"Nothing outside the state"

Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy from 1922 until April 1945 (when Italians shot him and strung his body up by the heels in a public square), invented a particular form of progressivist politics that he called Fascism.

Fascism's name was derived from an Italian word meaning, "bundle, band or group," which is why he took a symbol from the ancient Roman empire, right, as the symbol of the Fascist party. It is a depiction of a fasces, a bundle of reeds tied together with an axe, used by the Roman magisterium to symbolize the power of Roman law over life and death.

Mussolini had grown up a strident socialist and maintained a vigorous and cordial correspondence with Vladimir Lenin practically until Lenin's death. After World War One, however, Mussolini broke with socialism because he considered it inherently ineffective because of its internationalist-movement nature.

The result was a variant of socialism that was nationally chauvinistic, entirely anti-democratic, relied on military conquest and allowed for private businesses, though only under close government supervision and regulation.

In 1932, Mussolini defined Fascism for the Italian Encyclopedia. It included this nugget:

The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State. The conception of the Liberal State is not that of a directing force, guiding the play and development, both material and spiritual, of a collective body, but merely a force limited to the function of recording results: on the other hand, the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it may be called the "ethic" State....

...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone....

Mussolini also summed the Fascist principle another way, explained in March of last year by the "Classic Liberal" blog:

A popular slogan of the Italian Fascists under Mussolini was, “Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato” (everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state). I recall this expression frequently as I observe the state’s far-reaching penetration of my own society.

What of any consequence remains beyond the state’s reach in the United States today? Not wages, working conditions, or labor-management relations; not health care; not money, banking, or financial services; not personal privacy; not transportation or communication; not education or scientific research; not farming or food supply; not nutrition or food quality; not marriage or divorce; not child care; not provision for retirement; not recreation; not insurance of any kind; not smoking or drinking; not gambling; not political campaign funding or publicity; not real estate development, house construction, or housing finance; not international travel, trade, or finance; not a thousand other areas and aspects of social life. ...

As the nationalized "Healthcare" debacle nears its end game, the people of America are increasingly shocked and disgusted by the raw ugliness of the Obama "governing" philosophy. Those platitudes of "hope and change" are gone, and in their place a thoroughly regretful American populace now witnesses, to its horror, the total desecration of this once triumphal constitutional republic.

At last, the stark reality of liberalism is unmasked in its undiluted form. What cannot be discussed honestly and succinctly is couched in lies and fraud, and then sold to the public as benevolence and compassion. Those in Congress who cannot be convinced, based on the merits of the effort, to participate and support it are coerced or bought off. The means of garnering "votes" in the Senate or House is irrelevant. In the end, all that matters is that the leftist agenda, of which Obamacare is a cornerstone, becomes the law of the land.

In a saner time, decorum and respect by the government for the will of the people would have necessitated that the effort be dropped, and the socio-economic fabric of the country be allowed to remain intact. But as the nation is realizing, the current "leadership" in Washington is significantly different from anything ever contended with in the past. These people have never had the slightest intention of "deriving their governing power from the consent of the governed," as advised in the Declaration of Independence.

The Washington Post reports the February 2011 governing version of fascisti ideology:

The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to mobilize thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.

Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights.

By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were working to organize additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, where an effort is underway to trim benefits for public workers. Some union activists predicted similar protests in Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. [...]

The White House political operation, Organizing for America, got involved Monday, after Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy M. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, spoke to union leaders in Madison, a party official said.

The group made phone calls, distributed messages via Twitter and Facebook, and sent e-mails to its state and national lists to try to build crowds for rallies Wednesday and Thursday, a party official said.

As Matt Welch asks, "Is This How a President Should Act?" No, it's not how an American president should act, but it is just how you'd expect an Imperial president to act.