>>938166999 (OP)>not paying attention to the fictional details.The concrete was rotten and the city was already crumbling from within. A metaphor for the society at large.
The fascist america had jackboots everywhere and no real freedom of choice.
Much like attempts at communism, attempts at fascism crumble from within from corruption and restriction of thought. The fish rots from the head.
Look how Nazi Germany ended up for the people. Likewise Italy.
Spain was a bit of an exception but it took 70 years to recover from the civil was and only really started getting better when fascism was done and it became a democracy.
Liberal western democracy with controlled capitalism, social welfare, workers rights etc has proven the best system so far.
But who knows? With AI maybe fascism or communism will prosper. Though I doubt it. We'll see what the first benign super intelligence has to say about it.