Letters to the Editor
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Interesting...
I think that the fundamental problem here is the use of old (in the sense that the terms have been around for a while) and emotionally charged labels that have squidgy meanings. I mean this from two points of view. View #1 is: What was the philosophy anyway? Most people have an impression of what the philosophies of various movements (Nazism, Marxism, Stalinism, etc, etc) are but they rarely get it right because their impressions come from what leaders who are trying to implement the philosophy actually do which frequently is at variance with the actual philosophy itself. This brings me to the second view which is: What is actually done in the name of (fill in the blank) philosophy? For those who don't know the philosophy, the actual policies form a substitute.
Personally, I care not for what is essentially an etymological argument that depends on an assumed meaning for terms which have many different meanings for many different people. Thus I prefer to go to first principles for discussions because of the emotional and historical baggage associated with many of the commonly used terms for political philosophies. The real first principle here is: What is the role of government in a society? A subtext question is: Where is the line drawn between public and private life?
In this country today we are, indeed, all fascists. There are no philosophical differences between what is commonly called the left and right wing, only differences in implementation. The underlying philosophy of both the left and the right is that the proper role of government is to shape, guide, and mold society. The only political party to offer a different philosophy is the libertarian party who believe that the proper role of government is to create a level playing field so that society can simply get on with whatever it wants to be. I'd like to point out that if you wanted to put our founding fathers in a modern political party, they'd all be libertarians because they definitely didn't believe in government driving society. They believed quite the opposite.
I use the term liberal as a label for those who feel that the government should be guiding society. Under that rubric, both the left and right wings are a load of stinking liberals and thus are both fascists if you wish to label the left fascistic.
I also think we should start using the old Venetian custom upon the election of a new Doge. The Venetians would hoist the new Doge in the air on a seat mounted on a pole and would carry him through town whilst he cast golden ducats to the crowds. The Republicans could cast their ducats to crowds of lobbyists and heads of corporations. The Democrats could cast their ducats to crowds of lobbyists and leaders of organizations seeking entitlement programs.