The USA's Rise to Fascism

This was written as a response to part of Naomi Wolf's book, "The End of America", which I highly recommend.

The first step in a state’s rise to fascism, according to Wolf, is the establishment of an external threat, which can then be developed to include an internal threat as well. This is especially evident in the USA after the events of 9/11. Only months later, she points out, the Patriot Act rushed through Congress, though many lawmakers now say they barely read it and mainly voted because it would’ve seemed “unpatriotic” not to. This Act was the beginning of the development of the external threat of terror from Arab countries into an internal threat of terror from Americans, particularly American Muslims.

Though there were no more major terrorist attacks in the USA after 9/11, Americans live in far more fear than they did beforehand, and are far more willing to relinquish control to the government. In a fascist rule, however, the government’s objective is not to get rid of the threat, but to use it to intimidate the population by magnifying it and using it as an internal threat as well. By 2006, despite no additional major action against the USA from Osama bin Laden, Bush was comparing him to Hitler, saying bin Laden poses a threat to civilization itself.

After an external threat has been established, Wolf continues, adding an internal threat is simple. Throughout history, fascist rules targeted various groups as internal threats, such as the Jews in World War II. America

Wolf stands out in her lack of reluctance to compare the USA’s actions to those of Nazi Germany – most writers shy away from such a controversial comparison. In my opinion, such a comparison only makes her writing stronger – she chooses careful examples that serve to further explain and strengthen her point.

Wolf uses the Reichstag arson in World War II is used as one such example. Although we now know the arson was probably set by the Nazis themselves, it was declared a terrorist act by the communists – communists who were now, according to the Nazis, not only in distant countries, but inside Europe itself, inside even Nazi communities.

Once the internal threat is established, it can be used to alienate various groups within the community, labeling them “traitors”, “collaborators”, and so forth. A line is drawn between “us” and “them”, leading us to feel that what happens to “them” is unimportant, because they are different from us, and a threat.

In the US, the groups alienated are primarily Arabs and Muslims – even if they have done nothing wrong, the US has labeled them a threat, and so they are treated as such. This sort of treatment becomes more and more commonplace as other Americans increasingly accept and even support it due their fears of “terrorism”, both from external threats such as Osama bin Laden, and internal threats like the alleged spies, collaborators, and terrorist plotters among them.

Source: Naomi Wolf. The End of America. (Vermont: Chelsea Green, 2007)

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