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What are at the extreme ends of the continuous line of political
thought? What characterizes the ultimate extreme “leftist” and the
ultimate extreme “rightist”? Is it
communism on the left and fascism on the right, as some have
said? After all, you often hear those from the far left accusing those
from the right as being “fascists.” Like so much of leftist thought,
that characterization is pure irrational fabrication, for as will be
seen, the only difference between
communism and fascism is the unsupported liberal judgment that
one is “good” and the other is “bad.” In reality, both are
demonstrably evil. (For example, take a look at the website
maintained by RUDOLPH J. RUMMEL, "Freedom,
Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.") To the extreme left of the political spectrum is totalitarianism - the rule of government over the individual and the utter surrender of all personal freedoms for the “common good.” To the extreme right of the political spectrum is anarchy - the absence of government and the lack of external control over the individual. Neither extreme is desired. The essence of government is its “coercive authority.” There are plenty of organizations that are “authorized” (not by government) to accomplish goals and to undertake acts, and there are plenty of bodies other than government that can coerce you into doing something that you don’t want to do. But only government has both of these qualities - ability and authority to coerce. Yes, government may delegate its coercive authority, but that delegation only demonstrates the source of that power. Government may exist only so long as it has the ability to wield coercive power and the population recognizes its authority to do so. The government and private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations may compete in the marketplace. But to the extent that government acts in its true capacity – that of a coercive authority – individual freedom suffers. To the extent that government acts without use of its coercive authority, it is "outside of its element." It is not acting as a government at all. Experience shows that in this mode (acting without using its coercive power and authority) government is typically inefficient compared with private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Leftists ignore this inefficiency and forge ahead anyway. The political right believes in the efficiency of free enterprise (including for-profit and not-for-profit enterprise). Our founding fathers understood the evil of unbridled government. Our constitution contains strict limits on the powers of government, as well as numerous checks and balances, to prevent government from running amuck. Freedom and liberty were important to our founding fathers. These great men lived more than 200 years ago, but their wisdom is still applicable today. This is what the political right believes. The form of Americanism that is embraced by liberals is not the Americanism of our forefathers. Liberals believe that whatever your problem might be, government is the answer. Liberals have either forgotten (perhaps they were never taught) what our founding fathers learned over two centuries ago, or they believe that the founding fathers' teachings are no longer applicable in this modern world. But unbridled government is no better today than it was back then. Liberals are totally blind to the evils of Fidel Castro and Joseph Stalin. (These totalitarians are "good" communists.) While they say they recognize the evils of Germany's Hitler and Iraq's Hussein, liberals ignore what is at the root of all this fantastic evil - unbridled government power over the individual. |
