“The real fascists”

 Monterey Herald, Nov. 10, 2024

Many media outlets during the November 2024 election loosely threw around the words “Fascism” and “Nazism.”  So, what do they mean?  The simplest way to define them is to look at their economics.  Both Italian Fascism and German National Socialism had a government-run economy, where the state intertwined capitalism with socialism. For instance, Mussolini declared in 1934, “Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.” Under the National Socialists, a state-owned holding company, Göring Works (Reichswerke), obtained huge sums of government money in efforts to seize, organize or forcibly merge industries. And when the government owns everything, we enter a twilight zone of fascist-like Marxism.

So, what does Gavin Newsom do to stop fascism? He shovels tons of taxpayers’ money into climate-control companies, along with a proposal to give $750 million to Hollywood film/TV companies. Who are the real fascists in America today?

— Lawrence Samuels, Carmel