Gib,
I see I did exactly what Laqueur did, I danced all over the place and didn't answer your question. <grin>
Mainstream Democrats will always try to avoid the use of the term, period. OTOH these "Progressives" throw the term around quiet a bit and are likely to use the label on anybody to the right of Al Gore, and this usually includes the Clintons. Also, they might sometimes apply the term to almost anything that smacks of traditional Americana, including the flag and religious icons. Any third world nation where a Marxist movement is being suppressed is of course, fascist, in the "progressive" world. Mainly, though, this is just abuse of the language.
This rhetorical style first saw the light of day in this country back in the 1960's and mainly in the multitude of underground newspapers that proliferated in nearly every big city and most every college campus. There is a sort of "retro" feel to all this, like the folks attracted to 1960's "beach music" or old Corvette cars, some of these folks are just trying to relive their misspent youth, when they were playing at being hippies and college radicals.
Republicans will almost never use the term and I suppose that is who you might consider to be "rightists" or "centrists". But some authentic conservatives HAVE FINALLY gotten up the nerve to openly use the term "nationalist" and this is great progress. For a long time American conservatives have been reluctant to utter the word, for fear they be associated with Hitler or worse. It is quite possible to favor "nationalism" and oppose going all the way to "fascism". Nationalism IS NOT incompatible with the democratic process, 200 years of American history proves this.
I cannot think of any nation that would serve as a reasonable example, with regards to the USA and a possible fascist future. Nothing like that has ever happened to a place this large or powerful.
BTW, I differ with you about the USSR. I do not believe you could accurately label the Bolsheviks and their Stalinist successors as fascists, despite the Stalinist heresy, they were internationalists to the core, and this would be an anathema to a self respecting fascist anywhere.
China, OTOH might possibly be fascist, I am just not sure and I DO NOT mean this is a negative or insulting way. They, with their "One China" agenda, surely seem to be admirably nationalistic. And they are rather famously anti-democratic.
Slagle |
