The meaning of 'fascist'

Regarding the below post about Chavez' use of the word 'traitor' to describe anyone opposed to his leadership--

The word 'fascist' originates in the Latin word "fascia", or bundle of reeds.

In the Roman era, a leader carried an axe and a fascia (actually his slaves carried them before him), the symbols of two things--

axe = power of life and death over citizens

fascia = UNITY of citizens

The fascia, the bundle of reeds, symbolized a society of citizens all facing in the same direction, and exemplified the strength of unity through the fact that an individual reed could easily be broken but a BUNDLE was as strong as timber.

"Uggo" Chavez is busily building a fascist society. In his view all citizens should be facing the same direction, supporting the same things, opposing the same things, and any who do not are threatening the strength of the nation and must be dealt with. A 'loyal opposition', the heart of democratic ideals, is considered impossible under a fascist regime.

THIS IS FASCISM. When an American leftist is free to appear on sixteen TV shows and write and sell books and spread himself all over the web with blogs, he makes a FOOL of himself by complaining that he lives in a fascist state!

If it WERE a fascist state, he would already be in PRISON! NOBODY WOULD HEAR HIS VOICE!

And no TV stations would be on the air broadcasting his opposition to Bush.

In Venezuela, Chavez has stopped the broadcasting by TV stations who opposed him. Now he darkly threatens individual citizens who might want to vote against his 'reform package' by calling them traitors-- implying they will face the justice of the 'state' in response to their treachery.

It is a Venezuelan's last chance to avoid appearing on a list of enemies. Vote right, or pay the price.

I ask again of American leftists, where are the Bush mass graves full of the corpses of journalists and MoveOn.Org members who have opposed the mighty fascist dictator Bush?

If you want to understand fascism in the 20th century, look to Mussolini; he used much of the imagery of the Romans in his dictatorship, including a youth club to raise young men to be good citizens, called Juventus, the same name as the same organization in ancient Rome.

If you want to see fascism in the 21st century, look south.