Commentary

This is the third installment of a project that is likely to extend over a two-year-period from January, 2010.  It is the serialization of a book entitled The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022.  Under the pseudonym Jonathan Westminster and fictitious biography, the book is purportedly published in the year 2048 on the 25th Anniversary of the Restoration of Constitutional Democracy in the Re-United  States.  It was actually published in 1996 by the Thomas Jefferson Press, located in Port Jefferson, NY. The copyright is held by the Press.  Herein you will find Chapter 2.

Chapter Two 

Fascism in America: An Overview

Author's Commentary:  How Fascism Came to the United States

      Many lengthy books have been written on the tale of how fascism came to the old United  States.  In this chapter I present a brief overview of the process.  Some further description and analysis of the nature of fascism and its advent in the old U.S. is provided by a Dino Louis essay reproduced in Appendix II.  [Editor's note:  This is presently available only in the print version of the book.]

      An ever deepening economic decline occurred in the country in the latter part of the 20th century.  The decline was not one that could be measured by the traditional yardstick of economic progress, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  It continued to rise at a modest, non-inflation-producing pace, the latter maintained for the benefit of the wealthy by the monetary policies of the central bank (the "Federal Reserve").  But an increasing number of economists and other observers came to realize that the GDP did not tell all there was to tell about either the economy or the state of the nation (Cobb, et al).

     As noted by Michael Lind, Dino Louis, Lester Thurow, and many other observers at the time, underneath the GDP climb, the poor were getting poorer and more numerous, the rich were getting richer, and everyone else was experiencing falling personal incomes and rising levels of personal and economic anxiety (DeParle; Phillips).  Lind called attention to the underlying reasons for this state of affairs, such as a regressive taxation policy and the export of capital (1995).

Technorati Tags: Commentary fascism