Introduction

The conventional approach to fascism, set forth in novels, movies, and standard historical accounts, has given rise not only to a caricature of historical movements, parties, and regimes labeled "fascist", but to a reluctance to consider deep fascistic tendencies already at work in a supposed model of democracy like the U. S. The idea that fascism might appear in new guise, moving along a different road to power, has been entertained by various commentators since at least the late 1940s, mostly in Europe. The rise of a distinctly American fascism could follow the above pattern – both at the summits of power and within mass society. For fascism or its "equivalent" to take root in the U. S., liberal-democratic politics would have to be mostly stripped of its content; authoritarian structures and practices would have to crowd out popular governance, a process actually long underway.