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New York Times best-selling author
Jonah Goldberg said Monday political leftism is related to fascism
and criticized the University of Wisconsin’s traditionally liberal
political atmosphere.

The Los Angeles Times columnist and
author of “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American
Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning” told a crowd of
about 200 UW students he has a problem with the fact the term
“progressive” has come to mean “good” while the term
“fascist” has come to be applied to “any conservative who is
winning a fight.”

He said it is inappropriate to equate
fascism with conservatism because fascism is more closely related to
left-wing progressivism.

According to Goldberg, conservatives
believe in a laissez faire-type of free market and a respect for
Christian traditions and these are “two things that Nazis and
fascists hate.”

On the other hand, Goldberg said,
modern progressives like Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary
Clinton, D-N.Y., preach the importance of unity and getting everybody
to move in the same direction.

“The idea everyone has to be a part
of the movement would be entirely recognizable to fascists and Nazis
and the Soviets and all those totalitarianisms of the left,”
Goldberg said.

He said the main thing to remember
about government is that it has limitations to its power, and when
that boundary is crossed that is called “fascism.”

“A state that thinks it has a mandate
to hug you is still a tyrannical state if that hug is unwanted,”
Goldberg said. “The government can’t love you. It can’t be
anything other than the government.”

Donald Downs, UW political science
professor, said the far left and the far right of the political
spectrum can both breed fascism.

“Some aspects of progressivism can be
detrimental to freedom, but that doesn’t make them fascism,”
Downs said.

According to Downs, the American
intellectual class “has tended to focus on the right-wing form of
totalitarianism” because it does not see the USSR as being as evil
as Nazism.

He said neither side of America’s
political debate are fascists, however, adding both respect the rule
of law as well as individuals’ rights that are both basic
principles of liberal democracy.

Goldberg also described UW liberals as
having “open-toed shoes and a closed mind.” He added Obama
claimed to be continuing the progressive tradition of early UW
progressives while making his victory speech in Madison after winning
the Virginia primary.

The trouble with these progressive UW
figures, however, including former UW president Charles Van Hise, is
they were “soaked-to-the-bone racists,” according to Goldberg. He
said he gives Obama a break for that error because he did not know
what he was talking about and just wanted to invoke the positive term
“progressive.”

Goldberg was also critical of people
with bumper stickers that say things like, “Bush is scary.” He
added this is a case of “incredible moral vanity.”

“The reason you can have those bumper
stickers is because he’s not scary,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg’s speech was hosted by
Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow, a student group focused on
improving economic and environmental conditions through the exercise
of the free market.