The 20th-Century saw two major forms of totalitarianism: communism and fascism. Communism represented the far left and fascism represented the far right. The American left and the American right can sometimes resemble in a faint way the excesses of 20th-Century totalitarians, but they never willingly want to be associated with them. It’s a shame that Hitler’s party was named the National Socialist German Workers’ Party because it confuses conservatives. They see the words ‘socialist’ and ‘worker’s party’ and they think that the Nazis were some kind of party of the proletariat.
In fact, they were anything but.
The Nazi Party presented its program in the 25 point National Socialist Program in 1920. Among the key elements of Nazism were anti-parliamentarism, Pan-Germanism, racism, collectivism, eugenics, antisemitism, anti-communism, totalitarianism and opposition to economic liberalism and political liberalism.
That’s not to say that the Nazis didn’t engage in populist demagoguery. They equated finance capitalism with a Jewish conspiracy to screw regular working folks. They proposed nationalizing all corporations.
The onset of the Great Depression, which preceded the coming to power of Hitler, greatly discredited capitalism in the eyes of the world. The Nazis were not capitalists, but (at least on economic policy) an attempted mid-way between capitalism and Soviet communism. So, if you are an American right-wing laissez-faire capitalist, much of the rhetoric and many of the actions of the Nazis are going to appear in retrospect to be left-wing in nature. But the economic policies of the Nazis are not what has earned them eternal condemnation. Take a look at the following terms and tell me if they better describe America’s right-wing or left-wing.
Anti-parliamentarism (anti-Congress)
Pan-Americanism
Racism
Antisemitism
Anti-communism
Opposition to economic liberalism
Opposition to political liberalism
On those last two, ‘liberalism’ doesn’t mean left-wing per se but more like principles of free markets, private property, and human and political rights.
The modern-day American right supports economic liberalism but they’re pretty squishy on political liberalism. There’s a reason the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is considered an enemy by the Republican Party.
In any case, nationalizing the car industry is something Nazis might do. But you know what else they might do?
1. Demonize ethnic and religious minorities like Hispanics and Muslims.
2. Discriminate against homosexuals.
3. Fetishize female fertility and discourage female employment in the work force.
4. Characterize the homeland as the rightful property of ethnically pure (white) citizens
5. Promote a nationalistic and imperialistic foreign policy
6. Call all of their opponents ‘communists’ or ‘fifth-column communist sympathizers’
7. Suppress the black vote
8. Call President Obama a ‘magic negro’
9. Support torture and do warrantless surveillance on political enemies and reporters
10. Fetishize an idealized past when the country was truly great
I could go on, but you get the picture.
