When Leftists gain Power And Control of any government — be they Fascists, Communists, or Statists [often known as ‘Liberals’ or ‘Social Democrats’] — they soon set-out to make alliances with large corporations.
As Joel Kotkin explains [NOTE: I do not agree with some of his conclusions][tip of the fedora to Instapundit]:
From the inception of the Soviet Union, transformation was built, quite consciously, on eliminating those forces that could impede radical change. In many ways, the true enemy was not the large foreign capitalists (some of whom were welcomed from abroad to aid modernization) but the small firm, the independent property owner.
“Small scale commercial production is, every moment of every day, giving birth spontaneously to capitalism and the bourgeoisie … Wherever there is business and freedom of trade, capitalism appears,” noted the state’s founder Vladimir Lenin. He understood that while larger firms could be manipulated to serve the state, “capitalism begins in the village marketplace.”
Later on, this drive to eliminate grassroots capitalists — notably the “rich peasants” or kulaks — took on a particularly deadly form. In 1929 Stalin decided on the “liquidation of the kulaks as a class.” Millions of small rural entrepreneurs were imprisoned, murdered, or starved to death, until by the end of the ’30s independent business in the Soviet Union was largely eliminated, giving the state free rein.
By the time Stalin began his final systematic elimination of the Kulaks, the owners and top management of the Big Corporations had already been murdered. However, he still sought alliances with foreign Big Businesses. That effort really never ceased and many of the latter were more than willing to work with the Tyrants in the Kremlin. The same thing happened in Red China after Detente was established. And with every Communist regime that has ever been, This is what Communists do; this is who they are. This is what the vast majority of Big Businessmen are.
As for the Fascists: one of the attributes of such a regime that separates it from the Communist ones is that Private Property is still allowed. It is so heavily regulated that the Fascists control it’s use utterly, but prefer to let the ‘Owners’ have the responsibility for maintaining it. The only ones who make-out in such a situation are the Owners of Large Corporations, who, because of their willingness to cooperate fully with the Despots, end-up enjoying perks and privileges [and often a seat at the Tables Of Power] that the Small Businessmen are denied.
It is in the interest of the Fascists to let the Big Businessmen have these things, because they relieve their Politician-Minions from having to worry about producing goods and service needed by the regime. The Rulers are often smart enough to realize that the Big Businessmen are also more skilled at producing needed items and services and, since the Owners of Large Corporations are happy to cooperate, why not let them go about ‘their business’.
There is another name for this type of system: Corporatism.
The Statists feel the same way as the Fascists — the only difference being that they impose slightly less restrictions on the Big Businessmen. However, they do regulate the Small Businessmen ‘to death’ — figuratively, of course.
The Statists seek to break the Spirit of the Small Entrepreneurs, with the goal being to make them voluntarily cave-in to their demands, to assign their fates to The State.
The Fascists would like the Small Businessmen to do the same, but are more than willing to imprison them or, if necessary, murder them.
The Communists/Socialists just go ahead and murder them — although they may work them to death [among other forms of Torture] in Gulags first.
What we are witnessing in America now is the transition from Statism to Fascism.
The Obama Regime [aka: The Jarrett Junto] is seeking, through repressive laws and regulations, through the flouting of Law And Oder, to crush the Small Businessmen, while letting their Corporate partners [who are seen by them behind closed doors as toadies] have pretty much free reign to do as they please, as long as the Big Businessmen keep in line. And these Big Businessmen are too stupid, too blinded by their Avarice, to realize [or, in some cases, care] that they are being used [‘Hey!, there’s enough of the stolen pie to go around!’], that the Left sees them as Useful Idiots.
As Mr. Kotkin remarks:
In Russia, the forces of the state managed to destroy the kulaks, cementing a legacy of economic stagnation, particularly in the countryside, that remains today. America’s war on the kulaks may be less bloody-minded, but if it is not somehow halted, both our economy and the country’s intrinsic entrepreneurial spirit will fade. We may end up looking all too much like contemporary Russia, an oligarch-dominated kleptocracy that holds out increasingly little promise to its own people, and provides no real role model to the rest of the world.
Today’s Russia is a Fascist Regime and, (1) thanks to the efforts Left In America, (2) the slithering Wormtongue-like GOP Establishment’s selling of their Souls to the Leftist Devil, and (3) the failures of America’s Sovereignty — we, The People — to carry-out our Responsibilities as Men and Women under Freedom and Ordered Liberty, America is catching-up with the Russians [although: if The Jarrett Junto has it’s way, eventually we will become Oceania brought into existence].
Is it avarice? Is it obstinacy, perverseness, pride, or from what root of bitterness does such an unaccountable defection from the laws of honor, honesty, and even humanity spring? Is it the Authority Of An Unnatural Parent —the advice of some false friend, or their own want of common understanding, and the first principles of virtue, by which these unhappy young persons have been induced, or left to resolve upon perpetrating that, at the very thought of which they should have shuddered!
By this resolution they have already disgraced themselves; if they have the Hardiness to put the resolution into practice, who will ever hereafter confide in them? Can they promise themselves the regards of the respectable body of merchants whom they have affronted? or can they even wish for the esteem of their country which they have basely deserted, or worse, which they have attempted to wound in the very heart.
—Samuel Adams, writing as ‘DETERMINATUS’, 08 January 1770 [re-paragraphing mine]
