By mixing fact, innuendo, and righteous indignation, the author attempts to both rehabilitate the political concept of fascism by divorcing it from the Holocaust and the early 20th century totalitarian dictatorships that adopted it, and wield the unrehabilitated connotation of it as a bludgeon, pairing it with the term 'liberal' every sentence or two. This tract provides an interesting, and somewhat frightening insight into the language of conservative paranoia. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism. These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. 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. The modern heirs of a 'friendly fascist' tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood.

Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. The Nazis declared war on smoking and supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control.ĭo 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. They purged the church from public policy, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Roosevelt to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism.Ĭontrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term National Socialism). Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. But who are the real fascists in our midst?

Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. 'Fascists', 'Brownshirts', 'jackbooted stormtroopers' - such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents.

Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg