To the Editor,

Democrats smear the American political right as fascists and Nazis.

How true is this, in point of fact?

Benito Mussolini, founder of what we call fascism, regarded it as an organic, regional ideology.

Specifically, in his era, post-World War I, it grew and developed as it did in Italy, becoming Italian fascism. What was called Nazism was Germany’s fascism. What became Japanese imperialism was Japan’s version.

It’s harder for such extremist ideologies to sprout in countries like, say, the United States, where individual liberties are guaranteed by law.

Let’s review claims that conservative Republicans are Nazis. What are some policies the three ideologies have in common, or don’t?

Nazism supported, for example: Higher taxes and regulation, abortion, gun control, government-run health care and education, censored or controlled speech (true of Democrats, as we saw during COVID, and generally in the Trump era), centralized control of industry, guaranteed income and expulsion of religion.

Now, call me crazy, but these sure do sound like things Democrats favor, while conservatives do not.

Ways in which they differ, are in being pro-military, which the Nazis definitely were, while the Democrats generally hold our military in contempt. Also, the Nazis were patriotic, whereas Democrats are, well, not.

Conservatives, conversely, do support our troops, and are patriotic. Conservatives also support individual rights and freedoms over governmental control, something which the Nazis obviously did not, nor do increasingly authoritarian Democrat policies.

Was Nazism right-wing?

The “Z” in Nazi comes from the German word for socialist. Brothers Gregor and Otto Stasser, often credited with founding the Nazi party, were card-carrying socialists, so the socialist aspect is well-established.

Therefore, it’s leftism.

Adolf Hitler, brought in because of his gift for oratory, later hijacked the party, imposing his own ideas, yet keeping the baseline socialism. Hitler pulled many recruits from the Communists, Josef Goebbels included. Despite relatively similar policies, the German Communists and Nazis became enemies, violently competing for influence and the same German voters. As with religious sectarianism, bloody family squabbles among leftist ideologies (Leninist/Stalinist/Trotskyite, etc.) are common.

How did this notion arise that conservatism equals Nazism?

Sometime after World War II, academic leftism took a rare critical look at itself, and realized that literally every totalitarian government that had arisen since the end of World War I had been leftist.

They needed an example of right-wing tyranny they could point to. Problem was, the farther right you go on the political spectrum, the more freedom and individual liberty are prioritized.

However, they noted one big thing Nazism indeed had in common with, especially American, conservatism: Nationalism. The aforementioned patriotic sentiment.

Also, capitalist industry worked with the Nazi government, benefiting from the association. This perspective, however, carefully ignored the fact that, like everything else, control of industry was centralized in Berlin.

So, on the basis, essentially, of patriotism alone, it was declared that Nazism and conservatism were one and the same. So began decades of media and academic propaganda, and here we are.

American conservatives aren’t Nazis. Democrats are.

Rob Denham

Weirton