As We Go Marching: A Biting Indictment of the Coming of Domestic Fascism in America

As We Go Marching by John T. Flynn scrutinizes the roots, development, and trajectory of fascism through the histories of Italy, Germany, and the United States, tracing how specific policies and social conditions coalesce to create systems marked by centralized authority, economic corporatism, and militarism. Flynn, writing in the aftermath of the New Deal and amidst World War II, analyzes the patterns and mechanisms of modern state power, exposing how seemingly disparate events and policies unite within a larger march toward statist control.

Origins of Fascism: The Italian Laboratory

Flynn focuses on Italy’s transformation from a collection of disparate states to a unified nation in the late nineteenth century. The Italian experiment with constitutional monarchy, parliamentary government, and liberal ideals collided with the realities of poverty, illiteracy, and entrenched localism. The Italian leadership, consumed by the dream of national unification, paid little heed to economic stagnation and persistent crises. Government inertia and inability to address poverty fostered mass disillusionment. Social reform became a growing demand, pushed by rising literacy and the influx of radical ideas. As socialists, anarchists, and syndicalists began to organize labor and contest for political influence, established elites responded with both reform and repression, inadvertently deepening systemic instability.

The institutionalization of public spending through deficit finance emerged as a central response to persistent poverty and the needs of diverse constituencies. Politicians learned to trade public works and welfare promises for political support, embedding the expectation of state intervention within the national psyche. Fiscal imbalances and the continual expansion of the state bureaucracy ensued, as the legislature abdicated more power to central ministries and commissioners. The pressure to satisfy competing interest groups forced the government to invent new methods of sustaining public expenditure, especially as direct economic intervention became politically popular and administratively entrenched.

Deficit Finance and the Political Economy of Modern States

The regular unbalancing of budgets, which Flynn tracks through Italy’s post-unification history, transforms fiscal management from a tool of emergency into a permanent method of governance. Borrowing to fund public works enables politicians to reward allies, silence dissent, and manage economic downturns. The resulting growth of public debt burdens future generations, tying the fortunes of the state to the ongoing creation of new obligations. The debt, serviced through increased taxation, brings additional hardship to already impoverished populations.

Within this cycle, militarism emerges as a solution for sustaining spending without antagonizing powerful conservative interests. Armies and navies absorb immense resources and provide large-scale employment, justifying ongoing expenditures by appealing to national security and pride. Flynn details how militarism, far from being an accidental product of belligerence, functions as a vital economic and political industry. Armament spending draws support from traditional elites and labor alike, integrating the military establishment into the core of national life.

The Emergence of Imperial Ambition

State-driven militarism requires the creation or identification of threats to justify its costs. Italian leaders, recognizing this necessity, foster a sense of perpetual insecurity. The state manufactures or magnifies external dangers, cultivating national anxieties to maintain consent for high military budgets. Once militarism has restructured the economy, the logic of imperial expansion follows. Strategic adventures and colonial campaigns appear as both a necessity and a consequence of the military build-up, as the state seeks new outlets for resources and opportunities for prestige.

Flynn observes that Italian imperialism did not arise from a unique cultural pathology or national obsession, but from structural conditions and policy choices. Economic stagnation, unmanageable deficits, and political fragmentation lead rulers to adopt external ventures as a unifying and economically stimulative enterprise. The convergence of militarism and imperialism, engineered through deliberate policy, fundamentally alters the relationship between state, society, and economy.

The Corporatist State: Synthesis of Power

Fascism, as Flynn defines it, is the synthesis of state and business interests into an integrated corporatist order. The state abandons its role as neutral arbiter, instead orchestrating economic life through direct intervention, planning, and partnership with favored industries and unions. Corporations, guilds, and trade associations become instruments for organizing and policing economic activity under state supervision. The fascist state does not abolish private property or free enterprise, but subordinates both to the requirements of collective planning and national objectives.

This model relies on an expanded bureaucracy and new legal structures, ensuring that the government can direct investment, fix prices, and mediate disputes while extracting loyalty from all participants. The corporatist arrangement insulates the political leadership from popular accountability, as representative institutions atrophy and real power flows into executive agencies and committees.

Fascism’s Social Foundations
Fascist regimes draw strength from the mass mobilization of society. Demagogic leaders, wielding populist rhetoric, cultivate loyalty and enthusiasm among broad segments of the population. The promise of security, employment, and national revival inspires support from workers, the middle class, and even elements of the aristocracy. The fascist leader establishes direct emotional bonds with the people, while systematically dismantling competing centers of authority and criticism.

The appeal of fascism does not depend primarily on brute force or terror. Flynn underscores that the most dangerous aspects of fascism lie in the ordinary and legal mechanisms by which states organize economic and social life, rather than in the spectacular violence of dictatorships. The tendency to identify fascism solely with its most extreme manifestations blinds observers to its subtler, more insidious forms.

American Experience: The Drift Toward Statism

Flynn turns to the United States, arguing that many structural features and policy trajectories evident in Italy and Germany have begun to surface within American society. He locates the American version of fascism within the legacy of the New Deal, the growth of executive power, the proliferation of government-business partnerships, and the steady normalization of deficit finance. The state inserts itself into economic life as partner, planner, and financier. Agencies multiply; Congress cedes ground to bureaucratic authorities; presidential influence over economic management expands.

As the nation mobilizes for war, militarism acquires fresh justification, absorbing unprecedented levels of public spending and fueling industrial growth. The justification of conscription, vast standing armies, and global military commitments derives its logic from the patterns Flynn observed in earlier fascist regimes. The American imperial project, masked in the language of peace and security, establishes a network of bases and alliances designed to preserve markets and maintain a favorable international order.

Flynn presents the rise of centralized power, executive dominance, and economic planning not as aberrations but as the natural outcomes of political and economic pressures. The American system, he claims, drifts toward a “good fascism,” clothed in democratic rhetoric and supported by the pursuit of national prosperity and security.

The Problem of Definition and Recognition

Defining fascism, Flynn insists, requires more than condemnation of its most notorious leaders or acts. The essence of fascism resides in its structural features: the merging of state and corporate power, the normalization of deficit spending as policy, the transformation of militarism into economic stimulus, and the use of imperial ambition as both method and objective. The United States, with its tradition of constitutional government, faces the challenge of identifying and resisting the incremental adoption of these elements.

Flynn warns that fascism does not arrive with fanfare or in the trappings of foreign dictatorship. Its development stems from the gradual acceptance of state intervention as necessity, the habitual resort to government spending as solution, and the steady concentration of authority within the executive branch. The American variant evolves in response to economic crisis, political expediency, and the imperatives of global power.

The Political and Economic Consequences

The transition to a corporatist order brings profound changes to political and social life. Legislative oversight recedes as bureaucratic agencies assume increasing responsibility. The legal system adapts to new priorities, granting the executive vast discretion over commerce, labor, and production. Social organizations, co-opted through partnership or regulation, lose their capacity for independent action.

The economy, sustained by public works, armaments, and deficit spending, becomes increasingly dependent on continued government intervention. Periods of peace threaten economic disruption, as the apparatus of militarism seeks new rationales for its existence. The requirement for enemies, real or imagined, perpetuates the cycle of mobilization and expenditure.

Flynn underscores the risk that prosperity grounded in war production will eventually demand new conflicts to maintain employment and profits. The link between economic well-being and military activity grows, shaping both foreign and domestic priorities.

Imperialism and the American Future

The accumulation of global military bases, the cultivation of strategic alliances, and the assertion of security interests across continents mark a transformation in the American self-conception. Flynn identifies this expansion as the logical extension of earlier trends, wherein economic and political pressures converge to sustain imperial projects. The moral and material costs of imperialism accumulate, shaping future conflicts and internal debates.

The rhetoric of peace and the structures of empire become intertwined, as policymakers invoke noble goals to justify actions undertaken for reasons of power and advantage. Flynn’s analysis anticipates the perpetual mobilization and intervention that would come to define American foreign policy in the postwar era.

Conclusion: The Test of Democratic Resolve

Flynn offers a challenge rather than a prescription. He asserts that the test for American society lies in its willingness to recognize and resist the structures and habits of fascism, regardless of their native dress or intentions. The future of democracy depends on the ability to discern the difference between constitutional government and the gradual consolidation of state power.

Flynn’s analysis points to the convergence of economic, political, and social forces that shape the evolution of modern states. As war, debt, and centralized administration become permanent features, the distinction between free and managed societies narrows. The responsibility for preventing the triumph of fascism rests with those who can recognize its methods, refuse its justifications, and act to preserve the institutions of liberty.

The pattern Flynn observes—the drift from deficit spending to militarism, from social crisis to imperial ambition, from bureaucratic expansion to executive dominance—defines the stakes of modern governance. As We Go Marching stands as a warning and a call to vigilance in an age of unprecedented state power.