L’Observateur / June 17, 2000

DEAR EDITOR: I enjoyed Mr. Gray’s column concerning political viewpoints or positions, and Iagree that people do not have to be totally one-sided liberal or conservative.

However, I must disagree with Mr. Gray’s position that Communism andNazism are the two opposite extremes of the political spectrum. Both ofthese poisonous movements have common roots in Marxist revolutionary philosophy. Many people are aware that 20th Century Communism is thedirect offspring of Karl Marx’s “scientific socialism” developed in the mid- 1800s, but most don’t know about the background of fascism and National Socialism (Nazism).

Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943 was actually a Marxist newspaper editor before World War I. He was expelled from theItalian Communist movement because of his support for the Italian war effort (the communists called on people to refuse to serve in the armed forces). Hitler’s National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis for short)was also a product of the left. Both fascism and Communism espouse thesubmergence of the individual to the total state and the idea that human rights are a collective right to be determined by the all-powerful government.

The main difference between Hitler/Mussolini and Stalin/Lenin/Mao is that fascism/Nazism tends to a nationalistic outlook (international socialism).

Both of these branches are socialistic, violent and fanatical. What differencewould it really make if you’re in a Nazi concentration camp or a Soviet concentration camp? Another thing we don’t want to do is to confuse liberalism with leftism, although today, this is usually done in the major media. True liberalism seeksto enhance the protection of the life and liberty of the individual and leftism seeks to enhance the power of the state or government. The reason peopleaccuse Clinton of being Communist or fascist is because it’s obvious that he works hard at increasing the power of the central government and of himself. Naturally, he claims to do this in the name of “the people” or “thechildren” and so do all fascist/Nazi/Communist totalitarians.

I agree with Mr. Gray that most people want to be in the middle of thepolitical spectrum, and taht is where the U.S. Constitution finds itself. Ourfederal system grants to the national government a few delegated powers and reserves the rest of the power to states or the people. That way, we’renot too far left (total government) or too far right (no government). Now,let’s make sure we keep the balance. I don’t want to bne the guy in theconcentration camp saying, “See, I told ya’ll!”

Ronald J. Theriot Jr.LaPlace

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