Trump != Hitler

Listening to Thursday’s show, the question came up while talking about the CNN race discussion, was Hitler a leftist? I have some information and context, if you are interested.

The term left/right refers to where liberals and conservatives sat in the British House of Commons. The Liberals sat in the “left wing” of the chamber while the Conservatives (Whigs/Tories) sat in the “right wing” of the chamber. So to understand what left/right really means, we need to know what liberal/conservative actually means.

Liberalism began as an ideology in the 18th century. Thinkers such as John Locke and Adam Smith, and others, argued for rights and freedoms to be applied to all men, not just royalty or aristocracy. Liberalism in this time was a reaction to the lack of civil liberties and rights for the vast majority of people. Liberalism said governments should not be tyrannical, that rights came from God or nature and NOT the government or king, and that for government to be legitimate the people must have a voice in that government.

Conservatives, on the other hand, held with the idea that all rights and privileges came from the King or government. Conservatives arose in a world that already aligned with their thinking, and they did not want to change it, but to conserve it, hence the name.

Conservatives had the view that the king and government cannot be held to account by any earthy power, only God. That meant that in reality the government was all-powerful, in theory at least.

In America, the definition of liberal has changed dramatically. Now liberalism means support for a very powerful central government, as well as giving the government the power to interfere in any aspect of public life. Conservatives in America believe in a small, limited government where the citizen has the power, not the government.

The definition of left wing and right wing, however, has not been updated. American conservatism is based on what we now have to call “classical liberalism.” American liberalism is based on progressivism, and increasingly socialism.

Those parties on the “left” of the political spectrum are supporters of the rights of the people versus the government. They are for limited powers for the government. Increasingly, that is aligning more with American conservatism and the Republican Party.

Those parties on the “right” support a nearly all-powerful government which grants and can remove basic rights. Increasingly, that is aligning with American liberalism and the Democrat Party.

Now back to Hitler. The Nazis were indeed right-wing, if you use the original understanding of what it means to be right-wing. However, to place the Nazis in the context of modern American politics, which I do not support and find problematic on many levels, it is only right to say the Nazis were left-wing.

Nazism is the antithesis of everything American Conservatives supposedly stand for. Nazis set up a dictatorship whereby Hitler removed all liberty and freedom from vast swathes of the German population, with no check on his power.

It is unfair to compare any American political party to the Nazi party. It is also unfair to call the Nazi’s right-wing, as that term is antiquated and not reflective of the current understanding of liberalism/conservatism and left/right politics. If anything, given the way liberalism and conservatism have evolved in America, the Nazis should be called left-wing when using that term in today’s political conversations.

Hope this helps, and sorry for War and Peace. I could easily have said more but this is the most concise I could make it while retaining the necessary context.