Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.
What I found most interesting in this article were the details about the close ties between government officials and Monsanto corporation and the way Congress slips pro-Monsanto legislation in bills they pass. Monsanto represents one typical example--probably the most egregious one because it affects the food we eat--of the integration of government with corporate interests.
All major corporations together with the more powerful banking industry is thoroughly in control of what passes in ruling class ideology as "democratic" governance. To reinforce the latter illusion, they periodically hold well managed elections and long campaigns to distract their subjects from the realities of capitalist rule. It needs to be understood that the integration of government with corporate and financial interests is one classic feature of fascism.
The dominance of capitalists over our political institutions has always existed in US history; but now that this class so thoroughly manages our governance behind a facade of "democratic" governance while maintaining the elements of a police state behind this facade qualifies our system as one of fascism. By maintaining this facade, our current fascist governance differs superficially from the classic forms of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan that was prevalent in the 1930s.
Our present ruling capitalist class finds it very useful to retain the appearance of democracy by holding "show elections", by managing the information you receive about the real world through their carefully controlled media which they advertise as "a free press", by their vigorous control of all institutions that serve an ideological function such as Hollywood and education, and by their complete control of all government institutions that supply the appearance of democratic rule.
Meanwhile as insurance to continue their rule should this facade of "democracy" break down, they have developed all the other classic features of fascist rule: an infrastructure of a police state as reflected in the Patriot Acts and other laws which can suspend all civil liberties instantly, militarized (and racist) local police forces, and 24/7 surveillance technology over their subjects (that's us).
