Scholars have long recognized that American progressivism has been profoundly anti-democratic. A few years ago Jonah Goldberg expanded this insight to note the uncanny similarities between American progressivism and Italian fascism in his influential popular tome Liberal Fascism. Responding to President Obama's State of the Union speech this week he noted its progressive/fascistic tone.
Today George Will, writing in the Washington Post, sounded the same theme:
When Goldberg's Liberal Fascism was first published it was controversial. Today the common elements of fascism and progressivism are widely recognized [although many on the Left try to deny them] and are unremarkable enough to appear on the pages of the establishment press.
He [Obama] said of the military: “At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach.”
That is disgusting.
What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better off if it wasn’t America any longer. He’s making the case not for American exceptionalism, but for Spartan exceptionalism.
It’s far worse than anything George W. Bush, the supposed warmonger, ever said. Bush, the alleged fascist, didn’t want to militarize our free country; he tried to use our military to make militarized countries free.
Indeed, Obama is upending the very point of a military in a free society. We have a military to keep our society free. We do not have a military to teach us the best way to give up our freedom. Our warriors surrender their liberties and risk their lives to protect ours. The promise of American life for Obama is that if we all try our best and work our hardest, we can be like a military unit striving for a single goal. I’ve seen pictures of that from North Korea. No thank you, Mr. President.Read the whole thing here.
Of course, Obama’s militaristic fantasizing isn’t new. Ever since William James coined the phrase “the moral equivalent of war,” liberalism has been obsessed with finding ways to mobilize civilian life with the efficiency and conformity of military life.
Today George Will, writing in the Washington Post, sounded the same theme:
Obama, an unfettered executive wielding a swollen state, began and ended his address by celebrating the armed forces. They are not “consumed with personal ambition,” they “work together” and “focus on the mission at hand” and do not “obsess over their differences.” Americans should emulate troops “marching into battle,” who “rise or fall as one unit.”Read the whole thing here.
Well. The armed services’ ethos, although noble, is not a template for civilian society, unless the aspiration is to extinguish politics. People marching in serried ranks, fused into a solid mass by the heat of martial ardor, proceeding in lock step, shoulder to shoulder, obedient to orders from a commanding officer — this is a recurring dream of progressives eager to dispense with tiresome persuasion and untidy dissension in a free, tumultuous society.
When Goldberg's Liberal Fascism was first published it was controversial. Today the common elements of fascism and progressivism are widely recognized [although many on the Left try to deny them] and are unremarkable enough to appear on the pages of the establishment press.
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