ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that fascism and authoritarianism are important categories that need to be mined in order to explore the changing nature of power, control, and rule in the United States and the challenge that such changes pose to a democracy clearly under siege. It also argues that the specter of fascism resides in the lived relations of a given social order and the ways in which such relations exacerbate the material conditions of inequality, undercut a sense of individual and social agency, hijack democratic values, and promote a deep sense of hopelessness and cynicism. The process of militarization has a long history in the United States and is varied rather than static, changing under different historical conditions. As democracy becomes a burden under the reign of neoliberalism, civic discourse disappears and the reign of unfettered social Darwinism with its survival-of-the-slickest philosophy emerges as the template for a new form of proto-fascism.
