Ok, USians were just always stupid.

Greece was also a monarchy/dictatorship until 1975, and it's usually included in the set of White People Countries if Spain is allowed in too. Also Portugal was a left-wing military dictatorship until they decided to get screwed by the IMF.

If you take either palingenetic ultranationalism or Eco's Ur-fascism list as a definition, fascism is common. It's not at all exotic. If you talk to a good cross section of Americans about politics, it's like one in ten people who are at least sympathetic.

I think we've turned it into such a substance-less political bogeyman, though, that many people are unwilling to recognize it for what it is, even when it's very obvious (e.g., Tucker Carlson is a huge flaming fash, but it seems like a lot of people don't want to really come to terms with an out and out nazi wannabe having a huge platform on a major network and what that says about America).