Book Review: Liberal Fascism – Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Goldberg has tackled one of the biggest talking points that liberals, who don’t want to be associated with their fellow travelers, don’t ever want tackled; that fascism is a left wing ideology.
For years the political left in America has tried to claim that fascism, a political ideology defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition” or “a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control” as being “right wing”. Of course how they square this accusation has always been a mystery to anyone without their noses in the latest talking points memo since promoting individual liberty is hard to equate with “dictatorial control”.Goldberg’s book from start to finish lays out the case that fascism has always been left wing and that modern liberals and progressives have much in common with their fascist brethren.
What I liked:
This evidence this book puts for is inarguable from a historical point of view. Although I am sure many on the left will try to argue against it any way. What this book does is it lays out a distinct pattern that can be traced through history and addresses historical facts. It is a nearly complete chronology missing only a few points.
Goldberg starts out with Italian fascism, progresses through Hitler’s brand of fascism and then delves into how Woodrow Wilson and liberal icon FDR also worked to impose fascism in America.
What I didn’t like:
Goldberg goes to excruciating lengths to be kind to liberals from the start. He regularly apologizes for them and reiterates that he isn’t calling them pejoratives like “NAZI”. However he then goes on to describe how they are so similar in almost every way except for not quite yet having arived at the point of building ovens for those they deem as inferior, unnecessary and unwanted. Unless you count abortion clinics that is. Yeah, it took Hitler a couple years to get around to that oven idea too and it also took Stalin a little while to establish the gulags too.
Summary and Recommendation:
Definitely a must read book. Just look past what at times is Goldberg’s apologetic stance toward modern day liberals. I would say you should consider buying this book for your left wing friends for Christmas too just to watch their nose curl up and listen as they start hurling ill informed pejoratives without ever even have read it.
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