I will add that the whole left-right continuum gets construed in various ways. In the French Revolutionary National Assembly, it connoted on the right monarchists, in the middle what we should term liberals, and on the left bloodthirsty savages whose descendants became Communists. Given that most people know little to no history, this continuum in popular usage is not very helpful. For my own purposes, I use a continuum based upon no government at all on the right–which is to say people govern themselves based upon shared cultural values; government is as local as possible, which is to say each sovereign individual–and only government on the left. It should be noted that as one moves from the right to the left “culture”, per se, as a dynamic artifact of habit and behavior within a relatively cohesive social grouping, disappears. So then, too, does the sense of self, and possibility of conceiving of individual moral growth. This is why leftism in its very essence is evil.
I get into discussions from time to time about whether or not Fascism is a “right wing” movement. Clearly, if we draw a continuum from less government on the right, to more government on the left, it is barely more palatable than Communism, which is hands down the worst conceivable form of government, and certainly far to the left of traditional liberalism, with its checks and balances.
But historically, who have been the people attracted to Fascism/National Socialism? For one, the man who started the New Deal under FDR, Hugh S. Johnson. For another, the man who coined the term “New Deal”.
Here, a generation later, we see Jack Kennedy saying: “Anyone who has visited these places can imagine how in a few years, Hitler will emerge from the hate that now surrounds him and come to be regarded as one of the most significant figures that ever lived. There is something mysterious about the way he lived and died and which will outlive him and continue to flourish. He was made of the stuff of legends.” and
“I have come to the conclusion that fascism is right for Germany and Italy. What are the evils of fascism compared to communism?”
Mussolini started as a Socialist/Communist, and National Socialist German Worker’s Party–the full name of the Nazi party–was every bit as socialist as one would assume from their name. It redistributed wealth, guaranteed an income and education to all Germans, prohibited land speculation (and usury, if memory serves), and in general differed only from Communism in its unrepentant nationalism, and in that its economic system worked, once you factored in the wars it waged to steal from other lands.