A couple of weeks ago I quoted Herbert Hoover regarding economics. Mr. Hoover is remembered as being the only Iowan elected to the presidency and ushering in the Great Depression. A lesser known man, Henry A. Wallace, was Iowa's contribution to the vice-presidency under FDR. A recovering republican he eventually ran for the presidency in 1948 as the Progressive Party candidate after being castigated as too radical by the Democratic establishment of the day (sounds familiar) and was smeared as being pro-communist in the pre-swift-boating era. Naturally I was intrigued by his take on American fascism which continues to have, if anything, increased relevancy these days, here's a sample from 1944:
"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy....They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
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