Liberal (Progressive) Fascism: A Review

A new book by Jonah Goldberg what defines Liberalism and the history of it. In my course of Studies I found my Progressive coworkers here at the University and some friends trying to change the term for Liberal for a newer term as Progressives. The thinking I suppose is that in most American minds the words strike fear, most believe rightly, that it represents Higher taxes, a cowardice in the face of our enemies in this country. They have even try to redefine what conservatives are, But that is for another column.

Goldberg, the editor-at-large for National Review Online, argues in his book that fascism under Benito Mussolini and Nazism and even under Adolf Hitler came from the same intellectual source as Progressives, the birth-mother of American liberalism. The term “liberal fascism” comes from a speech made by author H. G. Wells when he told a group of Young Liberals at Oxford that Progressives must become “liberal fascists” and “enlightened Nazis.”

However true, you may want to note that some liberals in the want to return to their roots and to be call "Progressives" Like some of my educated friends who see road blocks in using the term liberal. The new version with the old framework, very much similar to the Obama administration who use the word "Change" and find out that the same discredited Clinton administration officials willing be running the show, including Hillary herself.


Many people have called me a fascist and a Nazi by smug, liberal know-nothings, and yet Goldberg claims that the accurate definition and history of fascism, a word which he claims is commonly misused. In the Book the author writes:

“Many modern liberals and leftists act as if they know exactly what fascism is. What’s more, they see it everywhere—except when they look in the mirror.....Indeed, the left wields the term like a cudgel to beat opponents from the square like seditious pamphleteers.”

It’s not at all, that we don’t believe them when they claim superiority, it’s just we see so many contradictions when they used it.

Proposition 8 was a perfect example of modern day progressive behavior run a mock. Progressive Gays, lost the election the second time around. They felt it necessary to find a group to protest against, so who did choose to complaint about the lost of the election. A religious group that only represents 2 percent of California’s population.

That right, the Mormons! They picketed the temples, they picketed Mormon businesses and then they file sue about the church in courts and want to strip the church of it’s tax exempt status. They even came up with a list of people who donated money to promote the proposition and post it on the Internet to I suppose threaten them. On that very list they indemnified those who were Mormon and those who were not. How very Nazi them to do that!! What is sad and even embarrassing is that they the LDS Church did not spend one dine to defeat the proposition, not one penny.

Does this not remind you of the Nazi’s of the mid 20th century who claim the Jews were the evils of the world and did the same thing. However, Mormons are use to this, being one of the most persecuted religious minorities in the United States. Who would suspect liberal Progressives would be the storm troopers of the 21st century?

Goldberg attributes this side of fascism to American liberalism would not be associated with the works of George Orwell or the racism and genocide of the Holocaust.

It is much less brutal a kinda “smiley-face fascism,” as he puts it. Goldberg claims that some “Progressives hold very similar views to the many Regine's of the past, and everyone is taken care of. This seems to be base n the perfectibility of the people and the authority of experts; and where everything is political, including health and well-being.


It seems that the Nazis were strong promoters of organic foods and animal rights and promoted anti smoking and public health drives.

“The Nazi war on smoking would make Michael Bloomberg’s heart jump,” Goldberg jokingly said
According to Goldberg, fascism has a long history in American politics, spanning back to President Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and it seems that some fascist tendencies were within the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Each tried to create an “all-caring, all-powerful, all-encompassing” state. His book traces more recent signs of fascist ideology in the economic ideas of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Al Gore. So how did fascism become associated with the political right? Goldberg asserts that this stems from the propaganda surrounding Marxism. In the 1920s, fascist ideas were popular among the American left as many saw Italian Fascism as a “worthwhile experiment.”


The German version that emerged in the 1930s had considerably less appeal. “The American left essentially picked a different team—the Red team,” Goldberg writes, “and as such swore fealty to communist talking points about fascism.”

At the same time, Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, found it beneficial to label all ideas which he did not agree with as fascist; this included socialists who were disloyal to Moscow and, of course, the political right. Those loyal to his social doctrine also began to see communism and fascism on opposite ends when, as Goldberg asserts, both are in fact socialist in nature. Hence the abbreviation to “Nazis” is National Socialist Party.

Goldberg asserts that Liberal Fascism is different from fascism of the past because today’s left are pacifists rather than militarists; their plan is to nanny, not to bully. Still, he warns that this method can be just as politically hazardous.

“Simply because the nanny state wants to hug you doesn’t mean it’s not tyrannical when you don’t want to be hugged,” Goldberg concluded...”

It is not surprising however, that the many in the progressive fascism were sadden when the fascist Regine of Saddam Hussien was removed by those evil Americans or come to the defense of a fascist like Hugo Chavez by some in the progressives or liberals. Why they support such regimes is mind blowing!

Liberal fascism is a interesting read, What I have learn from it is sitting in my friend’s car and listening to it on the I-pod.

My close Friend thinks, I wasn’t listening, but it sure be nice if he would simply give me the book as a Christmas Present and let me read it rather than let me digest it in a car going 40 miles a hour. Hint Hint!!!