As usual Thomas Sowell nails it - fascism is exactly right to describe Obama’s current political philosophy. However, I think that he doesn’t prove up that this is an interim step - Obama’s political philosophy to get elected is fascist, but in his heart he’s a Marxist.
I never saw fascism as a construct of the right despite attempts by historians to foist it on us. It’s just another finger on the left hand of totalitarianism (along with Socialism, Naziism and all the various incarnations of Communism). Right is freedom FROM totalitarianism and statist government.
I have been reading Mr. Sowell for years and this article is one of his best. Not only does he have a God-given gift to understand issues, he also has a talent to verbalize his thoughts w/clarity.
One of Sowell’s best efforts!
He has Obama nailed shut.
Brilliant (as usual). Why isn’t he running for president?
I'd salute this tribute to our Facist in Chief
Excellent, not a word to add!
There is a great article on Ludwig Von Mises concerning National Socialism, I’ve posting it here for a long time, way before the book Sowell mentions.
Absolutely on-target. Sowell is just amazing in his ability to nail these things. I’ve totally given up on so many so-called “conservative” columnists and commentators these past three years, having lost all faith and trust in them, but thankfully, Sowell has remained as rock-solid as ever!
To be fair, this is also the assumption of the Right. By which I mean the European Right, which has almost nothing in common with the American Right.
The European Right was authoritarian, but with the authority in question being the State, King and/or Church. It looked back to pre-French Revolution days as their ideal.
The American Right is dedicated to conserving the values of the American Revolution, the only truly revolutionary such event in history.
The European Right and Left, as well as the American Left, all believe some small group must dominate society and force everybody else to comply with their demands. The only difference is who that small group is.
Only the American Right believes the People should be left alone to live their lives as they see fit, to the extent possible.
If you use the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings as a symbol of domination of society, the only difference between the European Right and Left, and the American Left, is who should wear the Ring. Only the American Right wants to destroy the Ring.
It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.
Maybe some of the historians among us can educate us on what exactly it was that turned the tide on Fascism.
I certainly was not the persecution of the Jews. Nearly every European nation had a history of Jew hatred.
The only thing I can think of is Germany’s retaking of territories and colonies that it had ceded after WW I.
The mistake I think the Fascist made was that they did not close their borders as the Soviets did. The control of information in the Fascist states was not as complete. Also it seems that the western journalist were more sympathetic to the international socialist. The western intellectuals also seem more attuned to the idea of a complete command economy.
Sowell makes a clear and strong case, as usual.
I have one small quibble - it was specifically Hitler’s betrayal of Uncle Joe that made him a “right winger”; up to that point he was fawned over by the left. But Uncle Joe was the major diety in the pantheon of the utopians. Hitler and Il Duce were, at the time, only revered demi-gods, who, much like the Biblical story, rebelled against their great god, Uncle Joe, and were then cast into the pits of hell - as far from the leftist utopian heaven as possible and are now cast as the Leftists’ great satans in their grand, immoral, morality play.
These specifics are not at odds with Sowell’s explanation, I just wish he would clearly point out that it was their love for that pompadoured murderer that finally made the left decry Hitler and his murderous ways - it wasn’t the murdering to which they objected.
What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people — like themselves — need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.Excellent.
I would put it differently. Obama is clearly a socialist, in terms of his goals and world outlook. Fascism is a form of socialism. Ultimately, Obama would prefer the Soviet Stalinist model of state ownership of everything to the Italian/Nazi model. However, he cannot overturn private property rights in the US in one fell swoop. So, he takes control of private industries as best he can in his first term. That begins to resemble fascism. But he is a commie through and through, with Islamic tendencies.
We always knew.
T.Sowell Bump.
Clear as a bell.
I like my definition better anyway: "Fascist, Neo-Commie."
Socialism has many forms and names. They all result in enslavement of the citizens.