In recent years I’ve seen a few attempts by some confused conservative commentators to reclassify fascism from a right-wing political movement to a left-wing one. In reality, fascism is not a left-wing movement. Actually, I shouldn’t call the commentators confused. They know exactly what they are trying to accomplish with this subterfuge. After discarding all the window dressing, the gist of their argument is this. In its German variant, the word Nazi is short for National Socialism. Because that title contains the word socialism and socialism is a left-wing political movement, fascism must also be a left-wing movement.
This idea breaks down under the slightest scrutiny. For one, it makes Nazi Germany a stand-in for all fascist political movements. It isn’t. Second, it ignores the reason why Adolf Hitler called his movement National Socialism. The choice of name reflected his desire to appeal to the alienated German working class of the 1920s, a working class frequently displaying socialist leanings in the past. Finally, and most critically, it ignores the fact that fascism’s ideals are at odds with socialism in nearly every way. (More on these last two reasons in a future blog post.)
Reasons Fascism is Not a Left-Wing Movement
After all, if National Socialism truly was compatible with socialism or was a variant of it, it should have cooperated with other socialists wherever it found them. The evidence, however, shows the opposite. As early as 1920, in fact, Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (SA, or storm troopers) fought with German socialists in the streets. Likewise, it is unlikely the Italian fascists would have burned socialist literature during their 1922 March on Rome had they considered socialism a brother or cousin to their own movement.
The same holds true for Nazi Germany’s relationship with the Soviet Union. The USSR was communist rather than socialist. Both, however, are movements of the left. Considering the worldwide hostility to both philosophies in the first half of the 20th century, it is silly to imagine socialists and communists warring with each other given the number of other opponents they already faced.
Why, then, have some conservative commentators embraced this fundamentally incorrect image? They crave a simple yet powerful message to score political points with their audience. In the minds of their listeners and readers, fascism is bad, and so is socialism. How convenient, therefore, to link the two by the most gossamer of threads. Then comes the next step, equating socialism (and thus fascism) with liberalism. Interestingly, among the first to attempt this connection at the national level was 1960s Alabama governor and independent presidential candidate George Wallace. Wallace tried the tactic while attempting to discredit the civil rights movement. He used the equation liberalism = socialism = communism to turn Cold War attitudes against African Americans and their supporters trying to gain equal civil rights. In the minds of his followers, those who supported civil rights became communists, or at the least were influenced by communists. This idea, therefore, with its deep roots in the historical racism of the United States, becomes fundamentally a political maneuver rather than a representation of fact.
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More Explanation Why Fascism is Not a Left-Wing Movement
In one respect only did fascism clearly resemble the political left in the early 1900s, and that was in its status as a mass movement. The traditional conservatism of the 19th century featured a reverence for hierarchy and a preference for a passive citizenry that knew to defer to its betters. For these conservatives, there was no need to rally the masses. Rather, conservatives of that era believed in dictating to the general population and governing, at least supposedly, on their behalf.
Fascism, in contrast, featured mass rallies, parades, a heavy dosage of emotional symbolism, and a philosophy of aggressive action that seemed at odds with these classical conservative values. Still, clearly fascism was a movement of the political right. It might have been a new variant of right-wing politics with its embrace of the masses as a political force, but on the ideological spectrum of politics it belongs nowhere else.
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