Coldheartedtruth

Coldheart's Truth

Fascism.... Left or Right Wing Ideology??

Fascism is a word that seems to be thrown about the message boards with some frequency. You see conservatives calling liberals 'fascists'... You see liberals calling conservatives 'fascists'... you see conservatives argue that fascism is a 'left wing' policial belief not 'right wing'... and you see liberals argue the fascism is a 'right wing' political belief, not 'left wing'... So, who is right, and who is wrong??

First of all, lets give liberals and conservatives the benefit of the doubt as to actually understanding what they believe in. The dumbest arguments made are by people who insist that 'they' somehow have a better understanding of what the opposition believes and is trying to accomplish than the opposition does. These dumb arguments are not always made by people who openly claim a better understanding... but many times by people who simply do not listen to what the other side is telling them. Instead they seem to 'redefine' who and what they are arguing with, as to make that person and his/her arguments appear to be less credible. This 'redefinition' may be on purpose, a matter of subconciously distrusting the other side so much that they cannot see the arguments for what they are, or simply wanting to 'generalize' or 'lump' the opposition into something easy for them to understand. Either way, those who tend to do this, are probably the same ones who use words such as 'fascist' to define the other side.

In our polical society, we have created a one dimentional line that moves from left to right, or right to left. Those who consider themselves Democrats tend to see themselves as left of center, while those who consider themselves Republicans see themselves as right of center.

The qualities normally defined as the 'left of center' ideals of Democrats tend to be in regards to wanting government oversight over what they see as an unfair and/or even corrupt world of private capitalism. Not to say that Democrats do not believe in capitalism... they just believe that it should have limits and regulations... and they see the government as responsible for setting and policing these limits and regulations. Many Democrats believe that if left to their own will..... that corporate America would persue the almighty dollar at the expense of the working class, minorities, handicapped, the environment, the consumer, and anyone else that gets in the way. Also...while they don't call it wealth redistribution, Democrats tend to believe that the wealthy 'should' pay a larger percentage of their taxes for the good of the nation, and oppose any tax-cuts to those wealthy taxpayers. Certainly there are other qualities of many Democrats... (pro choice, and separation of church and state, gay rights, etc) that are, in fact, opposite of government regulation and oversight. While they want the government to control many things, a persons private life is not one of them.

The Republican qualities that one would normally describe as 'right of center' involve believing that the business-world should be free from government intervention. This would involve allowing the natural rules of capitalism, rather than artificial rules of law, to govern corporate America. They believe that free enterprise will produce the best results in the world community, and point to the fact that our capitalistic business environment is the strongest in the world, as proof that it works. Republicans believes that the choices available to individuals in choosing their profession and employers give them an advantage in the free market world. 'Self reliance', and the 'pursuit of the American dream' is a common theme to those fiscally conservative Republicans. Taxes are a neccessary evil to most Republicans, as they tend to view the Federal government as very wasteful, and would prefer to see the money in the private sector... even if it means that the wealthy will keep more. On the flip side, the Republican party is also home to many religious folk who do support Government intervention in private affairs. Pro Lifers work to make abortion illegal, other religious right folk oppose gay marriage, and gay rights for religious purposes.

The fact that the Democratic party is home to pro-choice advocates (against government intervention), while the Republican party is home to pro-Lifers (for government intervention) is reason number 1 why neither of these parties clearly has moved too terribly far from the 'center' of the line.

Noone would argue the point that socialism is a political ideology left of the Democratic political ideology. Socialism founds it's roots in actual wealth redistribution, and the elimination of many private industries. The government (which Democrats want to simply 'oversee' the free enterprise system we have) would actually run most industries in socialism. These government controlled industries would pay people based on equity, not based on ability. As a Democrat moves toward more and more government intervention, and more and more in a progressive tax system that is top heavy, and more and more on raising the minimum wage to reduce the gap between rich and poor... the closer and closer they would get to socialism. Eventually... if you pass up the Socialist ideology in government control you would eventually reach the perfect form of Communism.... A complete government/community run nation that 'takes from each according to ability' and 'gives to each according to need'. Therefore the extreme 'left-wing' government would not be 'Fascism', but actually Socialism or Communism.

Likewise, noone would argue with the fact that Libertarianism is a political ideology right of the Republican ideology. While the Republican party is home to the Pro-lifers and religious right, Libertarianism denounce any such government intervention on personal thought or personal behavior. Regardless of his/her own beliefs, Libertarians do not advocate the government creating laws to limit a persons personal freedoms. Likewise, while many Republicans do approve of 'some' government rules and regulations within corporate America, Libertarians approve of almost none. As a Republican moves closer and closer to wanting a complete "free market"...... opposing mininum wage increases, opposing tarriffs, opposing environmental laws, etc... he/she moves closer and closer to Libertarianism. Eventually if one goes far enough to the right, there would be no need for a government at all... therefore the extreme 'right wing' government would not be 'Fascism', but actually "Anarchy".

So where the hell does Fascism come into play?? Doesn't it 'have' to fall on this line somewhere ??? The answer is actually 'NO'. It doesn't 'have' to fall into this line at all...

Fascism, as practiced by Mussolini, and later by Hitler is a dictatorship. While it does involve centralized control of private industy as socialism does, it is a far cry from what liberals would see as left wing. While some will argue that the 'extreme' nationalism follows suit with todays 'war on terror'....it isn't even close to being what conservatives would consider 'right wing'. I doubt that either party would ever advocate any type of Dictatorship... as Liberals and conservatives would both see this as too much power to one person (or small group of people), and virtually the opposite of what they ultimately stand for.

The problem is that our two party system has created a paradigm in which we only see the one-dimensional line of left and right... when in fact a two dimentional East, West, North, and South... or even a three dimentional E, W, N, S and up and down would more accurately describe the various political Ideologies. In other words, Fascism doesn't have to be left or right... but maybe off our line completely.

Look at it this way...... While Democrat may be West of center, and Republican may be East of center....

The coldheartedtruth is that Fascism is a long distance in some direction (North, South, Up or Down) from both.

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