I may be a pedant, but I am getting tired of people, including those who really should know better, misusing the word Fascist. Yes, it's an affective debating tool to label your opponent such a person, but in my view (and it's open to debate) Fascists and Fascism are NOT synonomous with Bushism or Thatcherism etc etc as keeps on happening.

First of all, I'd like to explain that in my view all types of government is measured by their power/control. So, for example a Right Wing government maintains control through money. It will operate a free market economy, have a small or non-existent welfare infrastructure and has a policy of little or no public spending. Because they operate a free market economy, they are called Capitalist as they are only interested in the control of money - CAPITAL. The only control is over how people make their money. In all other aspects of society they have no interest. In this sense the USA is Right Wing.

A Left Wing Government is maintains power by controlling society. Hence the Socialist label. Socialist governments are characterized by high taxes, public spending, a controled economy and industry, a welfare state, public services and more legislation than you can shake a stick at.

In my opinion, Nationalism is a characteristic of a country and it's style of leadership, not necessarily it being Right Wing, for example:
Soviet Russia maintained rigourous control over every aspect of society, government spending was high and all markets and industries were controlled. Communism is often regarded as Left Wing as possible and quite rightly. However, Soviet Russia was also violently nationalistic, imperial and militaristic, things usually expected to be at home on the Right.
The Nazis (short for National Socialist German Workers Party) were also violently nationalistic, racist, imperialistic and militaristic - but was it a Right Wing government? The Nazis also kept close control over German society spending a huge amount of public money on roads, public transport, producing the VolksWagen (a very Socialist notion) and deciding exactly what is taught in schools, who to and what people do in their spare time. In my opinion this makes them much more a Left Wing government then a right wing one.

It is for this reason that people often say that the political spectrum is not a horizontal plane but a circle - both the Nazis and Societs share so much in common that they are not in fact opposite but twins. Another example of this would be the answer to the question 'Is Hate the opposite of Love?' The answer is No, because they share more in common with each other than Indifference for example. And we all know that the Nazis and Soviets absolutely hated each other.

Fascism was pretty much invented by Mussolini and was at the time very specific to Italy. In my view Fascism can be described as a type of National Socialism. Yes it was imperial and nationalistic but was more Socialist than anything else as the Fascist party, far from withdrawing government control as a Right Wing Capitalist would do, set about trying to reform his country from the top down. It may be symptomatic of a Capitalist society to have a Middle Class, but CREATING one like Hitler and Mussolini did is the activity of a Socialist.

So, back to the USA. The USA is a Capitalist country. It has a free market, very little welfare, is pro big business and is more interested in CAPITAL than anything social. It's massive spending on the military, it's harsh judicial system and anti-immigration laws are not features of Capitalism but is reflective of its STYLE of government, not its FORM.

Benjamin Disraeli once said (paraphrased) "The British Empire does not have friends, only interests." This sums up the USA. It's militarism and religio-political style does not mean it is Fascist, it is merely trying to control CAPITAL - Oil, the military industry etc etc.

Many of you will disagree, and are welcome to, but I hope you get my point.