Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning [Paperback]

Several conservative commentators have observed that left-wing politics has its basis in the idea that all (perceived) human needs can be satisfied. The conservative, on the other hand, intuitively understands that desires and obligations may be inherently conflicting --- sometimes even tragically so. Left-wing politics centers on a belief (statolatry) that the power of the state can and should be extended to the point where the (perceived) needs of all in society can be maximally satisfied. This faith in Progress, with a capital `P', according to Goldberg's thesis, is definitive of the left; its absence is equally definitive of the right. This understanding is however at odds with the ways in which the terms `left' and `right' are used in everyday political parlance, and Goldberg seeks in this book to realign debate with the proper understanding of the terms.

In addition to socialism, social democracy and communism, Goldberg's definition of the left also includes `centre' or `Third Way' liberalism and, most controversially, fascism or national socialism. (Goldberg uses `national socialism' without capitals to refer to a family of related creeds combining a socialist platform and nationalism. Used in this way, `national socialism' is a synonym for `fascism'. German National Socialism, or Nazism, was of course additionally characterized by aggressive anti-Semitism, but this is not a feature of all, or even most, groups whose politics can be described as both nationalist and socialist.) Goldberg nevertheless shows that these movements share an ideological commitment to the state as well as a common history. (This idea was earlier developed in the work of the remarkable Austrian thinker Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, whom Goldberg regrettably omits to mention. The Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau occupies a central place in the thought of both as intellectual primus motor of the Left.)

Consider, for example, that Benito Mussolini started out as Italy's most prominent socialist, before he rejected the internationalist Marxist-Leninist interpretation of socialism in favor of a nationalist one, and founded the fascist movement. In 1920's Germany, red and brown factions supported by paramilitary groups vied murderously to achieve domination of the same constituency. It is from the bloody rivalry between socialists faithful to the internationalist interpretation, and heterodox nationalists, that the popular present-day usage of the term `right-wing' derives. Stalin labeled as `rightist' anyone whose socialism did not entail loyalty to Moscow (which, for Stalin, came to include Leon Trotsky). In many ways, popular usage follows his lead today. This flawed understanding is a source of endless paradox and deception. The absurd identification of eugenics with the right fails to square with the conservative stance on abortion, or with the fact that social democratic countries Norway and Sweden practiced, until the 1970s, enforced sterilization of patients suffering certain forms of mental impairment. And when the facts fail to jive with cherished conceptions, truth is the first casualty. Think of media portrayals of the present day Ku Klux Klan. A quintessentially conservative rural movement, right? The inconvenient truth, that it is a largely cosmopolitan `progressive' phenomenon, originating as a fan club of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation, with its white supremacist take. It was the highest grossing film of the silent era. More recent examples that spring to mind include the war reenactment controversy surrounding Tea Party candidate Rich Lott, and the sickening celerity with which certain liberal commentators imputed `right-wing' motives to the disturbed (and politically illiterate) Jared Loughner, the would-be assassin of Gabrielle Giffords, and the murderer of six others.

It is not hard to understand why these perverse equations endure, although it is no less regrettable for that. In the wake of the Holocaust, Nazism became petrified in public opinion as the ultimate expression of human evil. The `right-wing' label stuck. It is an enduring tragedy of the Second World War and the post-war period that only a few souls have had the bravery and honesty to penetrate the cloak of taboos surrounding Nazism to try and really understand the connection between the war's unique horrors and the system of beliefs and attitudes that created the conditions that allowed them transpire --- beliefs and attitudes that are not only alive today, according to Goldberg, but at the most fundamental level part of the mainstream. Behind the widespread caricatures of Nazi evil, the essential nature of Nazism and Fascism remain widely misunderstood.

Before the War, things were all very different. National Socialism and Fascism were widely regarded not only as benign, but as models to be emulated by progressive politicians like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose New Deal was sufficient proof to Mussolini that the American president was "on side". Goldberg skillfully lays bare the parallels between the national socialist political systems of Europe and several US administrations with profound and lasting influence on the history of the West. Woodrow Wilson's war socialism brought with it unprecedented violations of civil liberties and free speech, and the first propaganda ministry in world history. John Kennedy too presided over one of the most militaristic and nationalistic periods in US history. Lyndon Baines Johnson was FDR's direct ideological successor.

Democrats figure predominantly, but by no means exclusively, amongst America's `friendly fascists'. An important lesson that emerges from this book is that it is impossible to equate the Republican vs. Democrat dimension with the opposition Right vs. Left, properly understood in terms of the role of the state. Goldberg argues several leading republicans have succumbed to the progressive temptation, including Pat Buchanan, John McCain, and George W. Bush who, as a "compassionate conservative", presided over significant increases in health and education spending during his incumbency. Interestingly, Goldberg is supportive of the Bush administration's commitment to bringing Western-style democracy to the world, which might explain his silence on the question of the ideological connections between the neo-cons in Bush's administration and the radical left, where several prominent neo-cons started out their political lives. Ronald Reagan, however, emerges as a genuinely conservative liberal figure.

One of the most pernicious myths bequeathed us from the first half of the Twentieth Century is the notion that fascism and national socialism are uniquely bourgeois in origin, in collusion with or a direct expression of capitalism in its dying phase. The myth was shaped and propagated by doctrinaire Marxist-Leninists, perhaps partly because they stood to lose most from fascist gains, but also because Marxist-Leninist theory was unable to accommodate national socialism within the simple dichotomy of capitalist exploiter and oppressed proletariat. If national socialism could not be construed as working towards the international socialist revolution, the logic of the theory leaves only the interpretation that it was a manifestation of capitalism. This myth has gone on to become a received wisdom in the media, the film industry, in academia (except, of course, scholars that actually specialize in the subject). In Germany at least, the support of big business for the Nazis came after the fact of Hitler's political success, and then it was motivated by opportunism, not ideology. And yet, the ahistorical, ideologically motivated equation of big business interest and `the (quasi-)fascist right wing' (as popularly understood) persists to our day.

There is indeed significant collusion between government and business, and this is the subject of much critique, from liberals, certainly, but also from true conservatives. Goldberg writes (p. 290) "Many liberals are correct when they bemoan the collusion of government and corporations. [...] What they misunderstand completely is that this is the system they set up. This is the system they want. This is the system they mobilize and march for." The de facto collusion of governments and corporations is an emergent by-product rather than ideologically motivated, however. Because regulations are so costly to implement, small businesses end up being punished for the reason they can't afford lawyers to negotiate the regulations or lobbyists to represent their interests to the regulating bodies. The increased regulation so favored by liberals ends up rewarding big business and promoting the collusive pattern of government by proxy by large corporations. Liberals fail to grasp the connection, and the collusion takes on the complexion of a conspiracy. The truth, though, is more prosaic.

All left-wing movements, according to Goldberg, have an emphasis on mobilization against a common enemy. Socialism may come naturally in times of war, but in peacetime, left wing groups must find a `modern equivalent of war'. The pretext for mobilization, whether it is poverty, the environment, patriarchy, perceived oppression of one kind or another, varies depending on the place and time. However it manifests itself, the author discerns in the endless quest for action a profound sense of ennui. And anyone who cannot or will not march to the beat will be vulnerable. Because the left-wing reasons using an alphabet of defined groups (`the nation', `the ethnic group', `humanity', `women', and so on), discrimination is an inherent, reflexive feature of left-wing politics. And for Goldberg mainstream liberalism too "is joined at the hip with racial and sexual identity groups of one kind or another". Read more ›

In the intro, Goldberg discusses the confusion surrounding the term 'fascism' with reference to Roger Griffin, Emilio Gentile, Gilbert Allardyce, Ernst Nolte, Stanley Payne, Roger Eatwell et al. The phenomenon has many variants & names whilst the manner of its expression is influenced by the national culture. Nowadays the term is loosely applied to 'anything not desirable.' The author investigates the characteristics of the movement, its roots in American Progressivism of the late 19th and early 20th century, manifestation during the New Deal and similarities with the agenda of what is today called Liberalism in the USA.

First he examines Mussolini, a favorite of the New York Times, New Republic, Hollywood and many intellectuals until his invasion of Ethiopia in 1934. This chapter includes sections on Jacobin Fascism with observations on the French Revolution, JJ Rousseau, Georges Sorel and Napoleon, and War, which deals with populism and pragmatism as forms of relativism. National Socialism predated Hitler, competed with communism for the same support base, used identity politics and was not identical with Italian Fascism as Goldberg points out in the 2nd chapter. Further information on the similarities, differences and the danse macabre of shifting alliances in 1930s Europe is available in Sinisterism by Bruce Walker.

There's selective amnesia as regards Woodrow Wilson during whose 'progressive' presidency censorship, economic regulation, militarism, propaganda & corporatism dominated the USA. Unimaginable crackdowns on the media, restrictions of civil liberties & other outrages took place. During Roosevelt's New Deal the term Liberalism replaced Progressivism; it was the leftist author HG Well's who first advocated 'liberal fascism.' Goldberg shows how closely the programmes of Roosevelt, Mussolini & Hitler resembled one another. Fortunately, democratic parliamentarianism is an Anglo-Saxon tribal institution so the global trend didn't gain totalitarian power in the UK or USA.

The third fascist movement exploded in the 1960s with the student riots, assassinations and terrorism of groups like the Weather Underground & Black Panthers. This tumult flowed from the writings of European academics like Paul de Man, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Carl Schmitt and Derrida whose 'deconstruction' was a direct offshoot of Heidegger's variety of existentialism. The Reckless Mind by Mark Lilla takes a closer look at these intellectuals and what they promoted. They in turn influenced Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin & Hillary's mentor Saul Alinsky. A wide chasm separates the aforementioned from the classical liberal, conservative or libertarian thinkers like Adam Smith, Montesquieu, Burke, Locke and Hayek. Classical Liberalism focused on the individual whilst its collectivist opponents favored the group, whether based on race, gender or whatever. In other words, Multiculturalism.

The author traces the seeds of the 'god-state' idea from Hegel, Darwin and Bismarck's Prussia through the Frankfurt School and the marriage of psychology & Marxism by Adorno, Marcuse & Fromm. Its chief propagandist was Richard Hofstadter. The Kennedy Myth underpinned Lyndon B Johnson's idea of the 'Great Society.' In truth, the 1960s tumult was a spiritual phenomenon that transpired simultaneously on campus and in government with its vast spending sprees that resulted in family breakdown, the escalation of crime and street violence. The notion of 'unity', neutral in itself, is easily hijacked for the purpose of irrational groupthink.

Earlier in the 20th century, Eugenics was promoted by progressives like the Fabians, George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells & Maynard Keynes and opposed by traditionalists like GK Chesterton. The author quotes Nietzsche on eugenics and investigates Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood & the birth control movement. In the economic sphere, the Italian & German collectivist states enforced corporatism (co-ordination) and the New Deal was the same. Government meddling, regulating and corporate lobbying limit competition, are detrimental to small businesses and consumers, and resemble the corporatism of Mussolini's Italy, Nazi Germany and Bismarck's Prussia. Hillary's 'politics of meaning' is a theocratic concept since it claims that the collective can solve all problems via the state, leaving no room for voluntary associations. Polanyi's Science, Faith And Society provides valuable insights on this matter.

Today's culture wars echo Bismarck's Kulturkampf, with liberals as the aggressors. Then as now, the enemy is traditional religion and the battlefields are identity, morality, the family and nature, including environmentalism and the cult of the organic. By undermining truth, tradition and reason, ideologies like deconstruction, existentialism, postmodernism, pragmatism and relativism pave the way toward dystopia as Stephen Hicks argues so eloquently in Explaining Postmodernism. Liberalism in the USA is really Leftism, a secular salvationist ideology. No matter how 'nice' it appears on the surface, it has been subverting Enlightenment standards for many decades. And without those standards, society decays into the Nietzchean abyss where brute force supplants reason.

In the Afterword, Goldberg looks at the tempting of American conservatism which is a blend of cultural conservatism & classical political liberalism. He examines the writings of Patrick Buchanan, the most notorious champion of tribalism on the Right and looks at 'compassionate conservatism,' a well-meaning policy that nevertheless extended state powers. Finally, Goldberg observes that transforming the USA into a European welfare state is not the end of the world (although there's plenty of evidence that the real thing is unsustainable, nearing implosion and civilizational collapse). He warns against what might come after a welfarist America. The Western European utopias so beloved of American liberals will show the way in the next two decades. Claire Berlinski's Menace in Europe and Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept offer intriguing glimpses into the continent's current condition & possible future. The causes and effects are highlighted by the philosopher Chantal Delsol in her illuminating books Icarus Fallen and The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century.

This well-researched and brilliantly argued book concludes with an appendix (The Nazi Party Platform), 54pp of bibliographical notes and an index. For further reading, I recommend United in Hate by Jamie Glazov, A Conservative History of the American Left by Daniel Flynn, Unholy Alliance by David Horowitz, The Road to Serfdom by FA Hayek and Leftism Revisited by by Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn.

This is a terrific book that I almost missed. Frankly, I was going to pass on it because I had viewed Jonah Goldberg as a bit of a wise acre and didn't realize he had a book like this in him. And the title and the cover art, while attention getting, contribute to the idea that this is going to be a lightweight attack piece. I guess the title and cover art got a lot of attention and helped the book sell well, but I only read it because a friend told me I shouldn't miss it. I am glad my friend brought it to my attention because it is a valuable book and will provide great information to anyone who is willing to actually read it rather than surmise what it says one way or the other.

If you have doubts or objections to what you think the book might be saying, I encourage you to start with the Afterword in which he anticipates many of the likely criticisms of the book and also shows where he believes conservatism can run off the rails. This is not the one sided or wild-eyed attack piece some have claimed it to be. Goldberg shows us what an imprecise and slippery epithet fascism has become. He then takes us back to the father of fascism, Mussolini, and shows how it grew out of the Progressive movements alive in American and Europe and uses the writings of intellectuals of that movement to show the linkage and their praise of Pre-Hitler Mussolini.

Goldberg then demonstrates how Hitler was a man of the Left and how the accusations of his being "right wing" have to be understood as accusations against a nationalist socialist movement from the USSR's internationalist (read Moscow dominated) communist-socialist movement. The author is CLEAR and says many times that he is not saying that the left wing in general and especially that the left of today is NOT guilty of the holocaust nor is he saying that their policies would lead to such a monstrous outcome.

We next move to Woodrow Wilson through to Franklin Roosevelt and the ways in which they introduced fascist policies within America and in our foreign policy. The kind of public suppression of individual liberty and thought under Wilson is swept under the rug today and I hope the events Goldberg describes in this book get brought back into popular awareness. We would be horrified at someone being shot for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance, but in that time it was seen as a justifiable and heroic act!

Franklin Roosevelt's true history is getting broader play today and the all but universal praise he received in my youth is justly being reconsidered. This book does a fine job in setting those policies in a clear context of the worldwide progressive and fascist movements. Remember, you cannot use your present suppositions about what fascism means to judge this use of the term. It was a term that was used with praise prior to World War II and the holocaust.

Chapter 5 takes us through the 1960s and the cultural revolution that revived many of the fascist notions and spread them into the radical youth who are now striving for power in our political (and economic) institutions today. Chapters 7 reviews how eugenics was originally stated and how its echoes remain in present left-progressive policies (without their advocating the kind of eugenics policies that seemed so useful to intellectual advocating social and racial hygiene a century ago). Chapter 8 tours the economic bargains the participants in various progressive economies were willing to strike with fascism. Goldberg shows clearly why big companies are no longer capitalist and why they work for state protection from competition, for tax breaks and subsidies, and end up supporting progressive-left state policies.

Chapter 9 is a useful and clear headed analysis of the kinds of policies Hillary Clinton and her progressive compatriots advocate and how they have changed the techniques of persuasion in order to sell the old progressive nostrums in the name of "the children". We see clearly our own acceptance of these old fascist notions and how the old-time religion of individual liberty and limited government is weakening under the administrations of BOTH the Democrats and Republicans, especially George W. Bush.

This is a very useful book and I hope it is widely read and discussed seriously. We don't need any shouting down, spitting, or claims about what the books says or proves that it doesn't say for itself. In any case, Goldberg has my sincerest praise for his accomplishment. Superbly done. Thanks, Jonah.