Henry A. Wallace | The Danger of American Fascism

www.truth-out.org...:henry-a-wallace--the-danger-of-american-fascism

I just stumbled upon this 2003 reprint of an article written at the request of the New York Times in 1944 by Henry A. Wallace, then Vice-President of the United States under FDR.

Henry A. Wallace biograph:

www.britannica.com...

And a more exciting look at him can be found in Oliver Stones documentary series "The Untold History of the United States" in the WWII episode - facinating and well done documentary that I recommend heartily.

A couple of quotes:

The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.

Thnk on this bit:

It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups.

Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to "make the trains run on time." It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit.

Again, the not too long article, can be found:

www.truth-out.org...:henry-a-wallace--the-danger-of-american-fascism

a reply to: FyreByrd

I learned more than I ever knew about Wallace in the Oliver Stone series you mention (a very good historical information series, recommended by Stone himself!), and really like that someone like him actually became Vice-President of the U.S. Would have been a very different world if he had been renominated, and the manipulations to get him off the ticket and put Harry Truman into his slot make up one of the interesting sections of the Stone series. Thanks for reminding us what this fellow did and shared with his nation.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to "make the trains run on time." It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit

Going by this statement we are screwed then.

All of our politicians worship the god of money. And NONE of them give a # about the people.

But I think deep down those of us awake already knew we were screwed.

Henry Wallace warned us. The Powell Memo spelled out what should be done. Then it was carried out.

In the fall of 1972, the venerable National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) made a surprising announcement: It planned to move its main offices from New York to Washington, D.C. As its chief, Burt Raynes, observed:

We have been in New York since before the turn of the century, because we regarded this city as the center of business and industry. But the thing that affects business most today is government. The interrelationship of business with business is no longer so important as the interrelationship of business with government. In the last several years, that has become very apparent to us.

The Powell Memo: A Call-to-Arms for Corporations


For the following, While We Were Sleeping: The Powell Memorandum

As for the general public, Powell asserted that outright propaganda should be used. .....

Powell stated that one major goal was to remake American law by the wholesale overtaking of the US court system. By placing business-friendly judges on the Supreme Court, .....

To support the creation of laws which would favor business interests, dozens of conservative law centers were created around the country. These would send business- friendly cases up through the system, and help create the slow, inexorable change toward conservative, pro-business laws being enacted. They would also help stop cases seen not favoring business interests.

Dozens of conservative think tanks were also created across the country. These acted as a conduit for conservative ideas and momentum to work their way into the mainstream public view, media landscape and political discourse. Lobbyists were strengthened and money poured into the system, with the end result that politicians and the political system is today so beholden to cash that they simply can not reside on their “conscience” to enact laws.

When all the German scientists were brought into the US, and so many of the Nazi's were left in place to act as a spy network on Soviets, the preferred model for the American public to believe was that Fascism was an aberration, and that Hitler and Mussolini were extreme examples of tyrants, now put down and seen the last of. The people were led to believe that only enemy were the commies because all the Nazi's had been defeated. Would that more people like Wallace had been heeded.

That is if you ask me.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire



Reminds me of this video

I was not around at the time of Hitler and his reactionary, supremacist thinking. I am old enough to remember when there were people who wanted to use nuclear weapons on Viet Nam. People with abhorrent thinking exist. There are people who think what you and I would call the "unthinkable". Some are allowed by others to carry it out.

Read what Libertarian thinking and ideas carried out means. Hint: it's way more than making marijuana legal. It happened to this country, after failing in Iraq.

The Nightmare Libertarian Project to Turn This Central American Country Into Ayn Rand's Paradise

The privatization of Honduran society has been accompanied by a militarization of public security efforts in the country, both of which have been fueled by a network of U.S.-supported policies and programs.
.........................

Honduras is also experimenting with Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico (special employment and economic development zones), also known as ZEDEs or “charter cities.”

According to reporting by Danielle Marie Mackey for the New Republiclast month, here is how the project works: "An investor, either international or local, builds infrastructure....The territory in which they invest becomes an autonomous zone from Honduras...The investing company must write the laws that govern the territory, establish the local government, hire a private police force, and even has the right to set the educational system and collect taxes."

"The ZEDE’s central government is stacked with libertarian foreigners," including a former speechwriter for presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., conservative political operative Grover Norquist, a senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, and Ronald Reagan's son Michael, as well as "a Danish banker, a Peruvian economist, and an Austrian general secretary of the Friedrich Hayek Institute."

Reason, The Libertarian magazine of the David Koch Reason Foundation, like this "extreme change" experiment.
Honduran 'Free Cities' Get One Step Closer to Reality

No, we don't have Hitler or Mussolini shouting here. Here it's quieter. Words spoken, and written, by quiet corporatists and their Libertarian supporters.

edit double post after computer problems

originally posted by: desert

Thanks for the heavy lifting, desert.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Ah, shucks. Thanks!

I think it's important for the American worker to understand where the threat to them has been coming from. The economy and the government since 1980 has been like a train, with Reaganomics the engine. Unfortunately, the cars that have been added are increasingly from the further and further right. The train was hi-jacked by the far right to take them where they wanted to go.

Through increasingly widespread dissemination of their Libertarian and John Birch Society extremist propaganda, we have today a nation where everything has been so skewed to the right, that historical conservatives and their governing are now deemed "left". Or even Communist and Marxist. Orwellian indeed!!

Until "We the People" repudiate this story and replace it with what we want, we are screwed. At the moment, right wing politicians seem to be having their come-to-Jesus moment. It is hog wash and lip service! If you look behind their words, you will find their contrary actions.

Change will not happen overnight. The larger the ship, the longer to change course. I will be long gone before the attempts now to change the story will reverse the ship's course. But start by telling the new story, the new narrative.

a reply to: desert

Ohhh- I haven't heard the 'john birch society' mentioned in years. I recall my mother telling me that some representative of the organization told, I want to say Joe Pine but am not sure, back in the seventies, that they were going underground. That seems to have happened.

I agree about changing the story line - but, honestly, don't know how to present a popular (as in populous) story line when being talked over by loud 'stupoids'.

How does "taking care of the least among us" become sexy? When the average goal with young people appears to becoming a wealthy celebraty (misspelling on purpose).

The birchers, reagun-o-philes, ayn randiums, tea baggers, (and other people I need to pray for more) are, imo, the lowest form of humanity - self-centered, greedy, dishonest, cruel, short-sighted, etc. The imbodiment of Socrates "The Unexamined Life is not worth Living." I really wonder how those became US values - and character traits worth emulating.

Again I thank you for the well written and concise overview. I can't organize my thoughts nor write near as well.

Thanks for directing me to this, its as true now 70 years later. Fascism is a global problem and its not just the US that is falling prey to it. History will judge us badly for this when its all over.

Unfortunately, America is basically a fascist state already. Remember that study last year that said we're an oligarchy? Big business writes the laws or pays congress to pass what they want, we bomb anyone who isn't good for business and anyone who speaks out against bombing, business, capitalism, religion or conservatism is called unpatriotic, a communist, a hippie or unamerican.

Our countries days are numbered I believe, we will be an aristocrat theocracy within 50 years, probably much sooner.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Hey, FB!

You write just fine. Speaking up is what is important, and you do that. A publication I subscribe to had a recent cover that showed a graffiti line, "Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes".

There IS a lot of meat in this thread. One more, re "John Birchers"
The new John Birch Society
I was a young teenager when Joe Pyne aired. Had my ear glued to my transistor radio listening to what is now "classic rock", but my Mom would tune him in on her radio. He was an in-your-face interviewer.

I think that the values you listed ("self-centered, greedy, dishonest, cruel, short-sighted, etc." ) have always been around, but received prominence since 1980, as we started to value consumerism more than citizenship, as we started to value a "quantity of life" over "quality of life".

The defacto national religion that supported those in power was a religion concerned with the self and not the other. Assessing the Concerns of the Religious Right is a prophetic voice from 1981. The author is spot on. He just could not foresee how new/future technology would drive this exclusive brand of religion to spread like a wildfire, encouraging those values you listed.


(I think, on matters of the Spirit, we need to turn our prayers to asking that "Love for the Other become the Way of the World". That might be the only prayer I say all day. In the words of Kenji Goto, "Closing my eyes and holding still. It's the end if I get mad or scream. It's close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans. Judgment lies with God. That's what I learned from my Arabic brothers and sisters.")

It's no accident we are where we are today. And, this extremist thinking, this economic and religious fundamentalism, feeding off of an authoritarian culture, has been growing worldwide since 1980:

It is no accident that freedom is a weak foundation for capitalism in the west, for it is also a hollow one. Liberty survives there, but in a strangely twisted form. Since free choice has been elevated into a supreme value, social control can no longer appear as infringing on it. Often, however, the accommodation is merely rhetorical.

When the hope of long-term employment is taken away, it is sold as a “flexible” labour market, one that offers the perpetual opportunity to reinvent ourselves. When state provision for retirement is taken away, it is to give us the freedom to plan our old age. We are constantly forced to make “free” choices — decisions we must make alone, though we do not know enough to make them wisely. If this is freedom, it is a burden.

Many westerners sense there is something defective about this freedom. We sense it most when we witness the choices of people who are not free, yet who take control of their futures in ways that we cannot. What was fascinating about the protesters in Maidan Square who demanded a new political order for Ukraine was not that they stood up for the mirage of the European way of life. It was simply that they stood up.

Capitalism has broken free of the shackles of democracy

There are many young people who are doing good, progressive things. There will be a tipping point. We have gone so far to the right, that the only thing that will balance it is progressive action. An online search for progressive media and organizations to listen to and join in shows that they're there. Many citizens do want what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are talking about. That's the story that needs to be spread.

Let accusations roll off our backs. We are ALL patriotic and love our country. Some of us just want to restore the sanity.

a reply to: desert

Thanks again.

You bring to mind another prophetic voice from the eighties - Frank Zappa.

So, the response to this is socialism which is just as tyrannical as fascism. You are wanting to put us on the European political axis with totalitarianism at both ends of the axis. Only you have dressed up libertarianism as fascism. You can't have libertarianism when you have fascism. I suggest you read the definitions of the two:

Fascism:

a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

Libertarianism

a person who advocates liberty, especially with regard to thought or conduct.

a person who maintains the doctrine of free will (distinguished from necessitarian ).

You cannot have libertarianism in a fascist society. The two are inherently antithetical.

The subject of this thread is American Fascism, defined by Wallace as

those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp

No one is talking about turning to socialism or what Europe does.

The 1983 American Heritage Dictionary defined fascism as: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. ......

In other words, fascism is corporate government – a Libertarian’s wet dream. It’s a government in which the Atlas’s of industry are given free rein to control the economy, just how they’re regulated, how much they pay in taxes, how much they pay their workers.

source

The Libertarian laissez faire approach to govt and the economy:

a look at what the party – and David Koch – was pushing for in 1980:

“We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
“We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
“We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
“We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
“We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
“We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
“We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”
“As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”
“We support repealof all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”
“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
“We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”
“We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”
“We demand the return of America’s railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”
“We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called “self-protection” equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”
“We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
“We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”
“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
“We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”
“We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”
“We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
“We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
“We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”

source

We may need to stop using the word "fascism" and instead use "corporate government".

a reply to: desert

How about you call it what it is - corporatism

the principles, doctrine, or system of corporative organization of a political unit, as a city or state.

And if you can't see that we have a corporatist state now as does China, then you're being blind.

Corporatist types of community and social interaction are common to many ideologies, including: absolutism, capitalism, conservatism, fascism, liberalism, progressivism, reactionism.[10]

It seems that none of the ideologies you are worried about are innocent, but I don't see libertarianism here.

And while a libertarian in America tends to like the free market, the corporatist state is very far removed from it and depends on the government to maintain control of and squash competition rigging things in the favor of big corporations. This is by definition anti-free market and anti-libertarian.

a reply to: FyreByrd

An interesting post!

I would add a quote:

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies.,”) April 29, 1938.

source

It is sad to see the US of A as a fascist regime. ):

Ok, I think I'm beginning to see a big picture here.

The famous libertarian, Grover Norquist, sums up American Libertarian philosophy, when he says he would like "to get [government] down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Nothing left to impinge on the free market. This is exactly what I posted in the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.

Then ketsuko would be correct to state that a corporatist govt would be far removed from libertarianism, but only because there would be no govt left to control! (BTW capitalism in China is not American capitalism, by any stretch of the imagination.)

As you’ve probably heard, the City of Toledo recently warned its residents not to drink the water. Why? Contamination from toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie, largely caused by the runoff of phosphorus from farms.

...an antigovernment rant a few years back from Erick Erickson. Mr. Erickson suggested that oppressive government regulation had reached the point where citizens might want to “march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp.” And the source of his rage? A ban on phosphates in dishwasher detergent. After all, why would government officials want to do such a thing?

The states bordering Lake Erie banned or sharply limited phosphates in detergent long ago, temporarily bringing the lake back from the brink. But farming has so far evaded effective controls, so the lake is dying again, and it will take more government intervention to save it.

The point is that before you rage against unwarranted government interference in your life, you might want to ask why the government is interfering. Often — not always, of course, but far more often than the free-market faithful would have you believe — there is, in fact, a good reason for the government to get involved. Pollution controls are the simplest example, but not unique.

Smart libertarians have always realized that there are problems free markets alone can’t solve — but their alternatives to government tend to be implausible. For example, Milton Friedman famously called for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration. But in that case, how would consumers know whether their food and drugs were safe? His answer was to rely on tort law. Corporations, he claimed, would have the incentive not to poison people because of the threat of lawsuits.

And, of course, people who denounce big government also tend to call for tort reform and attack trial lawyers.

Phosphorus and Freedom The Libertarian Fantasy

I guess in a way, if the libertarian philosophy is successful, that means that there would be no government left for corporations to take over for their own use. Most all functions would be privatized; corporations would take over our lives rather than govt. See my above post about Honduras and a Libertarian utopia.

So, AlaskanDad's quote was chillingly correct. "liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself"

I want my liberty guaranteed by my democratic government and not by a corporation. Guarantees offered by business are for their interests, not mine.