franklin Roosevelt asked for “extraordinary powers.”

Ominously, Congress gave them to him.

A reporter asked Louisiana Senator Huey Long (who already had dictatorial executive powers in his home state) if fascism could indeed take root in America.

“Sure,” Long replied, “but here it will be called anti-fascism.”