Fascism-- Then And There, Here And Now

In Monday's post about how Wyoming is exhibiting a kind of non-fascist libertarian face of conservatism, we looked a bit at some of the similarities between Hitler's rise to power and the political careers of the new breed to fully fascist Republican Party governors, Rick Snyder (MI), Scott Walker (WI), Rick Scott (FL), Jan Brewer (AZ), John Kasich (OH), Chris Christie (NJ) and Paul LePage (ME)-- a thread we picked up from last Friday's question of the day, How much daylight is there between teabaggers and classic fascist dupes?. Turns out, not much at all.

And those classic fascist dupes-- fascism's foot soldiers-- in both pre-war Germany and Italy were being led around by the nose by the same brand of plutocrats who have underwritten teabaggery and the Republican takeover of the House. Once the names were Krupp and Thyssen; today the Koch Brothers stand out. Allow me to quote, once again, from Glen Yeadon's scholarly tome, The Nazi Hydra In America. Does this sound familiar at all?

In Italy, the fascists abandoned the inheritance tax, and halved the taxes of managers and directors of corporations. The Italian Minister of Finance boasted: "We have boasted with the practice of persecuting capital."

Presidents Harding, Coolidge and (later) Hoover must have been so proud. They backed Mussolini as a bulwark against godless Communism and it was paying off for them in spades. Tell mw who this reminds you of:

An April 7, 1933 decree gave the Hitler government the right to name a new governor for each German state. The governors were empowered to dismiss state governments, including judges. The law was used to seat Nazi governors and judges.

This could remind you of Michigan for two reasons. First, without the financial backing of Henry Ford Hitler may not have ever gotten into that position and, second, this is essentially, what fascist Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is attempting to do now. This is a little different; remind you of any of America's new sweethearts?

Hitler declared May 1 to be a national holiday and gave a speech on the dignity of labor. The next day, the SA seized all union buildings and offices, arrested all labor leaders and sent most of them to concentration camps betraying the duplicity of the Nazi character... A June 1, 1933 law allowed industrialists to deduct the costs of new equipment immediately from their taxable income.

Hitler told his plutocratic financiers-- the Kochs of the day-- that "private ownership of the means of production could only be ensured once democracy was destroyed." They loved it and financed his never quite successful election campaigns. "Fascism is generally a desperate reaction by the elite to preserve their power and wealth in periods of economic crisis and political strife." William Dodd, an anti-fascist history professor, served as the American ambassador to Germany from 1933-1937. I'm not sure when he gave this interview but he died two years before Germany and the U.S. were at war.

Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help fascists occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there... Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed or social and economic progress, they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions.

Breaking unions contracts, subsides for wealthy businesses, privatization, tax rebates for corporations... these were what fledgling fascist governments achieved in the 1930s-- and what the new class of fascist-oriented Republican governors are attempting to achieve today... here in America.