Fascist States in America

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism[1] characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy[2] that rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.[3][4] - Wikipedia

We often think about concepts such as fascist state as a label that typically applies to national governments. The consequence of such thinking is that we often lose sight of the things that are happening at the state and local levels. Here’s the thing: we forget that fascism doesn’t always start at the federal level. In fact, now is a great time to point out that fascism is on the rise in both our localities and our states, as attested by the types of laws that are being passed at those levels.

How can I say that? Laws are passed to solve a problem. This is the real purpose of government, to solve those problems that must be solved collectively, and that individual work is insufficient to address. If a problem impacts an entire community, then government must step in. However, what we’ve been seeing recently is a spat of laws that don’t solve problems at all. For example, consider HB-1557 which recently passed in Florida. Does this law proclaim to solve the problem of parental rights?

An act relating to parental rights in education; amending s. 1001.42, F.S.; requiring district school 4 boards to adopt procedures that comport with certain provisions of law for notifying a student's parent of specified information; requiring such procedures to reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children in a specified manner;

But that’s just the summary. The actual text of the bill is much more complicated. If we look closely at the bill for generalities of content, then what we see is that the State Board of Education gets a lot more power in what happens inside of the individual classrooms. The Florida Board of Education is a group of people hand-picked by Florida’s Governor, Rick DeSantis. The language of the law is vague enough that decisions will almost certainly have to be advanced to the Florida Board of Education, and schools are asked to foot the bill if a parent wants to challenge the school on any of the law’s contents. Let’s look at some of that ambiguous language:

Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade (3) or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.

What are those state standards? They don’t know. And what is “gender identity” in this vein of conversation? Not explained. Further, how often are children even taught sexual-related topics in those lower grades? The answer to the last question is that they’re not. Even in liberal areas, sexual-related topics are not engaged to any significant degree.

So this law solves a problem that doesn’t exist, and in doing so, pushes the power of decision-making at a micro-managing level up to the Florida Board of Education. In a very real way, this is little more than a power grab. With such a vague law, almost anything could be construed from it, and the schools would have to foot the bill to even challenge that the law hasn’t been broken. How do people determine whether the law has been broken?  By asking — you guessed it — Ron DeSantis and his Board of Education. This amounts to the ability to create laws in the executive branch.

And by doing so, what was gained?

Well, any hope for a sexually-confused child to come forward and ask questions, for one. And consider the name of the bill: Parent’s Rights in Education. So this bill pretends to deliver parent’s rights, but in reality what it does is consolidates more power under the executive branch, including the right to essentially make laws. Let’s explore a bit more.

Fascism 101

To take control, there are two fundamental things that fascists do. The first is to sell a mythological history of when things were better. You might recognize this in the simple slogan Make America Great Again, which pretends that America was somehow better in the past than it is today. I’m not going to tear the argument down here, plenty of others have put effort into it. The short story is that both in civil rights, economic dominance, and international influence, America is in an enviable position compared to our previous selves.

But when put up against idealized images of Leave-It-To-Beaver-style home lives, nostalgia creates a fictional past that ignores the rampant alcoholism and abusive relationships, clothes-hanger abortions, and frankly demeaning position of women and minorities in a society that was lacking in opportunity for the betterment of more than half of our society. Also, until WW2, America wasn’t so great militarily. It was WW2 that cranked up the machinery that turned the United States into a world superpower — a position which shortly after we realized even had limitations (for example, Korean War).

I guess I did exactly what I said I wasn’t going to do and challenged the MAGA concept. The greatest America has ever been was where we are right now — except we now have one of our major political parties hijacked by fascists. So step 1 is complete: sell the big myth. That myth sits squarely in the minds of a huge portion of Americans today. 

Step 2? Use reason against itself, and that’s the cynical nature of these laws that are being passed now. All the while those on the not-so-far-right talk about freedom, while chiseling rights away. Parents, you need to know what’s going on in those classrooms, and here’s your chance (as though any classroom activity was ever a secret before). Also, this law will prevent the sexualization of minors in classes (as though that was ever a thing in K-3rd grades). What will it cost you? Only legislative oversight. Now the Governor has more power, and the legislature less.

How do we recognize these power grabs? They always have idealistic names like “Parent’s Rights” or lofty goals like "preventing fraud in the conduct of elections in this state” (Texas SB-1), but usually solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Fraud isn’t a rampant problem in Texas, yet SB-1 proposes to address the virtually non-existent fraud problem. What was the net result? Excluding thousands of legitimate votes from being counted and wasting millions in taxpayer dollars. More voting oversight by — drum roll please — the executive branch (i.e. Abbot). And whose votes were excluded? You can probably guess. Couple that with doing other things in Texas like lowering the number of drop-off ballot boxes to one per county, and you see what’s happening more clearly. Now counties with millions of residents have the same number of drop-off ballot boxes as those with less than a hundred thousand, meaning it’s easier to vote in lower-population communities which are currently communities that typically favor Republicans.

And that answers the final question:  who does this drive toward fascism benefit?