American Right Wing dictatorship - a Hypothetical scenario

[SpaceMarine93]

I have seen so many alternate history fictions where America descends into right wing dictatorships early in its history, such as "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth published in 2004, where Franklin D Roosevelt was defeated, the Nazis won in Europe and where famous Nazi-sympathizer and all American patriot Charles Limburgh becomes president and slowly turns America into a fascist nation over the 1940s.

This leads me to think that many people apparently have this concept in which they believed that, with the end of Nazism at the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War, America would never, ever realistically turned into a right wing totalitarian state, or perhaps do think that America would turn totalitarian, would think that only Left Wingers such as the Soviets would be capable of such a thing.

Forgive me if I am wrong. But if it is such a case, I resent that sentiment.

I believe that even though the threat of Fascism, Nazism and what-not is long gone with their defeat in Europe in 1945, I believe that, given the right conditions and a political force with the motive and determination to do so, America could still fall into a Right Wing Totalitarian dictatorship. Within this decade too if we are not careful.

So here's the challenge:

Starting from any day in 2011, craft out a realistic scenario in which the USA descends into a Right Wing totalitarian dictatorship within a relatively short period of time - say, ten to twenty years.

The scenario would need to take into consideration current social, economical and political situation in the United States, as well as geopolitics if that is possible. The scenario would need to take into account every single possible obstacle that stands in the way of such a dictatorship from forming (e.g. American political system of checks and balances, public opposition, etc.) and how a theoretical group of right wingers could overcome these obstacles to establish a Right Wing totalitarianism in America, in Modern times. What methods could be used to achieve it?

You could pick any group you want. Bonus if it is some group, or the political ideology, you happened to support (e.g. If you are Republican, the challenge is to turn your political party into the candidate that would take over America in this scenario, in the most realistic fashion).

Bonus if you could, briefly if you want, describe what kind of policy would they establish if they succeeded, and what kind of repercussions American society, and perhaps the world, would experience if a Right Wing dictatorship is established.

Please move this into the right section in the forum if I am posting this in the wrong place, but not in the hall of shame.

Sorry if I happen to offend anyone. This is a purely hypothetical exercise.

[Bakustra]

I have seen so many alternate history fictions where America descends into right wing dictatorships early in its history, such as "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth published in 2004, where Franklin D Roosevelt was defeated, the Nazis won in Europe and where famous Nazi-sympathizer and all American patriot Charles Limburgh becomes president and slowly turns America into a fascist nation over the 1940s.

This leads me to think that many people apparently have this concept in which they believed that, with the end of Nazism at the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War, America would never, ever realistically turned into a right wing totalitarian state, or perhaps do think that America would turn totalitarian, would think that only Left Wingers such as the Soviets would be capable of such a thing.

Forgive me if I am wrong. But if it is such a case, I resent that sentiment.

What the fuck? First of all, the 1940s are late in American history no matter how you define it, second of all, the reason that those novels are set in that time period is because there were active fascist, Nazi, and other authoritarian movements that had a smidgen of power at the time, thirdly, you missed the RAR in the title and you spelled "hypothetical" correctly. It should be "hipotetical" or "hippothetical". Fourthly, I'll take your challenge.

Time travel. Hyperfalangists from the fiftieth century arrive and use their space-machismo to conquer America. That's actually not any stupider than any response you're going to get, because your constraints, indeed your scenario, are kinda dumb. If you like, I can outline some of the reasons why.

[SpaceMarine93]

I have seen so many alternate history fictions where America descends into right wing dictatorships early in its history, such as "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth published in 2004, where Franklin D Roosevelt was defeated, the Nazis won in Europe and where famous Nazi-sympathizer and all American patriot Charles Limburgh becomes president and slowly turns America into a fascist nation over the 1940s.

This leads me to think that many people apparently have this concept in which they believed that, with the end of Nazism at the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War, America would never, ever realistically turned into a right wing totalitarian state, or perhaps do think that America would turn totalitarian, would think that only Left Wingers such as the Soviets would be capable of such a thing.

Forgive me if I am wrong. But if it is such a case, I resent that sentiment.

What the fuck? First of all, the 1940s are late in American history no matter how you define it, second of all, the reason that those novels are set in that time period is because there were active fascist, Nazi, and other authoritarian movements that had a smidgen of power at the time, thirdly, you missed the RAR in the title and you spelled "hypothetical" correctly. It should be "hipotetical" or "hippothetical". Fourthly, I'll take your challenge.

Time travel. Hyperfalangists from the fiftieth century arrive and use their space-machismo to conquer America. That's actually not any stupider than any response you're going to get, because your constraints, indeed your scenario, are kinda dumb. If you like, I can outline some of the reasons why.

I accept your rebuke. And I think it was the 1930s in the novel. Can you please kindly inform me why is my constraints and my scenario is dumb? I am just asking if a right wing dictatorship could be establish in modern day America. You could throw all my constraints out of the window for all I care, just make it realistic.

[Number Theoretic]

By definition, "totalitarism" demands an ideology or a system of ideologies working together to form the "one and only truth" which defines the lives of every citizen, how he has to behave and what he has to think. Nazism and Communism are prime examples of that and because of this claim, they forbid and suppressed every religion or philosophy they could and as hard as they could get away with. Historically, these ideologies got a critical mass of public and cultural support in order to become dominant and to secure power.

By that definition, i don't see America anywhere near totalitarism. It's culture is simply too diverse: In America, you'll find everything and its opposite. So i'd imagine that if any ideological movement emerges, soon their will be a strong opposing group. And now, that history knows, where totalitarian ideologies could end, any new totalitarian ideology needs to do some really hard work.

Dropping the requirement of "totalitarism" and settling for "right-wing dictatorship" or "autocracy" on the other hand deems much more realistic to me. And the simplest way i see to get there is to take all the anti-terrorism craze we saw since 9/11 and crank it up to eleven. Events that could fuel this development are:

- A "second 9/11". For example a terrorist attack using a stolen or makeshift nuclear weapon or a really nasty biological plague, killing tens of thousands of people.
- Continued degradation of trust in politicians, even more influence by corporations, growing desire for a "strong leader".
- U.S. state default, which could almost certainly trigger all sorts of unpredictable events around the world.
- Exploding food prices, which correlate strongly with the likelihood of riots.

But these are just wild speculations that aren't backed by anything. Making political predictions is notoriously hard and actual predictions are almost always wrong. Political scientists therefore agree that any prediction on a longer timescale than a few months is untrustworthy because real politics are influenced by an absurd high number of factors, conditions and uncertainties.

edith: Wouldn't this thread fit better in "Science fiction"?

[Eulogy]

Evil Superman terrorizes America until the country gives in and he is placed as Grand High Poobah.

That's as realistic as you are going to get.

[Patrick Degan]

The more likely scenario for America is that we complete a slide into a state similar to Mexico under the 70 year rule of the PRI: a de-facto one-party state with token opposition just for laughs and the forms of a democracy still operating but in actuality a cronyist regime with a complete stranglehold on the nation's political and economic life is cemented in place.