Four writers in the last week or so have raised the same serious question: Has America morphed into a fascist state? Or, as essayist Patrick Keaney put it: "Is it fascism yet?"

Ben Tripp took up the issue in Counterpunch and FindLaw contributor Elaine Cassell did a fine job of laying out "The 14 Elements of Fascism" in her own weblog. Cassell's is the most powerful piece on the topic, for she simply itemizes toe central characteristics common to fascist regimes and lets you connect the dots.

Sheldon Wolin let the last shoe fall in The Nation:

Thus the elements are in place: a weak legislative body, a legal system that is both compliant and repressive, a party system in which one party, whether in opposition or in the majority, is bent upon reconstituting the existing system so as to permanently favor a ruling class of the wealthy, the well-connected and the corporate, while leaving the poorer citizens with a sense of helplessness and political despair, and, at the same time, keeping the middle classes dangling between fear of unemployment and expectations of fantastic rewards once the new economy recovers. That scheme is abetted by a sycophantic and increasingly concentrated media; by the integration of universities with their corporate benefactors; by a propaganda machine institutionalized in well-funded think tanks and conservative foundations; by the increasingly closer cooperation between local police and national law enforcement agencies aimed at identifying terrorists, suspicious aliens and domestic dissidents.

None of these writers, it seems, wants to be the first to say it aloud.

Keaney poses the question, but let's the reader decide.

Tripp chatters around the edges making jokes about it, apparently content to take his readers' nervous giggling as a sign of agreement.

Cassell puts it baldly, silently asking, "What do you think?"

Wolin answers her, but without actually pronouncing the feared 'F' word.

But, whether or not they choose to utter its name, there is no doubt: The Beast is slouching across the land.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The war is Right Here, not Over There. For the warmongers to prosecute their adventures abroad, they must suppress the people at home. To stop what is going on globally, we must halt what is happening locally.