http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/Rush%20...%20Fascism.pdf
have a look at the essay (in pdf form) entitled "rush, newspeak and fascism, an exegesis" pp. 12-13 for a working defintion of fascism drawn from umberto eco. it is an interesting read.
i also find the quotes from limbaugh that precede this definition, in the course of which you get a sense of the arbitrary usage he makes of the term (and limbaugh remains an interesting laboratory for the devolution of conservative political discourse in general)....
it is most insructive to think about the american responses to fascism in europe immediately after world war 2: the americans seemed particularly concerned that fascism was going to give nationalism, including radical nationalism, a bad name...you can see some indices of how the americans wanted to redefine fascism--for example via bretton woods, which departed from the assumption that fascism was a response to economic crisis of a type that could have been prevented via international currency stabilization. you can see another index in world war 2 films, during which fascism is presented without any ideological content, as simply a fashion statement. you can see it in the repeated moves on the part of american occupation forces to rehabilitate former nazis and to support them political out of fear of advances made by the left.
no time at the moment.....