Update at the bottom!
The Corporate State and its Organization
The corporate State considers that private enterprise in the sphere of production is the most effective and usefu [sic] instrument in the interest of the nation. In view of the fact that private organization of production is a function of national concern, the organizer of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction given to production. (p. 133)
State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management. (p. 135-136)
—Benito Mussolini, 1935, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, Rome: 'Ardita' Publishers.
Since September 11th 2001 and the subsequent passage of the United States Patriot Act, there has been an uncomfortable discussion taking place in America. So uncomfortable in fact that despite its unquestionable importance no American news outlet has devoted so much as a single segment to this subject. And no candidate for President has been asked a single question in regard to it. Maybe they're all afraid to discuss it. Maybe they're embarrassed. Maybe they truly think it can't happen here.
I am of course talking about Fascism in America.
We have all seen the 14 Characteristics of Fascism. For those of you who haven't read it I suggest you click the link above or do a google search. It was written in 2004 by a political scientist named Dr. Laurence Britt. Dr. Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet. And found they all had 14 Characteristics in common with one another.
For those of you who have read the above piece I will present a quick recap for discussion purposes.
- Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
- Disdain for the importance of human rights.
- Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
- The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
- Rampant sexism.
- A controlled mass media.
- Obsession with national security.
- Religion and ruling elite tied together.
- Power of corporations protected.
- Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
- Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
- Obsession with crime and punishment.
- Rampant cronyism and corruption.
- Fraudulent elections.
Now because of the fact that this has been online since 2004, the similarities between these 14 Characteristics and the current state of America under the Bush Administration has been discussed on nearly every political site on the net. Such as this piece from FDRS.ORG which gives examples for each of the 14 Characteristics.
That is not what this diary is about. No those 14 characteristics are presented here only as a reminder, and for a little context. Go ahead, glance over the list one more time and as you read each and every one of those items think about how virtually each and every one of them has come to be under the Bush Administration. If your memory isn't as strong as it used to be check out this Flash Presentation from BushFlash.com
You will slowly realize this is a list of accomplishments for the Right Wing in this nation. A list of acomplishments they have been working on for a very long time! As far back as the 1930s a group of people that included the Presidents Grandfather Prescott Bush.
But why? Why do they spend every campaign season attacking our Government programs? Why do they want nothing more than to undo the New Deal? Social Security. Medicare. Welfare. They want it all abolished! They work to weaken and attack our labor unions and they call Michael Moore a Communist when he suggests Universal Healthcare.
But why? Where does this apparent preference for Fascism come from? Where did it start? I am far more interested in learning about that than citing endless examples of how we're already there. What made these people decide Fascism was the way to go? And how far back does this rabbit hole go?
Well as the Mussolini quote at the start of this diary implies. It's all about business.
We have all read about Prescott's little problem with the Nazi's during World War 2. For those of you who may not be keen to the story it goes a little something like this. Union Banking Corporation's business interests were seized by the Federal Government in October and November of 1942 under ther Trading with the Enemy Act. Harriam Bank (a subsidiary of UBC) was the main Wall Street connection for German companies and the varied U.S. financial interests of Fritz Thyssen, who had been an early financial backer of the Nazi party until 1938.
Prescott Bush was the director of UBC, which was co-founded and sponsored by his father-in-law George Walker; senior managing partner for E. Roland Harriman and Averell Harriman. George Herbert Walker, Prescott Bush's father-in-law was the President of UBC and the great-grandfather of the former and current Presidents Bush.
Bush's bank was accused of aiding the Nazi's in 1942. That part of the story we all know. The part of the story we haven't heard is that of Prescott Bush's hand in a plot to overthrow FDR and install a Fascist Government. This is not a conspiracy theory. Simply a conspiracy. A well documented attempt at a coup that would have redefined our nation as a whole.
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Roosevelt who was advocating socialist programs and an active Federal Government (The New Deal) at a time when business leaders buried in the great depression were questioning the foundations of liberal Government. New Programs would require new Tax Revenues and Hoovers disastrous tax hike years earlier was widely blamed for making the great depression even worse.
Thus a group was formed, and a plot was hatched to overthrow the President of the United States using an army of 500,000 veterans under the guise of assisting President Roosevelt in a time of national peril. Under a fascist Government corporations would have a seat at the table benefiting both parties. This plot is documented in the testimony of Major General Smedley Butler.
Major General Butler testified before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in 1934 that a group of men had attempted to recruit him to serve as the leader of a plot, and to assume and wield power once the coup was successful. In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of several men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup.
During the McCormack-Dickstein Committee hearings, Butler testified that through MacGuire and Bill Doyle, who was then the department commander of the American Legion in Massachusetts, the conspirators attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, D.C., $30 million in financial backing, and generous media spin control.
BUTLER: I said, "The idea of this great group of soldiers, then, is to sort of frighten him (FDR), is it?"
He said, "No, no, no; not to frighten him. This is to sustain him when others assault him."
I said, "Well, I do not know about that. How would the President explain it?"
He said, "He will not necessarily have to explain it, because we are going to help him out. Now, did it ever occur to you that the President is overworked? We might have an Assistant President, somebody to take the blame; and if things do not work out, he can drop him."
He went on to say that it did not take any constitutional change to authorize another Cabinet official, somebody to take over the details of the office-take them off the President's shoulders. He mentioned that the position would be a secretary of general affairs-a sort of a supersecretary.
CHAIRMAN: A secretary of general affairs?
BUTLER: That is the term used by him-or a secretary of general welfare-I cannot recall which. I came out of the interview with that name in my head. I got that idea from talking to both of them, you see [MacGuire and Clark]. They had both talked about the same kind of relief that ought to be given the President, and he [MacGuire] said: "You know, the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everybody can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second."
Given a successful coup, Butler said that the plan was for him to have held near-absolute power in the newly created position of "Secretary of General Affairs," while Roosevelt would have assumed a figurehead role. The idea was to "save" America from itself. The prescription was to adopt the Fascist form of Authoritarian Government that had proven so successful in Germany and Italy.
The Congressional committee's final report confirmed Butler's testimony...
In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist government in this country.
No evidence was presented and this committee had none to show a connection between this effort and any fascist activity of any European country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.
This committee received evidence from Maj. Gen Smedley D. Butler (retired), twice decorated by the Congress of the United States. He testified before the committee as to conversations with one Gerald C. MacGuire in which the latter is alleged to have suggested the formation of a fascist army under the leadership of General Butler.
MacGuire denied these allegations under oath, but your committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made by General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement suggesting the creation of the organization. This, however, was corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principal, Robert Sterling Clark, of New York City, while MacGuire was abroad studying the various forms of veterans organizations of Fascist character.
To help get the word out to the public about the fascist coup to overthrow President Roosevelt, General Butler turned to the editor of the Philadelphia Herald who had given supportive coverage in the past. Paul Comly French was a reporter enlisted to interview Butler and to write an article exposing Butler's testimony to the MacCormack-Dickstein House Committee on Un-American Activities.
French's article, unlike almost all other mainstream media coverage at the time, did expose the coup and, most importantly, his article named many of the wealthy Wall Street bankers and corporate leaders who were behind it.
After Butler had completed his testimony, journalist Paul Comly French took the witness chair to report on his own investigation of the plot, in which a candid two-hour conversation with MacGuire at the latter's office figured prominently.
Describing these talks on the premises of Grayson M.-P. Murphy and Company, French verified every allegation about the plot the general had attributed to MacGuire. In addition French reported the more open statements MacGuire had made to him about the nature of the conspiracy and how it would work. More frank with French, apparently, than he had dared to be with the general, MacGuire made little attempt to disguise the Fascist nature of the proposed putsch with euphemistic phrases about "supporting the President."
FRENCH: We need a Fascist government in this country, he insisted, to save the Nation from the Communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight.
During the conversation he told me he had been in Italy and Germany during the summer of 1934 and the spring of 1934 and had made an intensive study of the background of the Nazi and Fascist movements and how the veterans had played a part in them. He said he had obtained enough information on the Fascist and Nazi movements and of the part played by the veterans, to properly set up one in this country.
He emphasized throughout his conversation with me that the whole thing was tremendously patriotic, that it was saving the Nation from Communists, and that the men they deal with have that crackbrained idea that the Communists are going to take it apart. He said the only safeguard would be the soldiers. At first he suggested that the General organize this outfit himself and ask a dollar a year dues from everybody. We discussed that, and then he came around to the point of getting outside financial funds, and he said that it would not be any trouble to raise a million dollars.
Even though the Senate committee did take the threat seriously and did verify that a fascist coup was indeed well past the planning stage, the Senate committee expired. As if Butler's testimony wasn't enough, in 1936 William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he stated...
"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime.... A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies. 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 Fascism 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 for 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."
Who were these "American ruling families?" The conspirators were operating under the umbrella of a front group called the American Liberty League, which included many families and corporations that are still household names today, including Heinz, Maxwell House, Colgate, Birds Eye, Du Pont, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, General Motors and of course the one and only Prescott Bush. The American Liberty League reached over 125,000 members and supported the Republicans in 1936.
The committees final report was heavily censored with the names of those accused removed until all accusations could be properly investigated. Unfortunately, FDR was far more concerned with getting America back on track and passing his New Deal. The issue it seems was simply dropped. Though one can only wonder if Mr. Bush's bank would have been seized had his involvement in the plot to overthrow FDR had not been brought to light only a year after Roosevelt amended the Trading With The Enemy Act.
One thing that is clear however is that todays Neocon agenda is deeply rooted in the plot to overthrow FDR. The same flawed logic and twisted mentality that led Prescott Bush to answer the perceived threat of Communism with Fascism, an idea that was passed on to Bush Sr. who played a pivotal role in Operation Zapata in Cuba. An idea that survived through Vietnam all the way to the end of the Cold War and has led the Neocons to fight the threat of Terrorism with the same Fascist prescription.
Back in the 1930s the conditions of the Great Depression set the stage and made such a coup politically possible. Drastic change was needed. Americans wanted to turn the depression around and would have probably gone along with a Fascist form of Government. In fact had the new form of Government worked even in the short term to end The Great Depression the United States of America might still be a Fascist Nation today.
With September 11th 2001, the stage was set once again. Only instead of trading our civil liberties and the founding principals of our Country and our Government for Financial Security, the American people were all too willing to sacrifice those same rights and ideals for a sense of National Security. Finally for the first time in years the American people were once again ready to accept a Fascist Government.
And with all 14 Items on that list of characteristics fulfilled. With Vice President Dick Cheney acting as "Super Secretary" of General Affairs and a translucent "forth branch." And the invention of the "WAR CZAR" the only thing left to dismantle is our system of checks and balances, the elimination or at least denigration of our three equal branches of Government.
Which is why the showdown between Bush and Congress over Alberto Gonzales is so very important. If Congress doesn't show some muscle, stand up for it's rights as an equal branch of Government and exercise some oversight they might as well just resign from office. Because a dangerous precedent will be set and they will be in effect a second tier to the Executive Branch. No different than the Roman Senate under the rule of Constantine. Stripped of all meaningful power and reduced to little more than a prestigious club for conversation.
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Update 1: I did a search at Archives.gov (what a pain in the ass that site is) and found a summary of the committee on UnAmerican Activities to investigate Nazi Propaganda. In order to get access to the actual records you would have to go down to the national archives in Washington DC to request and no doubt pay for copies. But below is the summary.
22.87 The committee was frequently referred to as the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in reference to its chairman and vice chairman, John W. McCormack of Massachusetts and Samuel Dickstein of New York. It conducted public and executive hearings intermittently between April 26 and December 29, 1934, in Washington, DC; New York; Chicago; Los Angeles; Newark; and Asheville, NC, examining hundreds of witnesses and accumulating more than 4,300 pages of testimony. The committee accumulated evidence regarding individuals and organizations who worked to establish in the United States policies followed by the Nazis in Germany, the Fascists in Italy, and the Communists in Russia. The committee gave particular attention to the organization and activities of Friends of New Germany and Silver Shirts of America. The committee submitted its report on February 15, 1935 (H. Rept. 153, 74th Cong., 1st sess., Serial 9890).
I did a wiki on Silver Shirts of America and got this.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Silver Legion)
The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an American fascist organization founded by William Dudley Pelley on January 30, 1933.
The Silver Legion’s emblem was a scarlet 'L', it stood for Loyalty to the American Republic, Liberation from materialism and, of course, the Silver Legion itself. Their uniforms consisted of a cap identical to those worn by German Stormtroopers, blue corduroy trousers, leggings, tie and silver shirt with a red "L" over the heart.
The Silver Shirts had about 15,000 members, mostly middle-class, by 1934. The movement's strength dwindled to 5000 four years later. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 led to the immediate collapse of the Silver Legion.
And here is the entry on "Friends of New Germany" check it out.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Friends of New Germany was an organization founded in 1933 in support of the Nazi party in the United States.
In May of 1933, the Nazi Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess authorized a German citizen living in the United States, Heinz Spanknobel, to form a Nazi American organization. The result was the creation of "Friends of New Germany." Assistance was given to its formation by the German consul in the City of New York. The organization, though based in New York City, had a strong presence in Chicago, Ill.
It is known that Nazis, out of Germany, made considerable efforts to establish an American counterpart organization. Recruiting commenced as early as 1924. Yet the first, significantly large organized group was this entity, "Friends of New Germany", which was formed in July of 1933. And that it came into existence after, upon orders from Berlin, the prior Nazi entities were dissolved.
This is interesting because with The American Liberty League boasting 125,000 members, the Silver Shirts boasting 15,000 members it shows an impressive amount of American interest in Fascism during this time period. Very fertile ground for such a coup to be devised and carried out.
Also it's probably a coincidence but The American Liberty League was based in New York and in Butlers Testimony he said he was bribed by the plotters with $18,000 in $1,000 bills (which he didn't accept) to take a group of vets to Chicago. "Friends of New Germany" were of course operating in both cities. Weird stuff. Interesting though.
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Update 2: Time Magazine ran a puff piece on the American Liberty League back in 1934 practically giggling over how great it was someone was standing up to the New Deal. According to Butlers testimony the A.L.L. had a lot of media connections they were going to use to market the organization.
Sources:
Wikipedia
BBC Radio
http://coat.ncf.ca/...
National Archives