Seventeen characteristics that proto-fascist, pro-fascist and fascist regimes have in common
To the Editor:
There was a very interesting article published in the Sunday Sacramento Bee's Forum section on 6 July 2003 entitled, "14 things that fascist regimes have in common," by Lawrence W. Britt, a political scientist. He has studied the regimes of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal, Papadopoulos' Greece, Pinochet's Chile and Suharto's Indonesia and has found fourteen common threads and patterns of behavior and abuses of power.
Let us examine these fourteen common threads and patterns of behavior and abuses of power and see how the actions and attitudes of the current Bush Administration compare. (Please note that I have added three additional factors at the end of this original list of fourteen).
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism: the Bush Administration gets an "A+" here: America going it alone; unilateralism; breaking several international treaties and almost continual flag-waving. Bush has continually wrapped himself in the American flag.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The Bush Administration shows their disdain for human rights in the continuing lockup without charges or legal counsel for the al-Queda suspects being held at the new prison in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Several native-born American citizens are also being held in military prisons in the U. S. without any charges or legal counsel. Gay rights and the woman's right to control her own reproduction are also opposed and disdained by the Bush Administration.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The Bush Administration has identified Muslim fundamentalists as terrorists and as our enemies. Bush has also identified the so-called, "Axis of Evil" as three countries: Iraq, Iran and North Korea. The current Bush definition of American enemies is so expansive that potentially it may encompass many of the nations and peoples of the world.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism: Remember the photo-op of Bush landing in a fighter plane on the deck of an aircraft carrier and popping out in his flight suit to announce that the "major fighting in Iraq was over?" Not back for one who avoided fighting in Vietnam and was AWOL for his last year of service in the Texas Air National Guard.
5. Rampant sexism: The Bush Administration has long sought to outlaw abortion. This is certainly sexism in its most blatant form.
6. A controlled mass media. Although the Bush Administration does not directly control the television, radio and newspapers of the U. S., they have had an almost completely free ride from the corporate-controlled mass media since the summer of 2000. After the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the media lined up behind Bush, even to the point of giving his Administration a free pass on almost every issue. Only recently has the Bush regime's facade begun cracking with the admission that the frequent Bush assertion of Iraq's purchase of uranium from Niger was a complete fraud.
7. Obsession with national security. Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. National color-coded terrorism alerts. Homeland Security law enacted with very loose Congressional controls. Universal computer/telephone surveillance proposed by Pentagon to spy on the private health, shopping and internet surfing records of every American.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Bush is a born-again evangelical Christian and our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq appear to Muslims as the start of another series of Christian Crusades.
9. Power of corporations protected. This is a general characteristic of the Bush Administration. They happily stood by and did nothing to protect California utility rate payers during the 2001 and 2002 phony energy crisis created by Enron and El Paso Natural Gas corporations rigging and gaming of the electricity market and the natural gas market in California. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), staffed by Bush appointees, avoided its statutory responsibility to protect California utility rate payers during the so-called energy crisis. Billions of dollars were stolen by Enron and other energy companies from these California utility rate payers.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. The Bush Administration created the new Office of Homeland Security without the traditional civil service protections for its federal employees. The Bush Administration has consistently degraded legal protections for workers in the areas of safety and overtime.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. This is an ongoing Republican Administration theme from Reagan to Bush I to Bush II. Our national Public Broadcasting System (PBS) took a big funding hit under the Reagan Administration and this has continued under Bush I and Bush II.
12, Obsession with crime and punishment. The Bush Administration Attorney General John Ashcroft is well known for his draconian view of crime and punishment. Drug laws are severely enforced. Over two million Americans are currently in jails and prisons, the largest percentage on a population basis for any western democracy. Bush II is well known for rubber-stamping executions of death-row inmates in Texas.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. The Bush Administration is replete with corporate cronyism and corruption. Kenny Boy Lay, the former CEO of the now bankrupt Enron Corporation of Texas was the largest single contributor to the Bush 2000 election campaign. This is the same Enron Corporation that ripped billions of dollars off California utility rate payers during the 2001 and 2002 phony California energy crisis.
14. Fraudulent elections. Bush II came into the Oval Office only after thousands of legal voters were purged from the Florida election rolls in the state with Bush's brother was Governor. The legitimate Florida vote recount in the 2000 Presidential election was stopped by a right-wing U. S. Supreme Court in a totally absurd ruling which handed Bush II the Presidency.
15. Secrecy (my own addition): This Bush Administration has made political secrecy a fine art. Apparently the secret Cheney Energy Task Force which met in 2001 was discussing the dividing up and exploitation of Iraq's vast oil reserves, which at the time were under the control of the United Nations.
16. Rigid anti-drug use stance. (my own addition): This Bush II Administration has cranked up prosecution of Medical Marijuana users and advocates in California under the leadership of the Bush Administration's Attorney General John Ashcroft. The so-called "war on drugs" has been a total failure since it was first initiated by the Nixon Administration back in the late 1960s. Its stupidity has continued into the Bush II Administration.
17. Collapse: (my own addition): the pre-fascist, proto-fascist and pro-fascist regimes always end up collapsing - usually by their own weight, arrogance and blundering. The cracks of this Bush II administration are beginning to show: the Bush lies used to create Congressional support for the invasion of Iraq; the failure of the continuing occupation of Iraq; the failed economic policies of more and more tax cuts for the rich to stimulate the stagnant domestic economy; the lunatic notions of the Bush Administration' Dept. of Defense DARPA to create a universal data base of all Americans including their credit card records, their web surfing and their health records and the most recent plan to allow wagering on hypothetical future terrorist events.
Your truly,
James K. Sayre
30 July 2003