Why the word fascism?

Why does Beale use the term fascism? Today I was asked pointedly by a good conservative friend why I use the "f" word so much? Since he was not talking about my golfing lexicon (I think), here's why: Look, I am not comparing the hard conservative right (and that includes the Tea Party) with Nazis (only they do that with President Obama).

I am concerned as a Political Scientist with the criteria for fascism (let's call it non Nazi fascism) that seems   to being met by the right wing in this country more and more. I have read literally dozens of books on the subject, the most recent "The Anatomy of Fascism". The similarities are striking. I have listed these criteria many times in my posts.

An over-reaching one is the need with fascists to destroy democracy, especially liberal democracy.

Now, liberal democracy does NOT mean liberals and democracy. Liberal democracy, to a political scientist means traditional liberal democratic ideals and government, as evidenced most in the United States Constitutional Government. Basically the liberal democrat believes in limited government, always mindful of the danger of liberty by over-reaching government, but holds a view that there is such a thing as a social compact. The social compact is an agreement or consensus in the country, as to the political freedoms and democratic ideals that are most important.

Liberal democracy holds that governments CAN be instituted among men that not only preserves political and economic freedom, but can maximize them within the rule of law. The rule of law is what holds the whole thing together, and it legitimizes the government or state if you will.

Fascism attacks this at every turn, usually with a thing called plutocracy or oligarchy as its base. In short, corporations and large businesses decide to destroy social democracies, and put dictatorships, or other forms of rule, monarchies, that will benefit narrow self interest. Fascism uses propaganda to fool the masses into believing that democracy is wrong, inefficient, and even takes away their freedom.

If you look at Egypt right now you will see how this works. Egypt tried to establish a liberal democracy, with a deep history of military fascistic rule. This was the goal of their "Arab Spring". However, radical Islamic fascists took over with a President who was too weak, and beholding to radical Islamic benefactors, and the fledgling democracy was one again taken over by a military fascist junta.

Now you will note that this regime has been welcomed by most Egyptians, because the liberal democracy that tried to grow, was too disruptive and dangerous for the establishment and for business interests particularly. Better to have peace for business that a liberal democracy.

Liberal democracy is messy. It is often inefficient. And it requires constant vigilance to maintain. There are always forces (some from the communist left, who have almost disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union) and most from the right, who push hard for "reforms" that are intended to discredit and destroy liberal democracies.

And that is unfortunately where we find ourselves today. Ironically, the Tea Party movement, made of many well meaning although duped Americans, under the guise of super patriotism and Constitutionalism, are working hard to disrupt and discredit the democratic institutions of our country.

Right now, in this latest Constitutional crisis brought upon us by the Tea Party, there is a fanatical effort to discredit the Congress and the President, by literally shutting down the government, and defaulting on the national debt.

The chaos that will ensue, is exactly what fascist movements want. They want people to say: our government doesn't work anymore. The next step is to set up a "twin government", that uses the "party" as its governmental base. Radical right legislatures right now are doing that, the governor of Michigan appointed a position to supposedly deal with city bankruptcies, but in fact has worked overtime to eliminate democratic local decision making. In short, the "manager" has become the city council and mayor, with no democratic decision making in evidence. It is more efficient, and pays the bills better, but democracy is dead.

Liberal democracy is fascism's natural enemy. And there are small but very powerful forces in the country right now, who are funding the right wing (Tea Party and other extremists), who make no secret of their desire to destroy the social welfare; ie., social democratic state. And most liberal democratic institutions that we have grown to consider part of our nation's heritage, social security, Medicare, employment regulations; etc., are directly on target.

So we find ourselves fighting battles that were decided years, even centuries ago.

We find the Affordable Care Act, a conservative national health care plan, under mortal attack by the fascists elements in Congress, bankrolled by Billionaires who really could care less about millions of Americans without health care. The idea is to discredit any growth of liberal democracy. Why so fanatical you might wonder? Is the ACA really a threat to liberty? How is a system made up from private health insurance providers, regulated by the government under law, a threat to liberty. The ACA is squarely in the liberal democratic tradition of ideas, and ironically it did not come from the left; it was hatched, and instituted in Massachusetts by conservatives and the last Republican to run for President! Is that some kind of accident? No, it is the liberal democratic tradition of governmental problem solving at its best, blending economic liberty with a social/economic need, under law for the welfare of the people. That is why Medicare is most definitely NOT a socialistic program, private health providers are at its core, only the government acts as the insurance company. The ACA doesn't allow, much to progressive liberal's dismay, the government to be the insurance companies. The ACA is a private enterprise model!

Finally, it is ironic that conservatism used be rooted, in this country, squarely in the liberal democratic tradition. The genius of the American Political system was  that virtually everyone, be they Republican or Democrat, could agree on the basic liberal democratic principles embodied in say the Bill of Rights, or the Preamble to the Constitution. If there were disagreements, they could be hashed out in the Constitutional process, using a bicameral legislature, an executive and judicial review.

Tragically for our freedom, now even those basic agreements under law have been frayed, by the radical right, who question everything, and compare everything to their pure ideological goals. They don't believe in the liberal democratic tradition anymore!

So, they attack. They obstruct. They discredit. They spend billions on propaganda to convince people that liberal democracy, the foundation of the American Constitution is bad.

Shutting the government down, and worse, defaulting on the national debt, is meant to destroy government, and particularly the public TRUST in their government and even our free enterprise system. It is no coincidence that small businesses have been hammered as this struggle goes on, small businesses are at the core of the liberal democratic tradition (read Jefferson and De Tocqueville).

So, that is what I am fearful of. And that comes not from a "Democrat" but from a someone who knows what the liberal democratic tradition is. Another way of looking at this, everyone of America's Presidents, every one of them, were liberal democrats...

If the Tea Party gets their wish, we will get a President who does not share in that tradition, and that will be the beginning of the end for the world's oldest liberal democracy!

And fascism will win.