Democratic Fascism

Need to do WAY more research to support these ideas, but wanted to scratch some down while they're fresh in my mind.

I've been watching my KPFA gift DVDs (Capitalism and Untold History of the United States), and now have a reading list about a mile long. Right at the top are Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Karl Marx's Das Kapital. From what I gather, Adam Smith's faith in capitalism's ability to succeed was in the context of certain moral values that would ensure that as capital accumulates to the rich, they would in turn use it in a way to benefit society. Marx apparently believed capitalism would lead to massive inequality and collapse on itself once it came to a breaking point.

I'm coming to believe that the pre-requisites for Smith's beliefs are untenable. The more mature an industry, the fewer competitors there will be, the larger the companies at the top will be, and the richer the men at the top will be. This much seems inevitable. So then what? In America, those with money buy power, and use that power to expand business all over the world. So the prevailing system of government in the US seems to be democratic, imperialistic fascism. But doesn't that seem the most probable outcome? What are the odds of having some sort of absurdly benevolent and altruistic upper crust of society that has a deep understanding of the needs of those beneath them? Why would we expect anything other than what we currently have?

It would seem Marx's answer to capitalism has been destroyed by history by those who did not really implement "true communism" -- Mao and Stalin. But as much as they did not adhere to Marx's beliefs, neither did our leaders adhere to Smith's, and we got fascism. So obviously, strict adherence to ideals cannot be the answer, because there will always be greed, corruption, and barbarism to tear these ideals down.

The answer to corruption in our formerly capitalist society was to have democratic checks on power. But as the rich get richer, their influence over those checks grow. Major corporations own the media, own the politicians, own the justices, and own our money. The system of checks and balances is broken. And it again seems improbable to expect any other outcome. To go one step further, there were never any checks for those on the other end of our military conflicts. Attrocities commited overseas can only be stopped by a critical mass of us at home a) knowing about it, b) caring about it, c) doing something about it, and finally d) successfully stopping it. EXTREMELY difficult and slow --  ie:Vietnam and Iraq.

What to conclude? We need to either create another answer to capitalism, as Marx did, or find a way to make fascism livable. If we go the route of the former, there would have to be a revolution here, which I do not think will happen so long as we're the dominant country. So I think it's time to explore how to put checks on fascism to make it livable... ?