# Could the U.S. become a fascist state?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 25, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951 "2010-07-25T16:15:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/61 "2010-07-26T17:06:44Z")

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> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#):
>
> _ **Damuri Ajashi in '12!** _

We’re going to have to do something about that name, first, lest he be branded a secret Zoroastrian/Confucian/Shintoist.

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**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/62 "2010-07-26T17:49:31Z")

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> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> > [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#):
> >
> > _ **Damuri Ajashi in '12!** _
> 
> We’re going to have to do something about that name, first, lest he be branded a secret Zoroastrian/Confucian/Shintoist.

Hey, the name is an anagram for **Jihad Samurai**! That’ll work way bett…wait.:smack:

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/63 "2010-07-26T17:53:11Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Wait, let me get this straight: **LonesomePolecat** thinks that Barack Obama’s policies will result in a white ruling class and the non-white folks forming the underclass? Here’s a hint: [this is a picture of Obama](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/imagecache/home_hero_rotator_main/hero_feature/hero_image/hero_bp-cap_LJ-0061.jpg).

Well, the POTUS does not define the ruling class; some of our presidents have been of lower origins, but the ruling class still rules.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/64 "2010-07-26T18:06:06Z")

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Any definition of “ruling class” that doesn’t include the President of the United States as one of its members is inherently flawed.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/65 "2010-07-26T18:33:28Z")

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> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#):
>
> > [@LonesomePolecat](#):
> >
> > You seriously believe that Obama and his posse aren’t hard core lefties? Puh-_leeze_. :rolleyes:
> 
> Let me tell you what I think the HARD CORE LEFTIES would do.
> 
> They would close Guantanamo;
> 
> They would get out of Afghanistan as soon as they responsibly could;
> 
> They would pass single payer system health care reform;
> 
> They would repeal DADT during their first day in office;
> 
> They would recognize gay marriage for federal employees;
> 
> They would put Bush and Cheney in jail;
> 
> They would have repealed the Bush tax cuts (at least for the wealthy);

This is “hard-core left”? I take it you’ve never read [Socialist Worker](http://socialistworker.org/).

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-u-s-become-a-fascist-state/547951/66 "2010-07-26T18:33:34Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Any definition of “ruling class” that doesn’t include the President of the United States as one of its members is inherently flawed.

Oh, he’s a member, all right – at least, when he takes office, and for the rest of his life afterwards. But a social class is a lot more than an institutional elite. The American white overclass **furnishes** most – not all, but most – members of the American institutional elite, including the highest public offices elected and appointed, corporate CEOs, foundation chairs, top-flight academic posts, etc. But the overclass is much larger than the elite; and it can recruit some members of lower-class origins without changing its essential character – as the British gentry did in the 19th Century, when it intermarried with the rising class of merchants and industrialists, and had their sons educated and acculturated in the gentry’s public schools.

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