[lbo-talk] Swedish far-right wins first seats in parliament

[Wojtek S]

Two points, Marv.  First, you do not need the whole country or even a
majority to turn a country fascist.  All you need is a critical mass
needed to catapult enough fascist politicians to the position of
power.  But then more importantly, I do not think fascism as a form of
government has much of a chance in the US (or at lest much less so
than in Europe.)  - which is my second point.  A radical fascist
movement of the Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuehrer variety was (and
still is) DOA in the US - only a moderate reformer like FDR - one who
would not upset the two fundamental pillars of the US system - the
party system and the judicial system - had a chance.

Wojtek

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Marv Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:
>
> On 2010-09-20, at 8:51 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> [WS:] FDR was an exception that proves the rule.  The fact that the US
>> did not turn fascist in the 1930s as Europe did is due, in a large
>> part, to its visceral hatred of central government.
> =================================
> But all of "Europe" didn't turn fascist. There were violent social struggles between the left and right in all of the countries which did. The urban-based working class organized in trade unions, cooperatives, and social democratic and Communist parties opposed fascism, but was unable to unite effectively against it.
>
> Nor was all of the "US" possessed with a visceral hatred of central government. To the contrary, the New Deal was all about strengthening the power of the central government to intervene in the economy and provide a minimal social safety net for the working propulation.
>
>
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