"Medical Fascism:' Fact or Fiction?

I was initially surprised but then dismayed reading in an e-mail message and later on a web site posting by the same author that the

" the greatest threat to American patients in the history of our country.. is the rise of Medical Fascism. Some may wonder - what happened to socialized medicine, isn't that the great threat? While it is true that there are attempts to socialize medical care, the fact is that the power players in Washington are ready to set the rules and then hand the keys of health care spending over to large health insurance companies. This is the definition of fascism: the state decides what corporations will do and the corporations do their bidding while making a profit. As it turns out the very corporations making the profit also control the government."

In a different e-mail the author also calls upon the Florida Medical Association to support a series of public events to " Join up with your local tea party group for marches across the nation on Medical freedom planned by July 4th. Let Congress know you want medical freedom, not medical fascism."

I am concerned not only because I witnessed the devastating effect of REAL Fascism in Europe but because I feel very strongly that the inappropriate use of such a term applied to current politics is an insult to the sacrifice of American patriots who fought in WWII to liberate Europe from Fascism and an affront to the millions of victims of Fascist genocide and mass murder.

What is Fascism? Well, according to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary Fascism is " a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition."
According to Robert O. Paxton, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, he defines fascism in his book "The Anatomy of Fascism" as:

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."

NONE of these descriptions define our current political system, in which we have democratically elected a President, democratically elected our representatives on state and national level and maintain the separation of power to PREVENT the emergence of authoritarian and dictatorial rule.
I therefore URGE the leadership of the Florida Medical Association NOT to endorse or support any activities intended to promote the dissemination of such falsehoods which are intended to incite anger and fear and which will separate but not unite us.
I wholeheartedly support the freedom of expression. Nevertheless, such freedom implies responsibility to abstain from any incitement, too.
Our leadership has to decide if we want to represent all doctors in our State, even if we may have different political, social and religious views, or if we want to amplify the radical view of a minority!!
Thats the choice and so far I have not heard ONE of our leaders distancing him- or herself from the opinion expressed by the author who introduce the term "Medical Fascism."
I definitely do so here in public and I will continue reminding others to do the same.

Yours truly,

Bernd Wollschlaeger,MD,FAAFP, FASAM