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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (29288)	5/29/2008 8:57:56 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224749

Lib Fascism:Secret History of the American Left NO political term has been more overused and misused than "fascism." Since the 1930s it has been a word of indiscriminate abuse by the Left for anyone a scintilla to the right of them. And from the 1970s onward many right-wing commentators have used the term "fascist Left" to denote authoritarian tendencies on the socialist, liberal, or Democratic side of the political equation. I have used it myself when in a bad temper. Now there is a comprehensive book that summarizes all the ways in which the liberal Left, principally in America, can legitimately be accused of fascist policies and states of mind. Anyone today who uses the word "fascist," except in its strict historical context, implicitly admits: "I intend to be combative rather than fair-minded." A more persuasive example, in my view, is the behavior of FDR. His persecution of Andrew Mellon for imaginary tax evasion was exactly the kind of abuse that regularly occurred in both Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. The hounding of Mellon, an outstanding treasury secretary and the creator and embellisher of the National Gallery in Washington, was a legal and constitutional crime unique in American history, and reflected a personal decision of Roosevelt himself. It was possible only because of the atmosphere of fear and panic created by the Great Depression. A similar atmosphere might have been created by the Islamic-fundamentalist assault on the American population, and similarly exploited. Happily, George W. Bush has steered the country through the crisis, so far, without any resort to fascist-style methods. But what exactly are such methods? Indeed, what precisely was Fascism? The party was founded by Mussolini, a former socialist singled out by Lenin for praise. It was essentially leftwing and democratic. Previous governments since Italian unification had been inefficient and corrupt, and the world, including many intellectuals, gave Fascism in its first phase a favorable reception. But, following the murder of Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, and its consequences, there was a radical move toward authoritarianism, announced in a speech by Mussolini on October 28, 1925. It is worth reading because it marked the real beginning of Fascism and the corporate state. Opposition newspapers were banned, and opposition leaders confined on a penal island. Opposition, said Mussolini, was unnecessary because it already existed sufficiently in himself and his powers of self-criticism. This was a beautiful piece of Leninism. Then came his famous formula: "Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State." Thereafter Mussolini and his regime were doomed, because the Italian state lacked the administrative resources to run everything efficiently, and Mussolini himself was a classic case of a man easily corrupted by power, and indeed by others, such as Hitler. Hitler's Nazi party had virtually nothing in common with Fascism other than its generally left-wing viewpoint. To "fascist" and "Nazi" I would now add the abusive word "racist." Of course such vituperation should not occur at all. But it will, we can be sure, and for those thus tempted, Jonah Goldberg has provided an informative catechism. Paul Johnson is an author and historian. His most recent book is Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle.