Will we recognize fascism?

Thom Hartmann wonders whether we are in fact seeing the beginning stages of fascism here in the US. This is a question that I’ve heard people raise going all the way back to the early ‘80’s and Reagan, but it seems particularly crucial to consider it today. He quotes Vice President Wallace as noting this about fascism in 1944:

"The really dangerous American fascists," Wallace wrote, "are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

The fact that documentaries like Outfoxed can be made and freely distributed in the US would tend to suggest that we are not quite there yet, but on the other hand, the reality that documentaries like Outfoxed can be made also suggests that we are moving ever closer.