"Fascists," "Brownshirts," "jackbooted stormtroopers"--such are the
insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal
opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut
them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who
are the real fascists in our midst?
"Liberal Fascism" offers a startling new perspective on the
theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing
conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening
research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were
really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to
Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably
similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's
Fascism.
Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent
socialists (hence the term "National socialism"). They believed in
free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited
wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the
church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan
spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every
nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking,
supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the
free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and
maintained a strict racial quota system in their
universities--where campus speech codes were all the rage. The
Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine.
Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights
activist.
Do these striking parallels mean that today's liberals are
genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a
new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern
progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual
roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had
many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by
Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many
fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John
Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in
the New Deal.
Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different
forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national
culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal
racist nationalism. In America, it took a "friendlier," more
liberal form. The modern heirs of this "friendly fascist" tradition
include the" New York Times," the Democratic Party, the Ivy League
professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential
Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade
school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.
These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is
because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny,
smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions
inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism.
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