Few ideas are as silly or destructive as
the idea that there is an "ideological spectrum" that has at one
extreme Nazis and fascists and at the other end communists. There is no
"far right" that connects in any way with conservatism. The
communists and Nazis are not simply totalitarians, but totalitarians who
believe in almost identical values. That is why Orwell in 1984 could
describe an Inner Party that everyone understands but fits nowhere on an
"ideological spectrum."
Moving too far in the direction of Ronald Reagan and Barry
Goldwater never, ever leads to totalitarianism, but moving too far in the
direction of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi always leads to
totalitarianism. All totalitarians believe in is power and all the
goodies that flow from a monopoly of power. That is why the vast majority
of German communists joined the Nazi Party after it came to power and why
practically all the Nazi leadership was composed of Marxists and radical
socialists.
There was a reason why the word commu-Nazi was
once on the lips of pundits in the free democratic West. Nazis,
communists, and fascists were virtually indistinguishable in their rhetoric,
programs, and actions. All hated God, particularly Christianity; all
loved statism, particularly highly centralized statism (the destruction of the
individuality of the states of Germany was noted in 1934 as the salient
political change wrought by Nazis); and all demanded the rule by political
party and not by normal government.
What is meant, then, by the "danger of the far right" –
like what we have seen in recent European elections, particularly last month in
Germany and this month in Austria? If that danger is anti-Semitism, then
we must grasp the grim fact that the notional "left" is anti-Semitic
and has been for a long time. The Soviets were virulently hateful toward
Jews and treated Jews worse than the tsars did. Iran, which routinely
threatens the destruction of Israel, could be placed on the "far
left" rather than the "far right" if we must subscribe to the
illogical "ideological spectrum."
What about grievances to victim groups? Again, the Nazis
based their entire argument for power on the victimization of the German
people. As with all lies by totalitarians, there was a smidgen of truth
in Nazi complaining. The Allies starved Germans after the Armistice to
force better terms, and the Allies either denied plebiscites (in Austria and in
Alsace-Lorraine) or ignored the results of plebiscites (in Silesia). But
this minor oppression of Germans never justified another world war or a
holocaust.
Why, then, do totalitarians continue to profess the existence of
"extremist" groups on the ends of the "ideological
spectrum"? If there is no ideological spectrum, then facts, policy
positions, and intellectual integrity are the only arguments for asking people
to trust anyone with power. We see in America some people who would love
that to be the determining factor in elections and some people who would recoil
in horror at that consequence.
What does the manifestation of so-called "far right"
electoral successes really mean? It means that some politicians are brave
enough to deny the consolidation of power in tighter and smaller groups, which
means an assertion of nationalism (or in America, federalism) and a rejection of
such farcical illusions as the European Union or the United Nations. It
also means that voters are beginning to see the light, perhaps just before
sunset. This "far right" means also the decentralization of
power right down to the individual and away from the state.
It also means the assertion of historic values of Western
civilization, and it means a defense of those values against totalitarians,
which means radical Islam, Marxism, and all other groups who are intent upon
the destruction of Western civilization. These political movements in
Britain, France, Germany, and Austria, and elsewhere in Europe, are
"extremist" only in defending these vital and noble traditions
against the real mobs and gangs of our planet. We should hope these
movements prevail in Europe and the rest of the Western world. They are,
in many ways, our only hope.
