Fascism: A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism.
-American Heritage Dictionary
How to seize control of the government of a democratic nation: A "How To Guide" for fascists
Rule the First: Disarm the media. While you cannot silence the media in a democratic society, you can marginalize it and intimidate it. The easiest way to do this is by propping up your own "news programs" as the only outlets of truth while claiming a bias against you in the mainstream media. "(Insert term here) media bias" works just fine once you can convince enough people that your chosen term is a bad thing.
Rule the Second: Identify external enemies and give them as much attention and publicity as necessary to effectively demonize and label them as being capable of destroying "everything we stand for" while trumpeting the positive values of your own society as what is under attack. Rally support from loyalists and encourage them to convince others of the dire nature of this threat and how it requires "certain sacrifices" in order to be defeated. Increase the level of these sacrifices as you bring more individuals into your camp of support, easing yourself into greater power in doing so..
Rule the Third: Marginalize protest by downplaying its significance. Effective means include utilizing protest as support for your cause instead of opposition. "We allow protest, which proves our way of life and government is excellent." If you do this correctly, any protest or show of opposition can be manipulated into support for your operation.
Rule the Fourth: Launch military campaigns against any and all enemies, real or perceived. State that these campaigns are absolutely necessary to maintain "our way of life." Never say "us," always say "we" in order to establish that all persons need to be thinking the same way because they are in the same situation under the same government. Decry opposition and criticism as detrimental to military campaigns and insinuate that criticism causes military campaigns to fail and soldiers to die.
Rule the Fifth: Centralize law enforcement and intelligence agencies as much as possible and work to give control of these as much as possible to the executive office in the interest of security, once again trumpeting the threats as making this necessary. Utilize this centralized law enforcement and intelligence service to manipulate the general population, harass opposition and eventually control the population by rewarding supporters and criminalizing opposition.
Rule the Sixth: Call other people facsists as a way of distracting attention to yourself when the people start to catch on.
"Tell them at Washington, if they have one man who speaks the truth, to send him to me, and I will listen to what he has to say."
--Sitting Bull
The more things change, the more they stay the same. To be silent makes us complicit.