As usual, Ron Paul is about half right. Conservatives have long noted that the form of government favored by big-government liberals is similar to fascism in practice. It is the government in charge, though, and the idealogues. The big corporations go along, and become cheerleaders for the whole mess, which gives a superficial appearance that they are in control. Actually, they are gutless and amoral, and will go wherever government threats and the money lead them.
Von Mises called the economic situation under fascism or national-socialism “Zwangswirtschaft,” or forced economy. It was successful under Hitler by comparison with fully socialist systems because it did not involve dismantling all the means of production, or killing all the skilled people (as in the collectivizations under Stalin).
The fascist regimes in Europe varied by country, but strictly speaking Hitler’s was not a fascist regime. It was national-socialist, and there was a big difference. It was atheistic in tendency. Fascism in Spain was pro-clerical, and so was the movement of Codreanu in Romania, and of Englebert Dollfuss in Austria. The later was assassinated by the followers of Hitler, although he had been supported by Mussolini.
Mussolini was a former socialist, and was rather anti-clerical himself, but he did not persecute the Catholic church for political reasons, and came to terms with the Vatican. One could say, then, that fascism occupied a southern belt, with Nazis to the north. The racial theories were characteristically prominent in Nazi ideology to the north, and included the policy of Aufnordung (promotion of Nordics) which would have been inappropriate to the south of Austria.
All fascist and national-socialist regimes were anti-individualist, like modern American “liberalism.” At every turn, liberals are in favor of eroding rights for the greater good: abortion (which means no rights for the unborn), gun-control, high-taxation, restrictions on free speech (lest it cause “discomfort” within the masses), interfering with the market to “protect the environment” or to manage medical care or to control the weather, rigging of elections, &c. About the only feature which separates today’s American liberals from fascists is that the liberals are generally anti-religious, or at best are affiliated with liberalized sects like (for example) the UCC. Comparing the two, the fascists begin to look good, because at least they resisted communism, which the liberals generally did not (as, for example, in the Vietnam War). Except on defense, liberals should never complain too much about fascism, because it is quite similar to their own way.
First, thanks for your post, lots of good info.
I'll just disagree to the extent that big corporations do more than cheerlead. Let's take the recent NBC Networks "Green Week". NBC gave global warming and other eco-nonsense millions and millions of dollars of free publicity. Was it cheerleading? Was it ideology? Was it an attempt to propagandize the American People? Was it a corporate scam for more money and profits?
The answer is YES, all of the above. NBC is owned by GE. GE is making a huge push to get governments, including the US government, to impose environmental regulations that can only be met through the purchase of GE products. GE is promoting fascism in order to increase its own profits. Of course, this can only be successful in the short term and will lead to demands for higher taxes on corporations, including GE, but that's the successor's problems.
I was in the drug industry and heard high level executives brag about how they were pushing the Prescription Drug Act, which would force taxpayers to buy Rx drugs and give them to other people. Many corporations are in the business of living off taxpayers. They don't produce for the market, they produce according to governmental dictates.
That my friend is fascism. It is easier to influence (control) a few government employees than it is to produce for millions of consumers, making their individual decisions. Corporations don't 'control' this system, but they sure as hell have tremendous influence. And they are more than reluctantly cheerleading, they are leading the way into this future.