George Will’s Washington Post column notes, Between Harris and Trump, it’s hard to tell who’s worse on economic matters.
But lately, Democrats and the Harris campaign have taken it further, labeling Donald Trump a fascist. Trump definitely exhibits fascist tendencies, mostly rhetorically. But this begs the question: Who in reality is more fascist, Harris and the Democratic Party or Trump?
I posted these comments on Will’s op-ed:
To me, Harris is the most dangerous because . . .
“Harris . . . says she will ‘seek practical solutions to problems’ based on ‘realistic assessments’ and apply ‘metrics’ and ‘facts’ and stay ‘focused. Clear enough? She also says: ‘I will engage in what Franklin D. Roosevelt called ‘bold, persistent experimentation.’”
It’s very clear. This is a tacit admission of her belief that our lives, wealth, and economic activities belong to the state, to be disposed of as she sees fit. In her worldview, we, the governed, will be her lab rats.
The Democratic Party is often portrayed as sympathetic to communism. Maybe at heart, but it’s agenda most closely resembles that of Benito Mussolini, the originator and author of The Doctrine of Fascism. His conception of fascism means . . .
“No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State. Fascism is . . . opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognizes the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State.”
Exactly how does Harris’s vow to “seek practical solutions to problems” through FDR-style “bold, persistent experimentation” with our lives differ from Mussolini’s totalitarian vision of a state “in which divergent interests . . . [of all] individuals or groups . . . are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State?” It doesn’t, in any essential sense—we all exist “within the orbit of the State.” Like for Mussolini, the center of Harris’s worldview is The State—only, for now, a softer version focussed mostly on the economy. But the direction she would lead us is clear.
In a recent CNN town hall meeting, Harris dramatized her fascist bonafides. She explicitly affirmed her belief that Donald Trump is a fascist, while in the same meeting proposed a federal anti-price gouging law, vowing to hold “price gougers” “accountable” by law--i.e, to the state. This is a tacit acknowledgement that business owners are under the control of the state, and have no inalienable right to price their own property for sale. This is classic fascism, in which ownership is superficially vested in private hands, but control rests with the state.
On the question, who is more fascist, Harris and the Democrats are the clear “winner.” In fact, the Democrats’ turn toward fascism extends back more than a century to the Progressive Era, and is ongoing.
Related Reading:
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change by Jonah Goldberg
QUORA: ‘Is fascism a form of capitalism?’
“The Doctrine of Fascism” (1932) by Benito Mussolini
Fascism: Back Door to Socialism that Obama and the Left Well Understand
The Democrats’ Fascist Fangs Exposed in Crusade Against ‘Catastrophic’ Climate Change
Correcting Michael Coburn: Fascism and Marxian Socialism are Not, Fundamentally, Opposites
Related Listening:
"The Fascist New Frontier" by Ayn Rand
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