I already put something up on another topic about fascism/socialism, but I'll put it here as well.

Fascism does share some traits with socialism, but also has crucial diffferences. Fascism involves big government in the sense of high levels of public spending, but it does not invlove, on principle, state ownership of industry and business. In fact it was closely tied to big private business. This is very unsocialist. Aside from economics, fascism and socialism are very different, for example with fascism being ultra-nationalistic and socialism being anti-nationalistic. The fact that the Nazis chose to call themsleves National Socialists does not make them anything like proper socialists, though there were some influences.



Anyway, as for the US becoming fascist, that would be a little far fetched imo, though I think the government shares the traits of nationalism, conservatism, ties to big business and so on. You have to remember who the fascist were and what they did - they tried to create vast empires for themselves over people they felt were inferior and worthless. I don't believe the republicans are racists (though doubtless some are) and I don't believe that Bush is trying to create an empire for the US, though I'm sure some might disagree. Something for another thread though. Just because they, like the Nazis, could be called far-right does not make them the same. It's not that simple.


Btw, I don't think a liberal is simply someone who wants change (i.e. the opposite of a conservative). The KKK are not liberals. Liberals believe in permissive policies and broad laissez-faire, and are distinct from the hard right and the hard left, who both tend to favour government control.


People shouldn't think of politics as a stright line between left and right. Describing t as a triangle or a circle is better, but they're all approximate models. You have to look at the details.