And the conservatives aren't lead by the upper class to the same degree?

Remember, the only politicians calling for campaign finance reform in the US (I'd argue this is the problem you have?) are key liberals. No conservatives advocate for this.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul wanted campaign finance reform in the complete other direction - basically no laws.

I've always heard fascism in the US would carry a cross and a US flag. That has been the vector historically. Let's not rewrite history here.

That’s just a clever quip. It comes from a time and a place.

Nobody is rewriting history, because (1) this conversation is about the current and the future and (2) it’s intellectually dishonest to essentialalize the content of quip.

That has been my experience. It’s astonishing to see folks advocate for fascist theocracy when that’s Jesus taught pretty much the opposite.

We can see the religious right openly backing repression and those who try to seize power, and that they have the support of one of the two major parties, and continue to have people and advocates in the most powerful positions in the country (President, congressional leaders, Supreme Court, leading news commentators such as Tucker Carlson).

Who on the left is doing that and has that power?

just because someone says that doesn’t mean it’s some objective truth. Fascism also isn’t the only authoritarian form of government.

liberal != left. Trust that there are those of us who take just as much umbridge with Clinton/Obama/Biden as trump/bush et al.

The blue/red differential isn't a right/left matter. Each party is responsible for bringing one of the two large cultural groups in line with the banks and capitalism.

I've heard rumors that the US has only one party (with two right wings).

They call that than "democracy".

The minority of the historical left that were marxists replaced class struggle with identity struggle and found a much wider base to take over the current left. In that sense it is indeed the same left but in the sense that the cancer has metastasized and overrun the host.

Left-wing authoritarianism is by definition not fascism. It lacks the ethnonationalist and patriotic elements for it. Fascism is exclusively pushed by the far-right.