To the Editor,
Leo Sandy’s December 11th letter in the Laconia Daily Sun shows how commonly understood terms can be used to mislead people.
While each form of government has a unique aspects, the key issue is government‘s authority over people. At one end of a spectrum are governments which have absolute control over citizens, where, in practice, people have no rights (despite perhaps a showpiece Constitution). If you are arrested and executed or your property taken without a real trial, it doesn’t matter if the government calls itself a dictatorship, Kingdom, Socialist, Fascist, National Socialist (Nazi), Democracy, Republic, Communist, etc.
Would it make any difference if you were being murdered by Hitler, along with about 10 million, or Stalin, with about 20 million, or Mao, with 80 million fellow citizens (or Che or Fidel who killed thousands)? Each murderer claiming it was for “the good of the people“.
At the other end of the spectrum is no government, anarchy, where people have total freedom. Anarchy never lasts long, strongmen normally take total control over people. (Our Constitution defines a government intended to ensure each person’s freedom except when it infringes on another’s freedom and leaving ultimate control of government in the hands of the people not government officials.)
Whether you want to put Fascism on the left or right of the spectrum, it sits with other dictatorships, Communist, Socialist, Nazi, (traditional) Kingdoms, etc., and these forms of government are opposed by all American Conservatives, “right wingers”.
The American supporters and admirers of Socialist and Communist governments are liberals. They will quibble over definitions, ownership of the means of production, etc., but from the standpoint of average citizen’s rights versus the government, there is no meaningful difference between Communism and Fascism.
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