I’ve always believed that words have meaning. That may seem obvious, but I think it is important to have solid definitions to terminology that way language can be less manipulated by politicians and ideologues.
In the last few years, people have begun co-opting old terms and branding themselves with new ones in an attempt to confuse the electorate.
A sizable chunk on the left have resorted to calling anyone to the right of Trotsky as “fascist,” which, of course, is far more broad than the actual number of fascists. On the right, many have called progressives “socialists” and sometimes even “communists,” which of course is also far more broad than the actual number of socialists and communists.
The actual meaning of “fascism” is an economic system in which big government partners with big corporations to have a mostly centrally controlled economy. To subjugate the population to the inherent unfairness that comes with government picking economic winners and losers and in the interest of making all citizens ideal corporate drones, a military or police state is necessary in the fascist system.
“Communism” is actually a utopian anarchist theory that has yet to be actually achieved, only attempted at great human cost. Socialism is communism’s slightly more practical cousin, which gets rid of the anarchist portion and replaces it with a massively powerful government that redistributes or even owns all property, resources, and wealth.
These are the main two economic forms. There is a third, rare one, but I will get to that one later.
There is a linear spectrum that has fascism on one endpoint, and socialism on the other endpoint and the vast majority of nations fall somewhere on that spectrum, including the United States. While being somewhere in the middle, like the United States, is commendable for not being as dangerous as being closer to an endpoint, it is also important to note that the United States’ citizens have grown lazy in their defense of liberty, and that the founders never wanted us to have a place on that linear spectrum.
The United States Constitution was established to force the federal government to be limited in its powers. That was a novel idea in history, and one that should have removed us, as a nation, from the natural Fascism-Socialism (FS) Spectrum.
Over the last 231 years, the United States went from a nation outside the FS Spectrum to one at the middle, and has since moved steadily towards fascism, ironically, mostly at the hands of people branded as socialists in the media. President Clinton introduced health care reform and environmental mandates that protected large companies by increasing the barriers to entry for competition. President Bush instituted a previously unrivaled national policing apparatus in the Department of Homeland Security and standardized student testing nationwide for uniform student outcomes before literally picking winners and losers to give money to with the TARP banking bailout. Finally, President Obama doled out handouts through his “stimulus” packages and green energy waivers to pick which companies would get massive amounts of taxpayer’s money and forgave the taxes of one of the most powerful and profitable companies in the world, General Electric.
These are all clear examples of fascistic partnerships between big government and big corporations that the Constitution sought to make impossible. Many today are identifying as “protectionists” or “nationalists,” which are simply watered down versions of fascism.
Under a constitutional government, each individual state would be allowed to place itself where it wanted on the FS Spectrum while also ensuring that those states which simply followed the Constitution would fall outside the FS Spectrum under a category called, “Capitalism.”
No nation can be naturally capitalist, as it takes work and dedication to a document that limits government rather than empowering it.
Capitalism allows for the free exchange of goods and services without government interference and with as much competition as the market can bear. This allows for the net creation of wealth that can be passed down freely from one generation to the next. Look at air conditioning, for example. One hundred years ago, thousands of people died every year from heat exhaustion and/or stroke, yet today, nearly every house and every unit of every building has its own air conditioner.
One should also know that democracy isn’t a cure against the FS Spectrum. Many nations with democracy have intentionally voted to become fascist or socialist, like Egypt, Russia, North Vietnam, Sweden, China, etc. Representative democracy is a good function for choosing who runs the government, however it is important to remember that the United States under the Constitution is first and foremost a republic, with no governing party, only a governing law.
Unfortunately, the United States’ limited understanding of the FS spectrum as previously a nation not found on it, led us to make serious mistakes in the Cold War and in the entire field of foreign policy.
For example, in an effort to thwart communism throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, the United States often backed fascist regimes because they “are not communist.” The Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam, The House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Manuel Noriega of Panama, and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran are all examples of fascist regimes that the United States backed and then faced blowback when they realized that the people resented fascism as much as they would have resented “communism.”
If the United States is going to once again transcend the FS spectrum and create a more secure, free world, we need to understand that labels have meanings, and that we should not throw around terms we do not understand so that they have the necessary impact when they are used accurately.

Devon Minnema is the elected City Councilman for Dixon’s District 4. He is a pre-law student and forklift operator.

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