Liberal fascists versus conservatives
Reader comment on item: Fascism's Legacy: Liberalism

Submitted by Michael P Biber (United States), Jan 10, 2008 at 11:12

As illustrated by the comments and proposals of contestants in the current Republican presidential campaign, there are many flavors of conservatism. While limiting government intrusion or control whenever this benefits our freedom and security is essential, much of the baggage of the various competing Republicanisms are repugnant.

These include the incorporation of religion into government, in violation of our Constitution, the denigration of science in part by supporting the teaching of faith-based dogmatic "alternatives" to evolution, denying women their right to decide whether to continue their pregnancies, the reluctance to provide quality public education so badly needed, support of tax cuts and a range of costly incentives to the most wealthy and their businesses paid for largely by middle class tax payers, short-sighted nativistic attacks against immigrants, ignoring huge no-bid military and other governmental contracts, and widespread support for healthcare programs that deny effective care for tens of millions of Americans. I look forward to reading Goldberg's book but it appears that he has made the word fascist, ambiguous before he wrote the book, even more so, and, if not, it does not seem to be a very useful term other than for vilifying the Left.

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