Andrew Sullivan tries very hard not to condone the use of the word "fascism" as it might apply to the US. That said, fascism's ugly head pops up and doesn't retreat -- particularly in connection with the neo-cons who bolstered the Bush presidency and its repeated over-reach. What the neo-cons are "really about," says Sullivan wisely, "is the increase of American global power under the guise of democracy." I'd put it this way: "It's really about the increase of corporate power and the not-really-Republican party marching together under the banner of "free market democracy." No matter. Sullivan is right as far as he goes.
...Neocons were utterly unconcerned with a presidency that gave itself unlimited powers in an unlimited war: the power to seize citizens and non-citizens at will without due process under emergency laws, the power to torture victims to procure rationales for future warfare and retroactive casus belli, and the power to ransack anyone's private property (John Yoo found the Fourth Amendment as "quaint" as the Geneva Conventions). Every time you hear Bill Kristol blithely say that someone does not need to be granted due process in order to be jailed or executed, the veil slips a little.
The contempt for the masses, the esoteric agenda of small elites, the loathing of the judicial branch, the use of an executive to trash constitutional norms in the name of security, and the necessity for constant warfare as a way to instill traditional virtues in the citizenry: these are not specifically fascist. But they have fascistic undertones. This used to be speculation. When you remember their instincts under Bush-Cheney, it's more like an observation.
Where Sullivan loses the thread is when neo-cons (then as now) used the word "democracy" they meant "the free market system" and yes, they "actually don't like real democracy and constitutional checks at home."
Or anywhere, for that matter. Democracy and checks and balances and fairness and justice and any form of citizen power over corporate power are all anathema to neo-cons and to the leadership of the right. Wherever our troops take it overseas, "democracy" has become the stalking horse for unleashed capitalism.
Of course, if the GOP leadership had done the decent thing and denounced the Bush administration and all it stood for -- and, of course, returned to genuine Republican principles -- they might not be the sick and dangerous political party they are today. But they are dangerous. The veil has slipped and we can see that they are not longer merely "wingnuts" but laying the groundwork for taking power by any means available, whether those means are unlimited money from international business or unchecked, extra-legal domineering behaviors. We've seen a lot of both over the past decade. Wisconsin -- Koch Industries + governor + legislature + tacit approval of the party's national leadership -- is our most recent example. We may not have arrived at the door of "fascism," but our feet are firmly planted on the steps to the porch.
