XI: Obama as Social Fascist 403- “A foreign policy inspired by the theme of national power and greatness, with the goal of
imperialist expansion.” (Payne 5-6, n. 6)
One of Obama’s favorite themes is that the international prestige and power of the
United States have sharply declined because of the reckless and incompetent policies of the
Bush administration. Obama explicitly proposes to restore the world standing of the United
States, including through such initiatives as the indiscriminate bombing of certain parts of
Pakistan without the permission of the Musharraf government, allegedly in order to pursue
the mythical Osama bin Laden. These are thinly veiled proposals to administer a cosmetic,
public-relations facelift to the widely discredited forces of Anglo-American imperialism,
and to give them a new lease on life on the world scene.
Other characteristics of fascist movements which have received wide attention include the
“espousal of an idealistic, vitalist and voluntaristic philosophy, normally involving the attempt to
realize a new, modern, self-determined, and secular culture.” This corresponds closely to the “Yes
we can!” and “Si se puede” chants which are indispensable components of the typical Obama rally.
As we can see, Obama may not completely fulfill each and every point in this highly articulated
definition of a common basis of fascist movements during the time between the two world wars of
the last century. Nevertheless, Obama does fulfill a very large proportion of these criteria, more so
than any politician seen in the United States in the last half-century. Obama’s relation to fascism is
much too close for comfort, especially when we take into account the numerous areas where
Obama’s agitation presents proto-fascist precursor forms, seed crystals, and signs pointing towards
imminent fascist developments in the near future. We must also recall that the fascism required by
the crisis ridden Anglo-American imperialism of the early 21st century will necessarily diverge in
certain critical areas from the fascism that was appropriate for the needs of the Italian or German
finance oligarchs of the inter war period.
It is also important to recall that Italian fascism, especially in its earlier phases, was relatively
free of race theory and anti-Semitism. For Mussolini, the main vehicle for fascist activity was the
totalitarian state, and not any concept of race. Later, when Mussolini became an ally of Hitler,
elements of the Nazi approach to race were incorporated into Italian laws and political life. In other
words, the notion of fascism without significant elements of anti-Semitism (at least initially) would
not represent in any way a radical departure from the main historical models and prototypes of
fascism.
All fascist movements were set apart from other political formations by the tremendous stress
they placed on the liturgical, symbolic, and aesthetic elements of politics. As Payne writes, “The
novel atmosphere of fascist meetings struck many observers during the 1920s and 1930s. All mass
movements employ symbols and various emotive effects, and it might be difficult to establish that
the symbolic structure of fascist meetings was entirely different from that of other revolutionary
groups. What seemed clearly distinct, however, was the great emphasis on meetings, marches,
visual symbols, and ceremonial or liturgical rituals, given a centrality and function in fascist activity
which went beyond that found in the left revolutionary movements. The goal was to envelop the
participant in a mystique and community of ritual that appealed to the aesthetic and the spiritual
sense as well as the political. This has aptly been called a theatrical politics, but it went beyond
mere spectacle towards the creation of a normative aesthetics... More than any other new force of
the early 20th century, fascism responded to the contemporary era as above all a ‘visual age’ to be
dominated by a visual culture.” (Payne 12-13) Lukacs noted that a hallmark of fascism was the
aesthetization of politics, which he proposed to counter with a politicization of aesthetics.