When Fascism Came To America

Let's first define fascism as it rose out of Italy in the early 1900s and spread across Europe and even into the US. Before Mussolini was a hated tyrant he was quite popular even here. Fascism was an ideology that was sweeping the world; it was all the rage. Before I define it I will be clear in my denunciation of fascism as extreme evil. Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists believe that a nation requires authoritarian leadership and a collective identity. Cultural ideals are what give individuals identity and thus they reject individualism. They justify totalitarianism as a means of representing the collective will of the nation. They believe that the ability and will to commit violence and wage war is what keeps a nation strong. War regenerates the national spirit and vitality. Fascist movements have often held social Darwinist views, believing that nations must be purged of socially and biologically weak individuals in order for the nation to advance. Eugenics, euthanasia, and abortion are all used by fascist states to mold society. Fascist nations have pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda machines. Education is designed to glorify the state and purge ideas that are not consistent with the fascist movement and to teach students to obey the state. Therefore, fascism is anti-intellectual. Facists implemented price controls, wage controls, and other economic interventionist policies. FDR, himself, implemented price and wage controls before the Supreme Court thankfully saw that for what it truly was. Fascism has been implemented all across the world and the specifics have varied from place to place but those are some of the common traits.

So did fascism ever get a footing here? Oh, you know it did! Our fascist dictator's name was Woodrow Wilson. You've probably heard alot of good about Wilson. He is often ranked as one of our 10 best presidents. Hardly. Never has a man sat in the Oval Office who had such disdain for the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. History has been conveniently omitted.

Let's read some of Wilson's own words. These date from the 1890s through his presidency:

"I cannot imagine power as a thing negative and not positive."

"No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle."

"The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit."

"The competent leader of men cares little for the internal niceties of other people’s characters: he cares much–everything–for the external uses to which they may be put…. He supplies the power; others supply only the materials upon which that power operates…. It is the power which dictates, dominates; the materials yield. Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader."

Do you hear the fascism in those words? Oh there's more. Wilson created the nation's first propaganda machine, the Committee on Public Information. But Troy, you say, public information is good. Sure it is. However, the mission of the CPI was the "engineering of consent" and "conscious manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses.” Do you hear the fascism there?

Remember Liberty Bonds? Propaganda. A popular liberty bond poster declared "If you have money to buy and do not buy I will make this No Man's Land for you!" Hear the fascism?

Wilson pushed for the passing of a Sedition Act that forbade Americans from criticizing their government or military. Citizens could not "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language.” The Postmaster General was given the power to revoke mailing privileges for those who disobeyed. Seventy-five periodicals were shut down by the government. The Department of Justice arrested an estimated 175,000 individuals for speaking against Wilson or WWI (even within their own homes). A letter to federal attorney declared that citizens have nothing to fear if they "Obey the law; keep your mouth shut." Do you see the fascism there?

The 1913 Federal Reserve Act created our good friend "The Fed." The federal reserve is an unconstitutional authority of monetary policy in the US. The federal reserve has unrestricted power to print and release money as it wills. Thus, the federal reserve floods the world with US dollars, creating a false sense of the dollar's value as well as a misallocation of resources. The constitution grants to the US House of Representatives the authority to coin money and regulate the value of currency. It does now authorize them to turn that authority over to an independent agency. This manipulation of our economy has eroded our standard of living, placed monetary poicy in the hands of a private organization, devalued the dollar, and enriched well-connected elites who have been able to take advantage of the artificial monetary cycles created by the Federal Reserve Bank. The recent financial reform bill has actually expanded the scope of the Fed's power, which only expands the power of a handful of large banks which own most of the federal reserve notes.

President Kennedy, our last truly good democratic president, with one stroke of his pen attempted to end the Federal Reserve by ordering the government to return to its constitutional mandate to control monetary policy. Three weeks later he was dead. Fascists will not so easily relinquish their control.

Wilson was a leader of the progressive era. Progressive was the American term for fascist. So when Hillary Clinton, during her presidential campaign, defines herself as a progressive in the early 20th century meaning of the term either she is ignorant as to what that really means or she thinks that we don't know what that really means. Well, I know what it means. And now you do too. You're welcome.