Commentators on both the Left and the Right are using the “F” word (fascism) to describe the bottom of the slop we are on since 9/11. See the following KOS thread and the links it contains.

Part of the “F” word concept is the erosion of civil liberties and the increase in government surveillance and scrutiny, which are hallmarks of F regimes. But there is lots more, including the intolerance of dissent, and creating the aura that the Leader is annointed somehow (by Destiny or God).

For a running commentary on the “F” concept, a diarist at KOS maintains a “This Week in Fascism” thread here.

Daily Kos :: Conservatives Scream Warning of Fascist America!: “Conservatives Scream Warning of Fascist America!
by mitch2k2
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Fri Mar 4th, 2005 at 22:00:50 PST

We used to cringe at the hyperbole of the word. Fascist. Now we see the road we’re on, and where it leads taken to its logical progression. A growing number of conservative thinkers are now also speaking the word clearly and frequently with none of the hesitation we might use. With, I should add, a palpable sense of alarm.

Justin Raimondo’s well-sourced essay on the heels of several startling articles; Hunger for Dicatatorship by Scott McConnell, The Brownshirting of America by Paul Craig Roberts, and Lew Rockwell’s musings on The Reality of Red-State Fascism, all lead me to one conclusion: They see it coming. Consider the following from Raimondo’s piece today:
From the moment the twin towers were hit, the fascist seed began to germinate, to take root and grow. As the first shots of what the neocons call ‘World War IV’ rang out, piercing the post-Cold War calm like a shriek straight out of Hell, the political and cultural climate underwent a huge shift: the country became, for the first time in the modern era, a hothouse conducive to the growth of a genuinely totalitarian tendency in American politics.
There’s more. “