The Left Called the U.S. Government Fascist, Too

And the media and respectable liberals were not nearly as hysterical about this. Of course, there was a kernel of truth to the left’s descriptions of Bush as a fascist, and there is truth to the criticism of the Obama administration as fascist. It is incoherent to say one is true and not the other, given the extreme continuity in policy between the two presidencies. But while the left is correct that corporatism, crackdowns on civil liberties and perpetual aggressive war are elements of a fascist state, they often forget that socialism and nationalist supremacy over states and individuals are also an important component. Similarly, the right is correct that Obamacare, Cap and Trade, gun control and politically correct thought crime are features of fascism, but they ignore the prison system, police state, national security state and war as being all part of the same horrible package. Under both Republicans and Democrats, we get the fascist policies that both sides criticize when they are out of power.

So is Obama governing like a fascist? In many ways, yes. Did Bush? Same answer. If we could only get some of these Bush-era leftists, seen below, to break bread with the Tea Parties—both groups seeing part of the picture but buying into large parts of what it means to support authoritarianism and indeed national socialism—then maybe we could see some significant progress.

UPDATE: Naomi Wolf, thoughtful leftist critic of the Bush administration, has not betrayed her principles, going so far as to defend the Tea Parties and to say her warnings about American fascism are “unfortunately [even] more relevant” under Obama.