Exiting the First World War, American businesses were extremely well off, making substantial profits from the demand for steel, weapons, and other commodities.
It was in their interests to pursue policies that would help them to increase their profits, and support of corporatist policies, or fascism, would help them do that.
Along with this there were overtones of anti-Semitism and racism, injected with Biblical moralism and nativist nationalistic attitudes. At the time, fascism was seen as a way to combat communism both in Europe and America. There was a “Red Scare” and many Americans (mostly big business and the rich) feared the United States would turn to communism after the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia. It was felt that there was a connection between atheism and the Socialist movement, and this was uniformly opposed by a coalition of the wealthy, white Christian upper class.[1]
America would turn to a more pro-business attitude during the 1920s because of the Red Scare and its effect on politics; “free market” ideas gained traction because popular (though, mostly manufactured) opinion was against communism. There was popular support for fascism in the United States by Publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose newspapers sold the American public on the benefits of a fascist economy.[2] Henry Ford supported fascism because he was extremely opposed to unions, which were seen as a communist entity. When the Roaring Twenties would come crashing down, fascism would again be touted as the answer to American economic stagnation. The Great Depression would serve as a good excuse to push their market ideologies, as American business leaders touted the success of Italian and German fascist policies which allowed those countries to improve their economies. [3] Cheerleaders of fascism, such as American intellectual Lawrence Dennis, felt that “Hitler and Mussolini were rising to meet the economic crisis and that we would have to do much the same thing…I defended them and tried to explain them…I said the United States will have to go fascist in the same way that Germany and Italy have gone.”[4]
Because of the ample press time given by Hearst to the public works projects initiated in Italy, “many Americans viewed Mussolini’s programs as a proven and successful way to deal with the problems of economic depression.”[5] Prominent American figures, a veritable “who’s who” of rich capitalists like Hearst, Lindbergh, Mellon, Rockefeller, DuPont, and Vanderbilt; were welcomed guests of Hitler and Mussolini, and all touted the success of fascism back home when lobbying their business interests to the United States Government.[6] The fascists would get their way, with the money of taxpayers going to fun New Deal projects. These were coordinated and managed by the business interests, who made out handsomely by the benefit of taxpayer subsidy and cheap labor.
Bibliography
Price, R.G. “Rise of American Fascism.” Rational Revolution. http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/rise_of_american_fascism.htm (14 January 2010).
“The Press: Four on Hearst.” Time, 27 April 1936. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770150-1,00.html (14 January 2010).
Younge, Gary. “The fascist who ‘passed’ for white.”, 4 April 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/04/usa.race (14 January 2010).
[1] Price, R.G. “Rise of American Fascism.” Rational Revolution. http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/rise_of_american_fascism.htm (14 January 2010).
[2] “The Press: Four on Hearst.” Time, 27 April 1936. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770150-1,00.html (14 January 2010).
[3] Price, R.G.
[4] Younge, Gary. “The fascist who ‘passed’ for white.”, 4 April 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/04/usa.race (14 January 2010).
[5] Price, R.G.
[6] Ibid.